Anyone who's been a longtime attendee of Backwoods Music Festival knows the event seriously stepped up its game this year. From a lush, brand-new venue at the Tatanka Ranch in Stroud, Oklahoma to an entirely different weekend (Labor Day) to ensure gorgeous weather and luxurious sunsets, to a revamped look and feel to the grounds (including giant blow up toys in the lake to play on, and art bedazzling the on-site forests) and a new VIP offering, the festival's organizers made the absolute most out of the venue's natural amenities by paying attention to feedback, and then some.

"It was almost a complete overhaul to the festival," says Will Royall, Backwoods' executive producer. "We’re never going to stop improving."

One of the most undeniable changes for the multi-day event was the stage design – of which there hadn't been much in previous years. As all festies know, an epic stage can take the act of attending a festival from merely standing in a field watching someone turn knobs on stage to experiencing live performances to the very core of your being through state-of-the-art sound systems, lightning, and imagery. The man responsible for Backwoods' stage design this year was James Cui, aka Fader , a VJ and visual and media artist who Royall asked to join the team in 2015 as a one-man specialist to create a next-level festival experience.

Fader and the festival then filmed a mini-documentary, shown above, to capture Fader's creative journey from start to finish, and how much work it takes to create an immersive festival experience. You get to watch the main stage come to life from the ground up, in a flurry of music and glowing lasers and projections, and Backwoods' evolution as a result. 

Fader's new "Motherland" main stage. Photo by: Jamie Seed Photography

"While we had the overall artistic vision, there is so much to manage, and the real magic happens when you get a lot of creative people involved to do their own piece[s] of art," says Royall. "Each stage had a look and feel. We brought Fader in to design the main stage because we liked his creativity, and technical know-how to provide amazing visual effects through video and stage design." Fader, whose past work has been shown at Coachella, Burning Man, Japan's Fuji Rock and various Insomniac events, designed his most ambitious stage to date: the eight-story-tall "Motherland" main stage, which he conceived of before even setting foot on Tatanka Ranch. 

"I have been living in Berlin for the past three years, and can say the Motherland stage is inspired by the German castle and church designs," says Fader. "I thought it [would] look nice against the lush, green backdrop of the festival venue."

Fader's whimsical touch, along with the combined efforts of other artists collectives like Imagine Nation and Backwoods' own creative team, certainly paid off. Attendance was three times more than last year, and tickets are already moving five times faster than they had this time last year.

"We’re being compared to some of the largest and most creative festivals around the country right now," says Royall. "It’s amazing how many people see what we’re doing now and believe in us."

Not content to rest on its laurels, the team behind Backwoods has even more positive changes slated for 2016, including a new security company, the addition of shade structures, a giant slip-n-slide, a giant hay maze, daily trash pick up at campsites, a full-blown ADA Accessibility program, and much, much more. A festival that listens to its attendees' feedback as much as Backwoods does deserves all the success it gets.

Despite the fact that any 2016 lineup decisions are still a long way off, Fader still plans to be back with a fresh main stage to welcome a new batch of performers. "[Spending] time during the festival at Tatanka Ranch gave me some inspiration to the next year’s main stage design," he says. "I’m currently working on a new design and will find out if it becomes a reality. I know it’s more than nine months away but planning ahead helps to make things perfect."

Success stories like Backwoods' are what make the festival world such an exciting one to watch. Considering the leaps and bounds Backwoods Festival made in one year alone (and its commitment to heeding its attendees' wishes), the next is sure to see the event's star rise even further to unknown – but surely laser-filled – heights.