π
2025-08-28 01:01
in Clubbing, Festivals
Since I was already in Europe for Mysteryland the week before and Captured Malta the week after, Hadra fit very nicely in between the 2, and allowed for visitng nearby parts of France I had never seen. I corrected the title to point out that there is no trance at all, but indeed definitely psytrance, mostly dark psy. There were other kinds of psychedelic music, a bit like what you'd find at Ozora, and a bit more variety than Boom.
Unfortunately it was yet another summer festival that got rain, but thankfully none when I arrived, none when I left, and very little during the festival days when I was there (thursday evening to sunday morning), but it rained apparently a lot on sunday afternoon to the point that the festival prevented people from driving out per some local order, and honestly that felt very questionable. Thankfully I did get out before that happened.
I can report that I didn't get wet, yes! :)
CP was easier to get to from Paris (a lot closer)
Attendees did a much better job coming with cool costumes at CP, they took it seriously
Hadra was definitely more psytrance oriented (with dark psy nightly as the focus) while CP did have some dark psy, but had a much bigger variety of EDM genres, which I found a plus (even if neither had any trance, since trance doesn't really exist in france)
Hadra is 4-5 days (thursday morning to monday morning) although the main festival is 3-4 days, while CP was one day shorter
Walk from CP entrance to tipi felt a bit shorter and easier to navigate, but both were a pain (about 1km or more on uneven grounds)
Both festivals had rain, which was disappointing, CP got more rain and mud although thankfully it wasn't terrible
I felt like the castle background for CP was more fun, but it took a lot longer to walk from stage to stage
But Hadra wins if you're looking for a mostly psytrance festival with dark psy every night, it's clearly what it's about
Also, they had Okapi! https://youtu.be/l9hjU3f5vzY?si=ecRzLFVdjPE8XJLa&t=1215
All in all, Hadra was enjoyable, and definitely a worthwhile alternative to Ozora that is easier to get to and experience. Also it did not seem to suffer from the theft issues at Ozora. The main downside is unless you were in a wheelchair, you could not drive your car next to your campsite like Ozora, or Nature One, you had to suffer a long walk with luggage in poor uneven terrain, which is an issue for me when I'm carrying 80kg of luggage due to computer, photography and my LED gear.
google photos pictures
video summary: https://youtu.be/l9hjU3f5vzY
summary of instagram videos: https://youtu.be/mSlq1nGBUuY
Festival Grounds
the google GPS location was not quite correct, but it wasn't too much of a drive around
getting in took many hours for those who arrived earlier, but thankfully by arriving later, entrance and security were pretty fast
the box office was quick
security was also pretty quick when I arrived (apparently kind of bad and slow earlier)
tipis were spacious enough
ready to party!
real showers without long lines, as well as plenty of toilets
yum!
even some games
mikado!
fun talks
there was a lake, but it wasn't safe to bathe in
mainstage
People and Mdose
Compared to Chateau Perché, there werent' nearly as many people with cool costumes, but a few did:
water theme, some came disguised as jellyfish
Aiz has both an impressive setup and really good acting skills
Festival Days
There was music day and night, but most of the good stuff was at night, and ran all night. Mainstage mostly ran dark psy:
I got to see Okapi again, with his hilarious video game-like music
mainstage was Ozora-like, just smaller
Final Thoughts/Conclusion
Since I did Chateau Perché juste a month earlier, also in France, I can't help but compare the 2:Links
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