Midsummer moot on the Ridgeway – July 2002 Midsummer moot on the ridgeway
by Sleeze*
What a wicked moot that was. Thanks to everyone who came!
So many rigs along the ancient track leading to the tunnel and what a fucking good vibe all around, no aggro or dick heads anywhere. Special thanks to those Kaotik Druids for keeping the rain away and for getting the sun to show itself occasionally.
Another close encounter of the filthy kind yesterday afternoon, most of the rigs had gone and of those left we were the only one still playing when suddenly about 50 piggies oinked their way up to the track and gave us 1/2 an hour to fuck off. Rig got packed away in record time and we got off unmolested.
Sadly there was quite a bit a rubbish left behind, many rigs and people only started clearing up when the music stopped, rather than continuous cleaning and with the rapid departure put on us by the pigs, once again it meant that proper cleaning couldn't take place. As we were at the far end, as we drove out we picked up everyone's rubbish bags that had been left behind, about 15 in all and all the beer cans and crap that had been missed. It was truly an honor to be able to pick up the rubbish left around those fine rigs, something we'd happily do forever, but would be nice if we didn't have to, know what I mean?
The farmer was a bit irked as he had laid one side of the track to seed, though I pointed out that all the rigs and ravers tried to keep of that bit of track and that the off roaders and bikers were the ones fucking that up. The farmer and pig doubted that was the case, just then 4 bikes came screeching up from the tunnel and shot off down the seeded bit of track... ha ha ha suckers.
Hope everyone got home safely, see you soon,
XXX
Norwich party closes after negotiations with police – February 2002 Norwich Party Closes After Negotiations With The Police
courtesy of Derek Williams
Total respect to the Norwich crew for what happened on Saturday night!
It's a long story, which I don't know all of, but basically things were all set for a multi rig bash at an establi-shed site, but that afternoon the land owner turned up with some "mates" and "asked" them not to do the party. Think large people willing to do damage.
So the party was called off.
Now, just about everyone knew the party was planned - everyone I'd talked to last week knew about it. So an alternative venue was found - right in the middle of town. It was never going to be allowed by the plod, it didn't stand a chance.
So we got there around midnight, an old car showroom with music pounding out, just as the plod arrived. We had a short chat to Nigel (one of the travelers from the first site) outside and then tried to go in, but the police by this time had started containment and were blocking the entrance. All four of them. So the four of us stand there looking at the four of them and I realise the plod I'm starting at is scared, like really frightened. As we stand there of course, others are joining the queue. One of our number wants to go to a local shop anyway, so we back down, I smile at the plod who blurts out some kind of "thanks for the co-operation" and we go to the shop as a flood of people turn up to join the queue.
A short trip to the shop and we come back, two plod vans now but no containment, music still pumping so we go in.
As the party continues, plod come in with some of the organisers, they have a poke around with a fire offi-cer and go out again. A bit later I wonder out to see what's going down and over hear an amazing conver-sation between plod, fire officer and squatters. "Well organised event..." "responsible behaviour" "reasonable attitude" and from the squatters "these things are going to happen, better we do them..." then the plod left. The party shut down at three, or the music did anyway. We stayed for another half hour or so and people were sitting around toking and playing drums, there was no eviction, the shut down was agreed (3 is when the clubs shut). There were no plod to be seen as we left.
Derek
Solaluna, Greece – September 2001 Solaluna Party Report
by Starlurk
Right then… where to start… I guess the beginning would be a good place ;o) We arrived at Alexandroupoli at 11pm on the 29/09 to find all the hotels full, and we couldn’t sleep on the beach because there was a thunder storm, so in the end we had to camp out under a shelter on the harbour. Needless to say we didn’t get much sleep, mainly because we seemed to have taken over a popular snogging spot… every 10 minutes a couple on a motor bike would roar up, take a look at the bunch of hippies squatting in their love-nest and then roar off again.
We got up early (not that we had much choice) to go to the ferry ticket office when it opened at 7am, because we had been warned that the boats got booked up very quickly. Unfortunately a lot of others had the same idea too, and when the doors opened there was a huge scrum to get in… funny how normally “shanti” people revert to “survival of the fittest” mode very quickly and easily in these situations ;o) After about an hour of intense, sweaty and claustrophobic queuing, Timo and I emerged from the office with our prize, to find there were now many more people, and very few tickets left.Our ferry, which was due to leave at 1, didn’t leave till about 3.30, after another mad scrum, this time to get on the ferry. So by this stage tempers in the group were fraying slightly, mainly due to the heat and lack of sleep; but, as the island drew closer our spirits lifted as we realised after nearly 36 hours of travelling and discomfort we were practically there… and even from a distance the island looked stunningly beautiful =o)
We had one more test when we got off the boat, as there were only 2 coaches for the several hundred people getting off the boat, but we all managed to make it onto one of them.We met the others and pitched our tents, had a smoke and went for a swim, which made us feel a lot better… at last it felt like we were on holiday :o) Unfortunately it seemed there was very little to smoke on the site, foreigners had been put off bringing any puff due to customs (there weren’t any ! doh!) and Greek prisons, and the Greeks because there had been rumours that there would be a large undercover cop presence (and Greek prisons ;). This caused panic in certain quarters, (namely myself and opul) so the quest for puff was begun in earnest, this took up the whole of the rest of the evening, and most of the next day too, but eventually we found what turned out to be almost the last of what was being sold… and pretty yummy it was too, dedication is what you need ;o))
The rest of the time leading up to kick-off was spent chilling on the beach, or in hammocks, and generally charging our batteries in readiness for the mayhem to come; so by the time 9pm came round we were all ready to go. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the organisation, the official start time of the festival was met with a resounding silence. Apparently some sort of processor for the sound system was fried, and the dimwits hadn’t bought a spare; so this was the reason we hadn’t noticed a soundcheck ;o) Luckily, this problem had been spotted quickly enough in order to get another one onto the island that night. So to pass the time some went to bed, and others sat on the beach, felt wobbly and watched the moon ping-ponging across the sky ;o) Also there was this weird object in the sky; it was about the size a large star, and it was colour-cycling furiously…blue, green, red, all 8 of us saw it (and a couple of us were even sober ;o), none of us could work out what it was, and it vanished as suddenly as it had appeared… did anyone else see this ?
