Marc's Public Blog - Clubbing

2026/06/26 Euforia Poland

π 2026-06-26 01:01 in Clubbing, Festivals

I had known about Euforia for a few years, both the january 'transformations' event which I'm told rivals Transmission with its lights and lasers (or at least close to it), and the 3 day June event which seems to conflict with lumi most years, but now that lumi is not a concern for me :), it was a great reason to go check it out.

It is what I would call a 2.5 day event. Friday and Saturday nights (until 03:00 and 05:00 respectively) are the main events, and sunday has a day afterparty from noon to 18:00 (although apparently people stayed to party a bit later on their own). It was great that most of the event was at night as Europe was going through a heat wave strong enough to shut down Defcon in Holland and impact the opening time of lumi on one day. Euforia was by lovely lake, so I'm sure that helped with temps a bit, but ultimately it was still warm although for friday and saturday it was not a big deal since even if sunset was past 21:30, the sun went behind trees by 19:00 or so, making the temps, bearable.
Ontune, who runs the event, was super nice in answering me beforehand and assuring me that bringing my LED gear would not be an issue at all, he even wrote a note via Email I could have shown security if needed, but turns out security was super nice and didn't mind at all. This redeems poland in my eyes after the terrible experience at ASOT poland the week before and confirms that the main problem is going to a stadium (where ASOT was), whereas festivals, are fine.

I didn't come empty handed :)

For people without VIP unlimited food and drinks, the food options were excellent and plenty of drink options too. Much better than the average festival:

that was the sad part :(

I'm not posting every food vendor, but they were many, a good variety

VIP Area:

I didn't take enough pictures of the yummy meats, but they were yummy

Friday and Saturday Night Parties

Given that sunset is very late this time of the year, there was still plenty of light when I arrived around 19:30

people could kayak in and enjoy the music ;)

most people didn't speak much or any English, but still made friends :)

Hi Orkidea :)

I was equipped for Will Atkinson :)

Day 2, Saturday:

the 4th stage opened up, was the trance stage and had wonderful visuals and lasers

a few lucky people could stay right there and watch from their balcony :)

great lasers

finally got to meet driftmoon

spaceman at another stage, but not my music

mainstage was also quite nice, really good setup for the middle of nowhere

Talla 2XLC

And the party went late enough that sunset got there first :)

Sunday Day Party

I'm assuming that many polish people came from kind of far, so they had to drive home afterwards. That's likely why sunday was a day party that went from noon to 18:00. The hot sun made it a bit less fun, and only one stage, which makes sense:

got to meet and thank ontune

Review and Thoughts

So I probably can't ignore the fact that this was the same weekend than lumi, and it's hard to not talk about going to Euforia vs going to Lumi. Turns out that this is really a Polish event for Polish people, I'm not sure if I was the only foreigner, but there may not have been more than a handful :) So, let's lay down the facts:

Lumi obviously has more days, more DJs, and more hours

But lumi is mostly during the day, in potential hot sun (and it was hot this year). I really really appreciated that Euforia was mostly at dusk/night (all the way past sunrise on day 2)

Euforia had 3 stages on day 1, 4 stages on day 2, but if you were looking for trance, that was mostly one stage on both days (and it was the harder style of trance, no euphoric or Thrillseekers trance). Despite lumi having more non trance music, it still wins on trance content

My thoughts about lumi and its organizer are well known, and Euforia was much better across all fronts. Even for an event where everyone was kind of expect to speak polish, it was fine if you didn't speak any. People were nice, helpful and welcoming

Pricing wise it was very affordable, and turns out that for $350, VIP got you unlimited food and drinks (including alcohol) for both nights. That's not only a really good deal, but the food was actually amazing. The organizers deserve massive credit for that only and of course it's a huge plus compared to Lumi that still likes to charge everyone for $8 water one bottle at a time, providing no access to safe clean water. The food at lumi was also bad enough that I would make sure to eat before going. For Euforia, I looked forward to the wonderful food ;)

But as minuses go, Euforia apparently only allowed you to pay with wristband money that you had to recharge on your phone. That was unfortunate given that almost everyone has pay by phone or contactless credit cards. Also, I have to be honest that I didn't find a source of water, that wasn't bottled water, which if true, is not good. I honestly totally forgot to really check because I had unlimited food and drinks and security didn't really care if I brought water in since I had VIP anyway, makes sense.

Staying a 5 to 10mn walk away was less than $200/night, not too bad

Now, can I really recommend to non Polish people to go? This gets a bit more tricky: I have to be honest that it's really in the middle of nowhere. You can't reasonably go there without a rental car, it's 1.3h from Wroclaw airport, and 4h from warsaw airport. Given that, I would only recommend it for people already in Poland or already going to Poland for a trip (and Poland is a lovely place to visit)

But realistically it's not a real comparison, lumi is easier to get to, clearly has a lot more trance, more hours, more DJs, but if you're not a fan of how it's being run, don't want to be in the hot sun all day, are not a fan of sound bleed, overcrowding, or the 2nd worst security team I've seen in the world,

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2026/06/20 A State of Trance Poland Stadium Event

π 2026-06-20 01:01 in Clubbing, Festivals

I was already going to be in Poalnd for Euforia the following weekend, so I figured why not ASOT? But then, I didn't do my homework and didn't realize it was not a festival but a stadium event with lots of stadium rules (a bit like Banc of CA, but somewhat worse). I also need to state that whatever they had was taylored to the local clientelle, where most everyone came in black and without any outfits at all. Also, it was sold to absolute capacity, so clearly people were fine with how things were.

