For one weekend every year, thousands of people pour into Kern County for the Lightning in a Bottle festival, turning Buena Vista Lake into a temporary city of music, art and campers \u2014 and bringing a major economic boost to Bakersfield-area businesses.<\/p>\n
Raji Brar, co-owner of Shell Countryside Gas, said the festival\u2019s impact is significant for local stores and services as attendees travel through the area to fuel up and buy last-minute supplies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is just going to keep expanding, and I hope we keep welcoming more events like Lightning in a Bottle to Kern County,\u201d Brar said.<\/p>\n
The five-day festival will features major artists including Tinashe and Empire of the Sun, along with interactive experiences such as yoga, workshops, art installations and dozens of food vendors.<\/p>\n
Katherine Morshem said she and her friend Dane were not only attending, but will be supporting their friend’s art galley.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we’re supporting our best friend, Kaylee. Her art name is Barely Awake, Kaylee, and she was given the opportunity to take over the whole art clave. The art clave is where they teach all the workshops, and there’s a separate part that’s a gallery, so we’re taking over the whole gallery, and she paints on these beautiful, trippy flowers. Morshem said. <\/p>\n
“I’ve taken her paintings and brought them to life in wood art pieces, and also fabric art pieces, and acrylic art pieces,\u201d Morshem said.<\/p>\n
Brar said the surge in visitors is felt quickly at her business. She said that in just two days, sales can quadruple during this time of year as festival traffic increases.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s so important for us to increase our tax base in Kern County, and when you have events like this, it really does,\u201d Brar said.<\/p>\n
According to the Kern Economic Development Corporation, Lightning in a Bottle generated $14.1 million for the region in 2025, and about 97% of attendees traveled from outside Kern County.<\/p>\n
Brar said the station prepares well in advance for the rush, stocking up ahead of the festival weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, for us it’s huge, because we get crowds from up and down the state of California, out of the state of California, and it’s literally like we’re having our own festival here at our gas station, so it’s wonderful for us,\u201d Brar said.<\/p>\n
For many attendees, the experience goes beyond the lineup.<\/p>\n
\u201cLightning in a Bottle to me is kind of like a reunion of friends from different places, and the music is what draws the crowds in, but it’s really the culture that provides the experience of the weekend,\u201d Dane Anderson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For one weekend every year, thousands of people pour into Kern County for the Lightning in a Bottle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-323776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}