Eventually, at around 2pm, the soundsystem rumbled into life (for the 2 hours before they had just been using the monitors !), and the party began properly. We got an hour or so of a Greek DJ (sorry can’t remember his name) who was decent, but the sound technicians were doing the tuning as they went along so I probably didn’t get the best impression of him. Then it was a hoffman breakfast and John Phantasm, who played a storming night time set, his mixing and track selection were excellent, and it provided a brilliant release for all the tension that built up during the quiet hours, and also set the standard for others to follow :o)
Which, unfortunately, the next DJ, Dominic Lamb, didn’t do, well, not in our opinion anyway. He played a really badly mixed, directionless set of wishy-washy tracks, that had no energy. Luckily by this time it was sunrise, and I was tripping hard, so there was enough to distract me other than the music, in fact it was almost a total sensory overload. The dancefloor was right next to the beach, you could actually lie in the sea and still hear the music as well as you would do, if you were in the middle of the dancefloor itself. The sun came up directly out to sea, and if you turned round you were confronted with a stunning mountain range, covered with forests and deep gorges. There was not much other decoration (no back-drops at all), but with this scenery they really weren’t needed, words truly cannot do it justice. To top it all off, the dancefloor was covered ankle deep in lavender, so when it was stomped on by thousands of hippies a really pleasant smell was released (pity it wasn’t there on the last day, when it was definitely needed more ;). This smell (and perhaps the infestation of insects that lived there and in people’s dreads ;) attracted squadrons of enormous dragonflies which buzzed and dive bombed the dancefloor for the rest of the day, which was a sight in itself.
At this point we went back to our tent to get food (which was quite a mission) and other provisions, we were there a little while, when we heard the start of Hux Flux, so we quickly headed back again. He was excellent, he played a good mixture of released and unreleased stuff, and really had the dance floor rocking, and he looked like he was having the time of his life, which is always a plus IMO. Tob remarked to me at one point it looked like he was playing a manic game of pin ball, which it did, he then said “this is really cool”, at which point the music cut out and a very serious voice boomed out of the 45k soundsystem “there ain’t no question about that”… which was seriously cool in itself ;o))
After HuxFlux came Serge, it was getting hot by this point, and one of the drawbacks of the dancefloor location was that there was no shade at all, luckily though there was quite a strong breeze, and, of course one could always take dip in the sea to cool down. Serge was the best DJ at Boom last year for me, so I was really looking forward to his set. Although he wasn’t as good as he was then, (he didn’t put as much effort into his mixing as he usually does, it seemed), he played some excellent music, including a remix of Alien Project – Midnight Sun which rocked big time. After his set, Slinky Wizard started their live set; the first couple of tracks didn’t really grab us, so we decided to do the sensible thing and go back to our tents and rest up. About an hour later, I was lying in my hammock smoking a bifta, when I heard some really beautiful morning music coming from the main stage, but I could also hear the 2nd stage, which pissed me off, so I decided to wander back and check it out. Andrei came with me, and we got back to find Youth DJ-ing (it was supposed to be Gus Till, dunno what happened there). We didn’t have the energy to dance, so we sat in the only bit of shade at the side of the dancefloor and smoked, listened and chatted. Youth played some good morning tunes, including the Earth Orbit rmx by Logic Bomb, and his own Paranoid Sunglasses, but again the mixing was kinda disappointing. After an hour or so, sleep had to come, so we headed back off to the tent.
I slept till about 8, got up, got some food, had a couple of beers and a smoke. I couldn’t see myself pulling 3 all-nighters, so sacrifices had to be made, so I decided to go back to bed, and miss Dado and the Greek live act, Quantasia; but be up in time for Koxbox at 6.30am. I wish I hadn’t bothered. Frank E DJ’d an hour before their live set; I caught the last half hour of this, it was ok, but nothing special, in my book. Their live set was very disappointing, apart from the final 2 or 3 tracks; for the most part it was way too clubby with lots swirly, housey noises. Some people liked it, but not as many people seemed to be dancing as there had been.
After the live set Frank E took over for another couple of hours, so we decided to go and get some breakfast and catch Red Seal at Stage 2.
The low point of the festival came then; Timo had been feeling very unwell since he got to the island, and not being in comfort, or having food that he could actually eat, now became too much. They saw the doctor that was on-site, and he made a prescription for some antibiotics, but in order to get them (it was Sunday), and for the other reasons, he and Marita had to go back to the mainland. It was very sad to see them go, but they weren’t having any fun at all, and it proved to be the right decision.
It was at this time we heard Logic Bomb had started an hour early, but by the time we had said our good-byes and got down there, they had just finished. It didn’t bother me that much, because I had heard them in July at Senseblender, and I think the others soon forgot their disappointment because Dimitri from TIP started playing a stomping set, and we were all dancing like loons ;o) There was no breeze that day, and we were worried about getting too hot (it was over 30 degrees), but then the cavalry arrived, well, in this case it was the fire department, they drove their truck onto the dancefloor, and two firemen stood on the roof of the truck and gave everyone a good soaking, there was even quite a large rainbow because of it =o). It was much needed, and seemed to give the atmosphere a massive lift (not that there was anything wrong with it before, and they became a regular sight over the next few days; it worked a lot better than the sprinklers at Boom in keeping everyone cool, and the dust down. Bug was wearing some dark blue cotton trousers, which were quite new, and after she had been drenched a couple of times, the dye came out on her legs, turning them completely blue, so she had great fun running up to tripped-out people and asking them what they thought of her sun-tan; Tom.nl thought that she must be turning into a smurf ;o)))
Dimitri played for 3 hours, I didn’t recognise a lot of the music, but it was all excellent, and his mixing was by far the best of the festival up till that point. After him, Paul Taylor took over, he was also very good with both his mixing and track selection; by the end of it, most of us were flagging a little so we retreated to the shady spot to listen and dance from there. Jens and Julie bought along a huge watermelon, they had cut a hole in it, and poured in a whole bottle of Bacardi, it was absolutely delicious and goes very well with a bit of special K ;o)))
Stella Nuttela took over after Paul, and although it was good to see a woman up there, her track selection was a bit hard and dark for the time of day (4pm). She did play one really funny track with loads of police siren noises… does anyone know who made this ? We stayed for a while, and then decided it was time to go keta-swimming… which was feckin’ funny and very floaty =oD It was then time for bed, with the alarm set for 1.30 to wake us up in time for Etnica at 2am.
Which was about 2 hours too little sleep, but we made it out of bed anyway, only to have to wait another 2 hours for Etnica to start. Doh. I don’t remember much about the DJ before them, probably because I wasn’t awake properly, but they finally came on at 4am. I wasn’t expecting much, because I haven’t really like their last couple of albums, but they were much better than I thought they were going to be, according to our resident Etnica expert, Mr Opul, they didn’t play much he recognised, so that could be the reason why ;o) Matt also tried to phone Darin at this point (obviously we tried to tell him that this was an incredibly mean thing to do… not ;))), but unluckily for us, and luckily for Darin there was no connection ;o))
After Etnica, Dino Psaras started, but we went back to the tent for another hoffman breakfast, we chilled there for a while, but it sounded too good, so an hour or so later we were back. Dino played an excellent set, the music had a lot of energy, was very well mixed and he handled the transition from darkness to light brilliantly. Towards the end of his set a couple of tracks bordered on being cheesy, but they weren’t quite. He played the newest version of Sweet Dreams, which IMO is a massive improvement from the one with all the ‘orrible vocals that I heard at Boom last year. It was the most beautiful sunrise of the festival this morning, when the sun came over the horizon it was this huge, almost neon pink disk, and there were the most stunning, fluffy cloud formations, which were also turned pink by the sun. The peaks of the mountains were shrouded in the same clouds the whole day, which were constantly changing formation; the most surreal part, was that the strong breeze was again coming off the sea, but the clouds over the mountains were being blown in the opposite direction.
