A lot of festival videos these days are formulaic. We’re used to seeing slo-mo reveals of epic stages that astound from far away, beautiful people dancing and running across fields to hug, and dizzying strobe lights when that first drop comes. Although many of those things are lovely to watch, we’re happy to see the rise in timelapse experimentation on our hallowed festival grounds. It's the perfect way to watch a festival unfold.

It’s hard to say what’s the most visually pleasing part of these experiments – is it the rapid passage of time? Humans looking more like ants? Clouds zipping by overhead? Many of these videos clock in at less than four minutes, but cover hundreds of hours worth of footage. And aside from some light creative editing, most are close to their original capture. Festival timelapses are a unique format for festival eye candy, a heightened visual experience that captures scale and detail the way each festival deserves.

Here are some of our favorites.

Yi Peng and Loy Krathong

Chiang Mai, Thailand swells to capacity each November as thousands of local Buddhists and worldwide bucket list chasers turn out for Yi Peng and Loy Krathong , the Thai festival of lights. The festival, rooted in Buddhist practice, allows you to venerate Buddha while ridding yourself of negativity and demons. A sanctioned celebration occurs outside the city at Mae Jo University, but the relatively high entry price and vague information makes it difficult for visitors to find. Not to be deterred, thousands still pack the streets and buy paper lanterns from local hawkers, and their nighttime release on the banks of the Ping River is a stunning sight. Watch the peaceful melee of cylindrical magic for yourself as a few lone lanterns slowly trickle into the sky, then burst up all at once. A fresh, new beginning AND a golden photo opp? Letting go of your demons has never looked so majestic.

Coachella

Timelapses work best when they have subjects that move, and subjects that stay put, in the same frame. It's the best way to properly visualize the passage of time, and mankind's patterns of movement. In this 2010 Coachella timelapse, rapidly moving crowds blend with static stages, immobile art and verdant green grounds to make a really cool vid. This unique piece is made even cooler by the use of tilt-shift photography, a technique used to create a very pronounced "fake miniature" perspective by forcing the illusion of shallow depth-of-field. The effect can be created in Photoshop, but this timelapse (done with lenses far too expensive for a hobbyist) is the real deal.

Watch from overhead as people wait to enter, unpack their miniature cars, and burst through the gates to enjoy the likes of the Sahara tent, origami-inspired art installations, metallic flowers, even a cute little churros stand. Due to the shallow perspective, the crowd appears to be far away as they move to the music. Strobe lights pop over the crowd and warmly lit pagodas guide the way as nighttime falls.

Burning Man

Thanks to photographer Jason Phipps and his team, we can now see what Burning Man looks like from four miles away and 1,888 feet in the air. The team set up a camera on Old Razorback Mountain and let it roll all day and all night from the 2013 Burn’s build week to the exodus, and the result is hypnotizing. Changes in light, weather and movement are magnified and expose the city grid. Wind vacuums swirl above the city, covering it with a hazy blanket of dust. When dusk starts to creep in, watch industrial grade glow emerge.

2013's Burning Man was mounted atop an enormous spaceship, and you can catch a flash of its explosion through an elaborate fireworks show. (Skip ahead to the 1:40-minute mark to see the inferno before the Man collapses.) Once the show is done, watch the art cars scurry away to begin the rest of the night’s madness. There's no other spectacle out there like the fires that burn on Burning Man’s big night.

King's Day (Koningsdag)

 

Party boats glide through Amsterdam’s canals like bumper cars in a birdbath as the Dutch celebrate Konigsdag (King’s Day), a day of carousing to honor their monarch’s birthday. This timelapse captures familiar Amsterdam shots, like the city’s renowned metro system, The Van Gogh Museum, curbside cafes, charming architecture, and of course, those famous canals. Also catch a glimpse of vrijmarket, a streetside flea market where all are welcome to vend on this special holiday. The festival is renowned for debauchery; a European Mardi Gras, if you will. Revelers take to the streets dressed to the hilt in orange (the royal family’s color) and bump the party over to houseboats, small speedboats and canal cruises, and other stable flotation devices.

La Tomatina

Paging all tomato lovers: would you still love these tasty fruits (and/or vegetables) as they’re pelted at your face? A cursory glance at the hordes gathered in this video for La Tomatina would indicate a hard yes. The streets of Buñol, Spain turn into a tomato gut bloodbath each August as the Valencian festival celebrates Buñol’s patron saints. Local government officials even harvest crappy tomatoes specifically for the event.

In this craftily edited piece, we watch as a cobblestone alley reaches peak bottleneck, and rounds upon rounds of farm trucks enter the scene to dump loads of tomato innards onto the crowd. (We can’t see it from the camera’s perch, but protective eyewear is apparently mandated). White t-shirts vanish as the streets run red, and the whole cobblestone block looks like a crime scene. Then, the hoses come out.

Boryeong Mud Festival

Enjoy the ride as our muddy hostesses board the city bus, find a locker at the venue, and get dirty for the Boryeong Mud Festival . Watch as these girls slather themselves with the grey stuff, slide into inflatable pools, complete obstacle courses and go for a swim in murky waters to clean it all off... GoPro in hand the whole time. This not a full timelapse, as the action slows at points to unfold in real-time, but there's enough to make it count.

Kumbh Mela

India’s sacred Ganges River plays host to Kumbh Mela, the largest festival in the world, which sees 50-110 million attendees every three years, with the city of Nashik hosting the last one in northwestern India in 2015. Kumbh Mela honors a divine mythical battle between Hindu gods and demons over a kumbh (pitcher) filled with the nectar of immortality. As it goes, the kumbh broke and the nectar was scattered in four different cities in India. These are the rotating locations of the festival every three years when the planets align to match the battle’s original celestial alignment.

Worshipers bathe along the river’s edge, and we see rows upon rows of guru camps, flags, street markets, locals in traditionally vibrant clothing, and boats criss-crossing the inner river waters at sundown and sunset. Vibrantly colorful and set to upbeat music, this enchanting piece of eye candy captures local life at the biggest festival in the world. A lively mix of street-level views and aerial footage makes this one a must-see.

Esala Perahera

The sun sets behind a hilltop as ominous clouds open up this timelapse in Kandy, Sri Lanka, the home of Esala Peraha. The festival combines Hindu tradition with Buddhism – a tooth said to be stolen from Buddha 1,700 years ago from his grave is now housed as a relic in Dalada Maligawa, or “Temple of the Tooth.”

The main draw of this multifaceted festival is the elephants; the animals are dressed in elaborate costumes, and parade through Kandy. Watch as parades take over the city, locals dance in exotic ensembles and the camera's sped-up frame rate turns flaming hoops into light paintings. 

What's your favorite festival timelapse? Do you think we missed any?