Like all excited festival goers (myself included), you’ve likely been awaiting the finalized schedule of set times and stage locations for each performance of Imagine. You’ve also likely studied it extensively, trying to figure out how many of your favorite acts you’ll be able to get to for each day, and in what order.

Lastly, you’ve also likely made some frustrated and horrified faces at seeing two or more acts playing at the same time, and wondering how you’ll possibly decide which to go watch or how you’ll split the time slots.

In a two-part piece, we’ll be giving you a run-down of the big conflicts fans are sure to notice, and afterwards, some possible ways to decide which acts to watch. This first piece will cover Friday and Saturday, with the second discussing Sunday. The suggestions on how to navigate the decision making for each day will be at the end of each article.

First, a bit of good news: Friday is essentially perfect, so you’ll have one music filled day to avoid stressing about racing between stages and pushing through crowds to get near the bass and melodies.

1. Saturday Conflict 1: Doctor P and G Jones
   1. Starting 10 minutes apart, with Doctor P at the Oceania stage  and G Jones at Amazonia stage. Doctor P takes the stage at 7:05, G Jones goes on at 7:15, and both are slotted for an hour.
      

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2. Saturday Conflict 2: Cosmic Gate and Papadosio
   1.  They start and finish at the same time, ascending to their respective stages at 9:30 and finishing at 10:30. This conflict mirrors Doctor P and G Jones, with Cosmic Gate at the Oceania stage and Papadosio at the Amazonia stage.
      

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3. Saturday Conflict 3: Showtek, Pendulum, Phutureprimitive, and Adventure Club
   1. This just hurts to look at because it is guaranteed that sacrifices have to be made. Showtek goes on from 10:35 to 11:35 after Cosmic Gate at the Oceania stage. Pendulum and Phutureprimitive go on simultaneously at 11, with Pendulum at the Aeria stage and Phutureprimitive at the Atlantis stage. Pendulum goes until 12, and Phutureprimitive goes until 12:30.
   2. Adventure Club takes the stage after Showtek at the Oceania stage at 11:40, and finishes around 12:40
   3. [frustration sets in]

Advice, suggestions, and tips

So, some suggestions to all the family and fellow festees. First, this is going to be an amazing festival, regardless of what shows and acts we miss. Second, make sure to get some solid rest between days. Otherwise, you may very well end up sleeping in and through performances.

On the individual conflicts:

• Conflict 1:
  • Suggestion 1: Split ‘em
    • 50/50 and 80/20 are the most common splits, though who you give the 80 and who gets the 20 is up to you
  • Suggestion 2: Flip a coin and go
    • This can be done one of two ways.
      • a) Stick with what you end up flipping
      • b) While the coin is flipping, realize which you’d rather be at, then go there and ignore what you flipped

• Conflict 2:
  • Wash, rinse, repeat the suggestions in Conflict 1

• Conflict 3:
  • Suggestion 1: Throw a tantrum
    • Let the frustration wash over you, scream, shout, pound the ground as you shout about the cruelty of the world.
    • Proceed to the following suggestions and decide
  • Suggestion 2: Oceania Only
    • Just stay at Oceania and watch Showtek and Adventure Club
      • This works best if you don’t feel like walking or want to be near the front of the stage when Adventure Club comes on
  • Suggestion 3: 3 x 45
    • Start at Showtek, stay for ~40 min
      • Head to Aeria for Pendulum
    • Get to Pendulum, stay for ~40 min
      • Head to Atlantis for Phutureprimitive
    • Finish at Phutureprimitive, stay until end of set
  • Suggestion 4: Ping-pong between the stages, starting with Showtek at Oceania
    • This can be done two ways
      • a) Showtek, Pendulum, Adventure Club
      • b) Showtek, Phutureprimitive, Adventure Club
    • In either case, you’ll have to leave the second act in order to make it to Adventure Club’s opening, but if that isn’t important to you, then you may choose to go with option a. The reason being that you’d be able to finish out all of the Pendulum set before heading over to Adventure Club.

Hopefully, any of this helps in even just the tiniest amount. Particularly, I hope it helps you to at least get an idea of how much running between stages we’ll all be doing.

As always, blessings upon You and your travels in this beautiful thing we share called Life.