I thought that Max would have a hard job to follow, but happily I was proved wrong, in fact he not only followed it, but musically I would say it was much better; although his mixing was a little dodgy at times. Tristan came next with his live set, which again was excellent, and then he followed it up with unbelievably good, and well mixed DJ set, including a remix of “William”, the original “Athalon” and lots of other goodies. At one point I turned to Opul and told him that I had found a new god, to which I was told that I wasn’t the only one who believed in him ;o)))
Finally, at about 3pm, after many hours of dancing, a couple of funny little bits of paper, some horse tranquilliser and several soakings from the fire department, it was time for the Hallucinogenius himself. It was what we had all been waiting for, and he didn’t disappoint. He started with a new track (I think he played about 4 new tracks in all) which was good, with a really nice choppy vocal sample, we had brilliant remixes of demention, mill-loony-yum, the loin king, the pink floyd rmx and my own personal favourite Horrorgram. The other new tracks were excellent too, I can’t wait for his next full-on album on the strength of them. He played completely live for 1 and a half hours, so full respect to him. This, on top of all that had come before, nearly made my brain explode. The “Surprise” (except it wasn’t for us, because somehow I managed to find out the day we got there what the surprise was ;),Total Eclipse followed immediately after him, but I had to sit down in our usual shady spot to try and take it all in, smoke a bifta or 3, and try and anaesthetise the pain in my legs (which I managed to do successfully ;))) This time there was a watermelon full of vodka waiting for me, which helped ;o))
I don’t remember much about the first half of Total Eclipse, except for the fact it all sounded very good, but I managed to get up and dance for the 2nd half, which was, again, quite excellent, and they finished their set /me off with my favourite ever Total Eclipse track… Space Clinic, which by this stage, was exactly what I needed… or should that have been a Spaced Clinic ? ;o))
I was feeling distinctly wobbly at this stage, and had no energy left whatsoever for the last part of the surprise, which was James Monro, so at around 8pm, most of us staggered back towards the tent for some food, with huge grins plastered on our faces (along with about 3 days worth of dust ;)
There were a couple of bad points to the whole thing though; the first being the food, which was pretty dreadful on site, but we managed to make it to the local village for a decent meal a couple of times during our stay. By the time we left the dance area on the last day, they had already shut all the bars and the only food place inside the site, which pissed us off a fair bit. Also, the nearest bar was a good 10 minute round trip from the dance floor, which was fairly inconvenient, and it didn’t make much sense.
It would have been nice if they had kept to the schedule as well, because some us are big enough trainspotters to want to keep to it ourselves. And it would have been useful if there were more ferries (after all, as someone pointed out on the festie comment and suggestions board, it was on an island), a friend of mine who travelled all the way from Finland, had to wait till the 2nd day to get onto the island because all the ferries were full, which was a real shame.
But apart from that there was nothing to complain about that actually detracted from our enjoyment… it was a fine effort considering it was their first attempt at something this size (fnaar ;o), and the remoteness of the location.
Overall I had the time of my life, the setting was perfect, the sound system was a whole heap better than Boom last year, and the atmosphere started off good, and then built up to completely electric over the course of the 3 days, and the people were brilliant too.
Musically, it reaffirmed my faith; I had been getting bored of all the minimal pseudo-psychedelic/actual-techno plodding shite that I have heard so much of in Amsterdam, in fact it was boring me to the point I was beginning to wonder what the point was anymore. But there was nothing at all minimal or plodding about any of the music I heard on Samothraki. I can’t really comment on Stage 2, as the music was so good on the main stage, I never really spent any time there; although I did hear that I managed to sleep through a live sex show there on the Saturday night ;o)) I am already looking forward to next year… maybe if I start saving now I can go to Boom as well ;o)
Massive thanks to the organisers and Big Hugs to Marita and Timo, Jens and Julie, Tob and Tess, Andrei, Matt Opul, Sergei and Bella, Tom and Aisha, Sjoerd and Sanne, Bram, Goose, Andy, Erwin, Chris and Anna, Sluckie, Loula, Stephanos… and most of all, Bug… without you lot it wouldn’t have been half as much fun as it was =oD
A Final Bash at the Elf – January 2001 Final bash @ the elf...
courtesy of marita*
[6 january, 2001]
....so we figured we would not be justified in missing it, not that we wanted to anyway. =)
It was being advertised as a 24hr party, so we took our time in going there, and wandered over that way around 3am. it was rather full when we got there, but didn't actually get any busier, thankfully. =) it gave the immediate feeling of a good atmosphere even before i could get my coat off.
All available walls had been covered again with fluoro backdrops, fluoro wool decorating-, and mobiles hanging from the ceiling. a big fluoro pink cutout of DANCE was leaning against one side. as if we needed encouragement. ;)
Totem was playing when we got there. he played a really good set. one of those sets that have everyone grinning and bouncing around on the dance floor. gelfling from belgium came after him with a set that seemed to get better as it went on, and after him shakti-cat played just as the morning was starting to break. she plays brill morning sets, and didn't disappoint this time either. =) she kept everyone wiggling around the dance floor until well into the morning. =)
This woman that was playing when we left on new years day took over after shakti-cat, but i still don't know what her name is. =) she played a really nice morning set for a while, but then she lapsed back into what she did on nye again, and pushed the tempo up further and further until it wasn't comfortable to dance to that speed of music at that time of the day anymore. but we just took time out and sat down and chatted for a while and smoked a few joints together. maybe we didn't dance, but we still enjoyed it. =)
So we took that opportunity to go home to get the camera, and to pick up more tobacco. by the time we got back, gosse (shawnodese) was playing. the tempo was back to a more dancable pace, and the dancefloor was still full and wiggling for that time of the day, think it was around 11:30am.
Photo's to be found here on timo's page.
Check out the wee robot that was placed in the middle of the floor at some point of the morning. and later, someone put a wee wig on it. very very funny to see the expressions on the faces of some people as they almost tripped over it. ;))
Gosse played some really good tracks, his set would have been really really good if.... he left the jet effect on the pioneer 100's alone. but he didn't. can you imagine what it's like to have jet effects zooming over your fav music, not just once or twice in a set, but 4 or 5 times in almost every track? it was *terrible*. i can't understand how one dj, over the course of a couple of hours that is the duration of his set, could fuck up so many good tracks singlehandedly. gives me the impression that such a dj has absolutely no respect for the music he's playing or the artists that created it. and unfortunately, this wasn't the first time i've heard it from him. oh well. =/
Even that didn't and couldn't spoil our fun and enjoyment of the party in hand though. there were people there that i hadn't seen in such a long time, i think a lot of them made an extra effort to make it back for the last party. =) massive smiles and hugely friendly atmosphere throughout the whole thing. =)
I think we finally left around 2pm. we could have pushed ourselves further, but we really had to consider that we had to get some sleep in before work the next day. again, we didn't get to bed or sleep until 15:30 or more... i'll have to blame it on the mind altering substances, but i'm not complaining. ;)
We're certainly going to miss the elf. we used to have such excellent parties in the silo years ago. it was a squatted grain-silo, but it finally got evicted, and we had no decent party venue for about 3 years, until the elf was squatted. the elf recaptured some of the old atmosphere that the silo used to have, and indeed, there were people that came to the elf parties, that we never saw anywhere else outside the silo. =) fingers crossed that 1) the elflings find a place to continue their life style and 2) (on a more selfish note) that we find somewhere to continue our noncommercial psy parties! =)
Many many thanks to the elflings that provided us with, and participated in, all the parties at the elf. it's sadly the end of an era that won't easily be forgotten. i'm just hoping that it won't be the last time that we'll all be together in such an exceptional atmosphere.
Greets to one and all,
=)
marita.
Senseblender festival Belgium – July 2001 Senseblender festival Belgium
[13 - 15 july 2001]
courtesy of marita*
We arrived at the hippodrome with just enough time to pitch our tents before it got dark. there was a little amsterdam/groningen tent village in no time. =) the venue itself - the hippodrome - was an unused racing track, surrounded by forest. the party area was in the building where all the betting etc would normally have been taking place. i thought it was an excellent place for a party. =) the chillouts, food stalls, clothes stalls, and chaishops were all outside, and all the vendors were such nice people. i must say, the swedish people that did the thai chaishop get a massive thumbs up from me, they were some of the most friendly, easygoing, humourous people i've ever met doing a chaishop. =)
Unfortunately, there wasn't enough decoration and backdrops for the size of the venue. we heard afterwards that half of the deco had never turned up. =( a big pity, cuz they could've done a lot with the place. the visuals were provided by 'psychedelic puddle', and they were really excellent. the light effects all over the building were really really amazing actually.
Friday night was one of hilarity if nothing else. =) musically, nothing spectacular, or at least not for me. =) paprika & anoubis opened, playing a tag set, and they got the crowd going very well, playing a selection of bouncy well known tracks. i can't for certain tell you excactly what the line-up was, but i'll give you my opinion on what i remember seeing. =) squaremeat played live, and they were better than i thought they would be, but still not quite my cuppa tea. i slept through texas faggott, cuz i **know** they're definitely not my cuppa anything, and unfortunately missed zebra-n also. got mixed reports on his set, some people said it was the best they'd ever heard from him, others said it was way too hard. can't please 'em all. =)
It started raining friday night unfortunately, and continued through until saturday night, which made for a damp sleep, but also made us very happy that it hadn't been an actual outdoor party or it would've been a complete washout. ;) the sky cleared saturday night though, although it stayed quite cold, but provided an amazing sky with millions of stars. musically, saturday night was excellent. ea, a belgian dj, started out, and i really really enjoyed his set. he played very full on, quite melodic tracks, without getting cheesy. stuff on the lines of the new chakra, and he played mandra gora - wicked warp! it was the first time in about 5 years i'd heard it on a big system, and after all this time, it's still one of my long time favourite tracks. =)
Mick chaos took over at 01:30 and this man does not know the meaning of the word minimal. =) he picked up a steady beat of around 144/145bpm and pushed us through an excellent 2 and a half hours of driving music.
I can't remember who the live performance after mick was, but afterwards at 5am, shawnodese took over, and played some of the best music i've heard from him in about 2 years. unfortunately, i'm not fond of overuse of jet effects, but you can't please us all. ;) it was all a bit too much at some point though, and i was starting to feel quite tired, and wanted some energy for the live act later, so i went back to the tent and slept for a few hours. caught the last hour of aorta's set, which didn't massively impress me, and i found was lacking psychedelia. it didn't seem to be going anywhere. lots of other people liked it though. =)
And then logic bomb, what we had been waiting for, especially since we'd heard that cosmosis had cancelled. =( but logic bomb took the roof off the place. they were excellent, probably the best hour of music of the whole festival. they pumped so much energy into the place, and the dance floor filled back up immediately. =)
p.l.u.m. span after logic bomb, and very wisely started off quite slow, and built up gradually. it was a difficult slot to have to follow. =) i had thrown all my last bits of energy into logic bomb, so i took it easy for a little while, sat outside for a bit and what have you, but when i wandered back inside at some point, p.l.u.m. was playing a great morning set. we left just before the end of his set, and wandered back to the camp site, which was now basking in glorious sunshine. =) sat around in the sun for a while.... lay down in the sun for a while... fell asleep in the sun for a while... woke up a while later with a very nicely sunburned face. bright red. lovely. i looked stupid. and did for up to a week later, when it finally started to fade.... only problem is it started to peel too. i looked very silly. =) but i kept myself and many others amused. hehe
Slept until about 11pm on sunday night, then staggered out of the tent and had something to eat. we wandered around a bit, came back and had something more to eat, and then headed over to see infected mushroom live. we got the end of the dj that played previously, which was quite good, but who's name evades me at this point, and just as we were waiting for i.m. to take the stage, one of the merry pranksters, who happened to be doing the projections for the event, got on stage with a microphone, and started asking everyone to move closer to the stage, to sit on the floor to do some communal breathing, and to end the festival as one big lung. 'oh christ', we thought and legged it off the dance floor to somewhere safe. but not before timo stood at the side, waited until everyone was nice and quiet, and then roared 'HIPPY CRAP!!!!' as loud as he could, and walked out of the building leaving a crowd of us falling around laughing. =oD what a load of hippy bollox, and i wouldn't mind if it was in someway properly done, but it wasn't, it was a pathetic attempt at communal meditation that lasted 30 seconds. what's worse is that 80% of the ppl on the dance floor joined in! sheep. however, it gave us a right laugh. ;)
Infected mushroom live was pretty okay. not as good as i'd have liked them to be. i enjoyed about 60% of their set, cuz i've a bit of a soft spot for them every now and then, but it was very 'infected', a bit predictable, but luckily, not too much infected cheese. =) a few of our group didn't enjoy them at all.
Next up, hujaboy, who played a really good set considering he's israeli. ;) no cheese or anthems to be heard anywhere. after dancing happily to hujaboy, we watched as matt boom took over the decks.
Yeah... well... i can't lie on this one... matt's set was one of the best of his that i've heard in ages, and was definitely up there with the top sets of the whole festival as far as i'm concerned. he opened with fractal gliders - chasing ganesh, which i figured was quite a kick in the teeth for our american meditative breathing hippy psychedelic puddle friend. giggle. =oD he pumped some massive bouncy energy into the dance floor without tiring anyone out. he played from 6 - 8am, and the dancefloor stayed full throughout. =) could barely take time out to roll a joint - it was just too difficult to stay off the dancefloor. =)) if there's one thing i do appreciate about matt's sets, is the whole sense of humour behind them. ;) made for a great atmosphere on the dance floor.
When matt finished, we all piled outside to take in some morning sun and completely missed concentrix live, but made it back inside for yo-el, who played a minimalish set without plodding!! =) lots of haldolium, magnetrixx and reefer decree type music in his set, but it was excellent for that time of the morning after such a full night of dancing. very enjoyable. =)
He was followed by siddhartu who continued in the same groovy style. i was really enjoying myself, although i was close to ordering a wheelchair at some point. my feet were exausted. think we must've heard all tracks from H2 in those 4 hours. ;) but i'm a big haldolium fan, so i didn't mind too much ;)
We staggered back to the tents sometime in the early afternoon, tried sleeping, but it was just way too hot in the tents, piled back outside on blankets, and slept out there for a while, but this time i was more careful!!!, and kept all burnable bits covered, not that there was much left to burn. ;) we tidyed up around 4/5pm, and were leaving the site before 6pm. =) a few hours drive home, a few hours flaking out on the settee, and a long deep well deserved sleep on monday night. ;)
Piccies to be found here.
And so ends my senseblender review.
next up, sola luna. whee! =o)
DC Haze, USA – September 2000 DC Haze
by DjHaze*
On Friday July 7th 2000 I made my US DJing debut at San Diego's DRAGON LOUNGE night.
The gig arose through a handy email from another DJ in the US, one Joe Sweeney from North Carolina (thanx J!). He had visited the CRYONIX website and liked what we were doing and extended an offer of a set if I should ever happen to be stateside.
As it happened I was due to be in sunny California at the beginning of July for a business trip - the annual pilgrimage to silicon valley to visit my suppliers. Joe in-turn hooked me up with a guy in San Diego by the name of DJ B-Side....who just so happened to run a nu skool breaks and drum 'n' bass night in San Diego.
Well, to cut a long story slightly short, B-Side (aka Ben - yep another one!!) and I exchanged a couple of emails and it was confirmed that I would be doing a back-2-back set with monsieur B-Side between 11pm-1am (prime time!) at their 7th July night....this was a last minute booking but they still went and got the flyers reprinted with my name on 'em. Quality! ;)
First DJ up on the night was an up and coming San Diegan by the name of MANTIS. His style of music was very similar to my own with a very heavy leaning towards the more progressive end of the breaks spektrum. A good DJ and definitely one to look out for should you ever be out that way. As you can see the club was a little heavily fogged! But trust me there is a DJ in there somewhere.
The decor for the club was really interesting with a general oriental theme about it. The mural that you can see behind the turntables ran the entirety of a 25ft wall and was some of the best graffiti I've ever seen! Pure class.
The resident MC for the night was BUCKSHOT...or MAN MOUNTAIN as I ended up calling him. He was HUGE!!! He was also a pretty good MC, and I hate MCs (except for Mr Wong who I make special dispensation for!). Talk about get the crowd going!
Talking of the crowd...totally unlike a UK club crowd. Where as in the UK people tend to stand around waiting for something to happen for the first couple of hours of the night, the American crowd start dancing the moment they enter the club! It's sooo coo-el - even the warm up DJ has a good sized crowd for his set!!
The attitude of the crowd was also very reminiscent of the old raves of the late 80's early 90's in the fact that every one was very open and friendly. One stoopid thing about the whole Californian clubbing experience is that you are not allowed to smoke inside the club....you have to go out into the car park!!!
Even more stoopid than that is the fact that you are not allowed to take open containers of alcohol (ie. your beer) outside into the street! Therefor you have to leave your beer inside whilst you go out for a smoke!!!
Ludicrous!
By the time that 11 o'clock came around the club was nicely filling up and I'd met some coo-el people who were really interested to hear that I'd come from the UK to play at the event.
There were actually two guys who had come all the way from Dallas (about 800 miles!) to come to the night 'cause they'd heard that a UK DJ was playing!! MAD, that's like driving from Reading to Aberdeen for a night out!
It was really nice to see that the breaks scene in the US isn't too far behind that of the UK. Though they were just far enough so that the tunes that I took with me were all unheard of to them...thankfully they really got into the style.
Yep, that's me..and look I got an onlooker!!!
The strangest, and most flattering, thing to happen during my set was when the crowd started chanting "Haze, Haze, Haze" over and over again in the middle of my set!! It was really wierd...but nice too. ;p
The three and pass routine that B-Side and myself employed worked really well. The blend of my progre-ssive stuff and his darker stuff was very much like Jurassik and mine's sessions at Cryonix back home!
Let me say a few words about my host - DJ B-Side. What a quality fella! He, and his friends, really made me feel at home during my stay and I hope to offer the same service to them should they venture over the pond in this direction. As a DJ B-Side has been playing the same length of time as myself and seems to have been into the same kinds of music as myself too.
He's currently the US breaks scene's rising star with gigs alongside Adam Freeland, Uberzone and Simply Jeff in the near future. Style wise he's very competent and mixes fluidly whatever the style (I've got his new demo at home and it's a quality mix of breaks and tech house!).
Definitely a Haze favourite!
After B-Side and I finished our set it was the turn of the drum 'n' bass crew to shake the place. And I do mean SHAKE the place! The people that provided the soundsystem for the night - PROFOUND SOUND SYSTEMS - did a seriously good job of looseing all of my teeth! Really good rig...nice and bassy.
Try as we could we were completely unable to make the system sound distorted...f**k knows what sort of compression equipment they were running. Whatever it was it was good. Very good! First d'nber up was FURY - all the way from Denver, Colorado. Another nice guy and also another good DJ. He played a real nice mix of hard n fast jungle (lots of cause for concern and bad company stuff!! - lovely) which whipped the already enthusiastic crowd into even more of a frenzy. Helped along by the orders being issued by MC Buckshot.
Last up was ALLEYCAT from San Francisco. A pretty good female DJ who dropped some of my all time favourite tracks - all be it new remixes of 'em! I will never tire of hearing Terrorist of Champion Sound - mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!! All in all a brilliant night. And to top it all off I was offered several other gigs whilst I was in the US. Unfortunately due to prior engagements I was only able to do one of them - on Saturday 8th at the amusingly entitled COSMIC BOWL in San Diego.
Cosmic Bowl was a real interesting night. A much more intimate, bar like event, which isn't suprising as it took place in the bar of a bowling alley!!!! It was very bizzare to walk into a bowling alley like you see on the movies and hear tearing drum n bass blasting out from the building! Fred Flintstone never went bowling here - though he should've done! ;)
I got given a coo-el tour of the workings of a bowling alley...which was actually quite fascinating! No really, it was!! The best part of the night was just getting to hang out with the natives. Oh, and to play a corking breaks set for an hour, musn't forget that! So, all that's left for me to do is to say thanx to Ben (B-SIDE), Guage, Pete (MC BUCKSHOT), Mantis and his girlfriend, Alleycat, Fury, Jolt, all of Ben's mates whose names I have shamelessly forgotten (sorry!) and to all the people that attended the gigs.
Celebrity Moon, Haad-Rin, Thailand – February 2001 Celebrity Moon
February 8th, 2001
Report courtesy of Full Moon Party Thai Beach party site*
February the 8th was a calm day with gentle breezes coming from the ocean. By the time darkness fell on Haad Rin Beach, the making of a huge Full Moon Party was underway. The crowds were the largest in recent memory. The official guess is close to 10,000 dancing people filling the whole beach area. The full moon’s light filled the sky and competed with the many lights on the beach and the spotlights filling all of Haad Rin. The World Famous DJ from Germany, Sven Vaeth worked the DJ booth at Paradise Bungalows from early on to the daylight. Sven kept the energy alive with seven hours of non-stop playing. The party crowds continued to dance until the morning. The real troupers followed Sven to the after party at the Backyard where he played another six hours! The February Celebrity Moon Party was one the largest and most exciting party’s I have covered. Enjoy the pictures of the party people dancing the night away with Sven!
See you all in March on Koh Phangan.
Party On!
Ravey
Brighton Policing, not so right on – January 2001 Brighton Policing, Not So Right On
thread from internet newgroup: newsgroup:uk.music.rave
Hundreds of revellers had their New Year's Eve ruined when police broke up their party at five minutes to midnight. Champagne corks were about to pop when officers raided the illegal party in Shoreham. Two other illegal raves in Hove were also shut down during the height of the celebrations. One reveller said: "It was so mean spirited of the police.
"It was 11.55pm and people were standing around waiting for midnight with bottles of champagne and party poppers. Then the police arrived and people were in tears. They had come from miles around. We understand the laws are in place for safety reasons, but our whole evening was ruined."
Police, however, were unrepentant. Superintendent Graham Cox, commander of the Hove-Shoreham division, said: "I would rather be described as a party pooper than have to explain to relatives the next day why I
allowed such a dangerous party to continue until people were burned to death.
"There was a real risk of that happening."
Mr Cox said the New Year's Eve inferno at a disco in Holland where up to 12 people died and 130 were injured supported the police argument. More than 200 were ordered out of the Shoreham rave in an underground car park on an industrial estate off the A259. Another 200 people were ejected from an illegal party at 12.45am on New Year's Day on the second floor of a factory unit in Ellen Street, Hove, and 400 were shown the door at 1.45am from another rave in a factory in Fonthill Road, Hove.
Police took photographs of blocked fire doors and other safety hazards including old and dirty mattresses. Mr Cox said: "Each site had fire hazards and there were no safety provisions.
"Each venue was a potential death trap. In Ellen Street fire exits were boarded up, it waspitch dark in places and mattresses were on the floor. Mr Cox said tickets at each venue were selling for £5 and organisers were making upwards of £500 a time. Some broke licensing laws by selling alcohol and there was evidence of drug-taking at one.
He said electricity was being stolen and, at one location, damage was caused and there were complaints from neighbours about noise. He said: "We shall continue to take positive action against these illegal gatherings." At all three locations, organisers were ordered to pack up their equipment or risk having it seized. No arrests were made, but Mr Cox said police inquiries were continuing.
Follow-up:
"I had friends who were unlucky enough to be at *two* out of 3 of these NYE parties. First they went to the Enlightenment party - only for it to get busted. They thought they were one step ahead, and went onto the FAF/Ground Zero party nearby. Shortly after they got there, so did the Babylon. They then drove all the way upto Berkshire, only to find that the warehouse party that had gone successfully there [and where I'd
spent the night - bloody good it was too!] - had finished early and by 10am all that remained were folks loading equipment into vans. That party *didn't* get busted, but the venue was *very* close to some nearby shops that were opening for business early on New Years Day.
Well done to everyone who was lucky enough to get to a party that *didn't* get busted - it looks like Brighton got the worst of it this NYE :-(..."
Simon
Party Poopers – December 2000 Party Poopers
by P. Mills - New Years Eve 2000
Copyright: P. Mills
Hundreds of revellers had their New Year's Eve ruined when police broke up their party at five minutes to midnight. Champagne corks were about to pop when officers raided the illegal party in Shoreham. Two other illegal raves in Hove were also shut down during the height of the celebrations.One reveller said: "It was so mean spirited of the police. "It was 11.55pm and people were standing around waiting for midnight with bottles of champagne and party poppers. "Then the police arrived and people were in tears. They had come from miles around. We understand the laws are in place for safety reasons, but our whole evening was ruined."
Police, however, were unrepentant. Superintendent Graham Cox, commander of the Hove-Shoreham division, said: "I would rather be described as a party pooper than have to explain to relatives the next day why I allowed such a dangerous party to continue until people were burned to death.
"There was a real risk of that happening."
Mr Cox said the New Year's Eve inferno at a disco in Holland where up to 12 people died and 130 were injured supported the police argument. More than 200 were ordered out of the Shoreham rave in an underground car park on an industrial estate off the A259. Another 200 people were ejected from an illegal party at 12.45am on New Year's Day on the second floor of a factory unit in Ellen Street, Hove, and 400 were shown the door at 1.45am from another rave in a factory in Fonthill Road, Hove. Police took photographs of blocked fire doors and other safety hazards including old and dirty mattresses. Mr Cox said: "Each site had fire hazards and there were no safety provisions.
"Each venue was a potential death trap.
"In Ellen Street fire exits were boarded up, it waspitch dark in places and mattresses were on the floor." Mr Cox said tickets at each venue were selling for £5 and organisers were making upwards of £500 a time. Some broke licensing laws by selling alcohol and there was evidence of drug-taking at one.He said electricity was being stolen and, at one location, damage was caused and there were complaints from neighbours about noise. He said: "We shall continue to take positive action against these illegal gatherings." At all three locations, organisers were ordered to pack up their equipment or risk having it seized. No arrests were made, but Mr Cox said police inquiries were continuing.
Earthdance, Holland – October 2000 Earthdance Groningen
14 October 2000
courtesy of daemon
Good karma
Blessed be the Androidz, for throwing a party when everyone seemed to have left for Voov, leaving me depressed at home and ready to boogie. Who could have ventured that that tiny, intimate event would extend all the way to this magnificent Boom! label/Earthdance party ? The whole experience was drenched in good karma, starting from the potential dull traintrip to Groningen. In Utrecht, I left a very happy newly-to-goa-introduced colleague after a nice chat, took the train and started talking to and older guy who was reading a Terry Pratchett novel, so he joined me. Socializing when commuting was nice for a change, and it got better still when another partygoer appeared, so the older guy went back to reading and we prepared for some serious action. No buses in Groningen, but there’s cabs so we kind of almost found it, and stumbled across other partygoers, offering us a ride in the right direction. Phew, saved us some searching at least. Things began to look splendid already, a searchlight indicating the general direction to the venue, and candles guiding us through a dark Blair Witch-like landscape. Compliments to the organizers, a real plus to the atmosphere ! And then… the boat where the bootieshaking would have a start in a few moments…
Aligning Energies Worldwide
Hearing the thumps from a distance, it was hard not to rush to the boat, well one might not manage to cross the walkway too fast anyway, so we calmly climbed on board. How nice to see the group of people met earlier in this wonderful partyseason ! All of the Androidz were there, some of them we hadn’t seen for a while, others we saw here ‘n’ there. But the tone was set: this was going to be a nice night indeed, intimate, amongst friends and other likeminded party animals, with some phat tunes that invited, no commanded us to get to the floor and dance the night away. Which is what we did, interlaced with some chilling out, but basically you had to dance. You cannot ignore a good DJ when you hear one, so what else is there than sweat before the discjuggling, DATswitching and vinylscratching master. Which is what all of the DJ’s were. At a certain point my body simply ached from fatigue, but my mind didn’t allow it to. Some of us got the wrong footgear, shame there aren’t pictures included of after-party blister sessions ;-). And when it got too hot, you could always stick your head out, or take a whiz outside, and enjoy the misty scenery. Perfect, just completely and utterly right, this was. Add to that the knowledge that at several places worldwide other people are doing the same thing, dancing for a good cause, now THAT feels good, this unifying feeling !But all good things inevitably come to an end, so with tears in our eyes we exchanged byebye’s and off we went…
Still karma to burn …
in a spaced car, nice and tight, seven of us, still wandering over and wondering about the experience, the people involved, the nice venue, the excellent music, the overall nice afterglow one has after a night well spent. If there is a party god, we have pleased him very much. If the other parties worldwide were only half as good, the dance or goa-community as a whole has made a difference. And if there’s another Boom! label party, we are so going to be there !
Thanks to all parties involved for a wonderful night, everything was perfect.
Technosense – October 2000 Technosense, Reading, UK - 19.10.00
by Nick*
It was an excellent night. The venue was just near the originally booked one and also near my gaff, so an easy walk, albeit not one I'd ideally choose to make, down that dark track. Seemed as though more people made it than normally come along to Technosense at the After Dark venue anyway which was nice :) At midnight we had a special Earthdance- style Prayer For W**kers viz the manager of the After Dark :)
Of course with no licence to worry about the play list went a bit by the board. I heard Dan (DJ Sideshow) play, and I heard Barclay DJ Dark Angel who was of course every bit as good as you'd expect. Thanks for all the top classic Dark Angel tunes mate, and especially for "This Is The House That X Built" - I did indeed notice it :-) :o) And I think James Scrawney Beaver, and D.A.V.E. the Drummer, and I don't know who else ...
I took two of my friends home to my place at about 2.30am or so, and we had cups of tea and a wotnot before they went to bed. I just chilled out, kept myself awake and listened to hard house :) before I went back to hear another friend, DJ Lucy, when he was supposed to be playing from about 4.30. He had been going to go straight on after D.A.V.E. The Drummer but with extra time there were extra DJs to fit in.
Unfortunately one of the James (was it James Daft Kunt) disappeared after he'd been given a play slot so Lucy was on earlier, and I missed his set of tearing hard gabba :( However our other mates said that it was very good indeed, and I'm looking forwards to hearing it on another occasion.
In another mail someone wrote to me:
> The new venue wasn't hard to find but it was *filthy* :) Underground in every sense of the word :)
> I am intrigued!!!
Heh :) It's an old factory building, someone reckoned it had been something to do with woodwork on account of the sawdust, though to me it was all just random filth. Downstairs is a large basement area (and I mean large), Technosense didn't even occupy a quarter of it, and of course it was the quarter furthest from the entrance so you had a long walk across a large dark space full of puddles, with only one floodspot and the rig lights to guide you. Mind you, finding your way back to the stairs to ground level was even more fun - fortunately this is where the large rubber torch came in very handy !
I could write more but I won't yet - it would be worth ringing the same partyline number (much) later tonight for more party details ...
But yeah, it was filthy, the ceiling had steel beams supported on cast columns and the girders and pipework were coated with black muck, also the floor was very very dusty and gritty (and I'm told also sawdusty as per previous email). Take good torches, and old clothes that you don't mind getting extremely dusty.
Still, it was a great and absolutely teriffic party, much better than at the After Dark Club so eat your heart out mate !! They were still going strong when I had to take Lucy home to crash, I don't know how long it lasted but I wouldn't be surprised if it kept going right through ...
Nick
Calm Seas, Thailand – September 2000. Calm Seas
September 13th, 2000
Report courtesy of Full Moon Party Thai Beach party site*.
The days before the party were windy and the water was choppy. Waves lapped the beaches and transportation to the Full Moon Party could be exciting this time indeed. But on Wednesday the seas were calm. The water was like glass with no waves on the beach.
It was a perfect day and evening for the Full Moon Party. The trip to Koh Phangan by speedboat was fast, smooth and dry for a change. The Calm Seas made the trip from the Gecko Village pass quickly. Above the moan of the speedboat, the beats of the night could be heard coming from Haad Rin. The September 2000 Full Moon Party was underway!
It was time to party! The crowd estimated at 6,000 seemed as calm as the seas. These laid back party people danced to the varied beats filling the beach. For the whole evening the seas were calm, the crowd was relaxed, the moon came out between the clouds, the party continued. We were blessed this time and there was no early morning shower.
The horizon was filled with clouds when the sun broke. The sea remained calm. The party continued for many while others waded to the waiting speed boats. What a fun Full Moon Party! There was excitement in the crowd. There was power in the air. Yet peace seemed to prevail. Even the return speedboat trip was reflective of the Calm Seas.
Here are my pictures from the party. Enjoy!
Party On!
Ravey
The Exodus Free Spirit Festival, UK – September 2000. The Exodus Free Spirit Festival
by Derek Williams*
Location: Near Luton, September 8, 9, 10 2000
This was the second Exodus festival I made it to (see the story of last years here). This year was a little different though, as the collective have been in negotiation with a local landowner and the police which eventually produced the result they wanted - Britain's' first legal free party festival.
Me and Sid went (Sid having been a regular at Bionic Soup parties in Norwich over the past year and who had done his first squat party a few weeks ago and was now doing his first tent party), we arrived on Friday night.
We knew it was somewhere near a junction on the M1 motorway, but we didn't know which one it was. So I drove west and met the M1 at, as it turned out, the correct junction. We arrived just as people were beginning to turn up.
Of course, by now it was dark, so I had to fumble around and put the tent up by sense of touch and memory as Sid made himself useful in other ways. Apart from the patch of stinging nettles it happened with amazing ease. So we went to explore.
The site is divided by the M1 motorway and connected by a tunnel - something more free parties should have, tunnels are great which is just as well given how many times I walked through the thing.
There was one very big difference between this festy and any squat party I've been to - basically it wasn't a squat and there was this general "feeling" that we were in someone else's property (which we were of course) and that we had to take care of it and respect it (which we did).
Exodus were doing a good job of organising litter collection and had made it known (somehow) that certain kinds of behaviour wouldn't be appreciated. No-one from the collective actually said anything to me, but several people mentioned what their values were and so what they didn't want to see happen on site.
I did get the feeling from a lot of people that they really respected what "the Exodus" have done and what they want to achieve, many people spoke about them in very familiar terms. To be honest, they deserve it, they've done something wonderful in getting this festy accepted (with some reluctance) by the powers that be.
Looney Module / Vega were set up in the car park - or what was supposed to be the car park but actually turned into a part of the festy. I'd put my tent up next to their rig with the travelers nearby, they really are a nice bunch to be honest.
Over on the main site (through the tunnel) we spent most of our time around the HEADFUK-Stinky Pink and Pendulum systems. I've been following HEADFUK for around 18 months now, they do pounding hard edge gabba and other weird stuff, Stinky Pink do banging techno and they combined their rigs for this event. Wow what a nice sound. Next door were Pendulum who are more "conventional" squat techno, all of them of course are from London.
Pendulum had a really nice tent and it was strange seeing them in such a tidy and clean place, I'm more used to them being in a corner of a warehouse somewhere surrounded by dogs and traveler vehicles.
Through a death metal tent (loads of live bands as well as techno rave at this party) there was a little bridge into the camp site, crossing this thing was fun, especially in the dark when full of "rave spirit".
Friday night was fairly busy and despite the rain on the way down (the previous week had been nasty weather and the forecast was bad), it cleared up and was actually quite warm. The morning greeted us with one of those eye-stab sunrises and blue sky. Throughout the night I meet some London party people, one of whom has lost his tent and disn't have a clue where it was, we go look for it, but it's a lost cause. He did eventually find it, but not till the next day.
Needless to say, as normal in this sort of thing we didn't get a lot of sleep. I passed out for a couple of hours in the Pendulum tent, but that was all I got. I'm not sure if Sid even did that.
A little later and I run into Ian again. Ian is a regular on the London scene and he had a friend with him celebrating his birthday - some birthday party! We spend some time in the HEADFUK tent watching a live performance, quite something that was. I've seen techno "bands" before and usually they're really boring. This time it was one person working an array of samplers and stuff, standing in the tent along with all of us, not perched up on some stage.
Towards the evening and people start turning up in huge numbers for the Saturday night which is mental with crowds and crowds of people, it became easy to lose people and, indeed, yourself, but we survived through till about 5.00am when, after a session in the Exodus tent (oh what a lovely sound system they have) we finally hit the floor of the tent.
Sadly, we both had to be in work on Monday so after a very enjoyable 5 or 6 hours kip, we had some munch and one last look around, then packed the tent up and hit the road back to Norwich, stopping only at Red Lodge cafe for more (much needed) food.
As I say, what Exodus have done with the Free Spirit festival 2000 is to stage the countries first ever police approved "illegal" rave, it was a real free party in every sense of the word "free" in my book, although some of the free party massive were a little put off by the degree of organisation, I see their point, but Exodus aren't playing a game here.
They made a lot of effort to cope with the problems you always get in events of any kind - there were (just about) enough loos, there was free water and the access roads were kept clear. At least one ambulance had to ferry someone off and that happened with the minimum of fuss from what I saw.
Anyway, there were no plod to be seen (unless you'd parked your car on the M1 in which case silly you), so they kept their side of the bargain. Oh and something went really wrong with the weather, it was hot and sunny for most of the time (well at night it was just hot), most strange.
Perhaps Exodus have found a way forward for those of us who enjoy free parties, lets hope so.
Maximum respect anyway to Exodus.
Derek
Good Mood Productions, Portugal. Good Mood Productions - New Year 1998
Herdade Barroca de Alva (Alcochete)
This is the day of the year that everybody is looking forward to make a big celebration, creating by this means false expectations, but this party was an exception to that.
The party was in a Huge farm, closed to a barn, in a big circus tent and the chill out in the barn itself, the decors was as expected Good Mood prods/Boom fest style, ie, lots of fluo stuff along with fluo mandala backdrops made by Pedro and Susana from the org.
The party started before 11 pm with Dj Migas from Portugal, who played bouncy swedish style tracks, but the party realy started at midnight when everybody was celebrating, shouting, etc, then started playing more heavier tracks but always groovy.
Then at 1 am came Dj Pena also from Portugal, who dat played very powerful, with lots of unreleased tracks, along with some guitar and swedish tracks which the crowd was looking forward to and retributing with a non stop frantic dance. Then, appeared a non schedule portuguese dj, Paulo by the name, resident in France and Totally Blind!!!
He plays from dat and knows what to do with them, playing almost unreleased tracks and very danceable style (he usually plays very dark with some breakbeats, but in this day he decided correctly, since he feeled the party mood),he only played 1.45 min :(
At 5 am started Sun Project live, playing their classics and some new tracks from their new album, the crowd was amazed by their style (personally I expected some more new tracks but it was very good though), great performance!!!
Then came James Monroe, the mainman from Flying-Rhino recs, who played from cd-r, dat and vinyl with a suberb style showing all the possible forms of mixing. He played F.R. new sound direction (forthcoming releases), techno/bouncy trance very deep and hipnotic along with some other stormers.Great!!!
Finishing up the party Dj Pena and Dj Migas played again in some sort of ping pong, both playing uplifting tracks since James M. didn´t play until the end of the party like he was suposed to(but we forgive him). Excelent work !!!
Suberb Vibe!!! Boom Shankar Diogo, Pedro and all the Good Mood family...
By João (Dj Pena - Flow Records) - http://www.flow-records.com/ - joaogarcia@mail.telepac.pt
Neon People, Thailand – March 2000 Neon People
March 19th, 2000
Report courtesy of Full Moon Party Thai Beach party site*
In March the weather in South Thailand got remarkably better. So this time we packed our things again and headed to the party to take some shots for your viewing pleasure.
Estimates of 6,000 or more party people danced from 10 pm to 10 am. The warmth of the night made the cooling sea a refreshing pause for dancers, while others danced in the quiet waters along the beach.
Dawn’s presence was made known as the brightness in the east slowly began to fill the sky - even for us again and again an unforgettable impression. The night melted into day as the beats continued but the dancers did not stop. The black lights yielded to the sunlight. The "Neon People" took on new colors in the bright sun. The bars were reduced to selling warm beer as the party continued.
Party On!
Ravey
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