So, silly me had spent a week making a new LED outfit that mostly worked in sunlight and even made a custom logo for superstrings whom I was very excited to see:

But that was not meant to be, the stadium had strict no LED rules that I'm sure were on the polish website somewhere but not on the list of rules sent to event goers by ASOT. So they scanned my ticket, security then denied me entry, I was sent on a fool's errand to try and get in somewhere else, but with my GA credentials that was not meant to be. Some person nicely called a supervisor who said they would not be approving entrance with the LEDs, but I could check them in a locker and enter without them. Fair enough, rules are rules.
Then it got complicated, some mean lady at the GA entrance took offence to me coming back to do as directed by her supervisor and ensured that I could not even reach the lockers or enter at all. The few staff that spoke English wanted to help, but the mean green lady in charge told all of them to deny me any access:

So I had to go back to my hotel room, fully change, and come back after 2h lost. But even then I still couldn't get in because my ticket had been scanned already and there were no 'in and outs'. Someone told me I had to buy another ticket to get in, never mind the event was sold out. Ooops. Thankfully I found a nice person on the VIP side who got someone to unscan my ticket so that it would work again. I was finally able to go back to the GA side, dodge the mean lady that didn't see me, and finally get in 2h30 late. By then I had missed 2 sets and half of superstrings, which was quite sad, but at least I was able to get the last 30mn.

While I understand while festivals see stadiums as a convenient location, given the lot of extra rules stadiums have, that aren't festival friendly, I obviously don't feel they are a great place, unless a different of rules are agreed to for the event.
Also, I have to be honest that Poland is not about lit up outfits, or pretty much any outfits at all, so there is that.

Once in, there was a small stage and food and drinks on one side, and a 2nd security! that prevented you from taking any food or drinks from inside the venue to inside the stadium that had its own food and drinks.

Finally superstrings, they played lovely music for the remaining half I was able to hear:

I said no one had any outfits, not true, I found exactly one, but it was still black of course, pretty colors are not allowed in Poland ;)

did find one friend :)

I stayed in the pit a bit longer until was unbearable due to overcrowding:

Then let's talk about other weird logistics issues. They had one way flow control to get in and out of the pit, and they did have free water (even if they took the unopened bottle water that a security guy gave me after he felt bad for me for what happened), but long lines for that. That said, it was much quicker to go in a bathroom and get water from the sinks there:

Giuseppe was next:

Then John Summit:

After that, made the 'mistake' of needing more water and bathroom stop. Almost all the stadium doors were exit only and everyone was forced to use to rear doors that barely moved and took a very long time to go through. That was not good:

the other people who got screwed like me

I had to use crafty tricks to get back to my bleacher chair that had been sectioned off in 4 different ways (you couldn't get back there, staff was blocking that entire area), and once I made it there, didn't move for the next 4h or so, until the end. No more water or bathroom.

you will note the total lack of any festival lights

Armin played a bit of everything, some tracks I liked better than others, and Sasha joined to sing on stage, that was lovely. Last was Armin f2f John Summit, which was an interesting mix, you don't see that every day. Sorry that the pictures aren't great, but getting back to a decent spot in the pit was mostly impossible:

the production value was pretty good

Thoughts

I already wrote a bunch above, so I'll skip the stadium rules part.

How about the music? Well, it was a bit of a mixed bag, but ok overall. Clearly some was trance and some was other genres meant to appeal to more people as well as the local crowd, at least according to my ear. But a good friend of mine reminded me that 'trance' is evolving as a genre, so there is more music that fits that definition nowadays, true that.

I had to notice GA for 9 hours cost about as much, within 10E or so, as 2 days of ASOT in Rotterdam with 2 to 5 stages.

I also have to say that ASOT Rotterdam was a lot more welcoming and felt more fun to me than the Poland edition, but that's me and what I'm looking for.

Even ASOT London has many more stages for that price although their policies on what's allowed were barely better (one of my friends was also denied LEDs or glowsticks, which is sad for an ASOT event), so it's useful to know the differences between the different editions of ASOT in Europe.

It was way too packed, by the time Armin played, you couldn't go anywhere, if you left to get a drink or go to the bathroom, you were screwed, very hard to get back in except in the very back where you can't see anything

VIP was interesting, it was a staggering $450, but you got free drinks and you were on stage behind the DJs. I'll admit that it felt expensive (twice the price of VIP at ASOT Rotterdam) but it offered free drinks and I think some free food. It was also sold out, so clearly the price was correct for the market. If I had to do it again, with GA being so packed, and not being able to go get water or go to the bathroom and get back to your spot, this makes VIP more appealing despite the very high price for just 9h.

I do have to note that the festival had wifi, and it worked pretty well. Better than EDC Vegas :)

Cell phone service was also surprisingly good for that many people in an arena.

The production value was good outside of the weird pixelated displays of DJs on the giant screens

All in all, I think it's great that ASOT brings the party around the world to save the effort for everyone to travel to a single location, but indeed you end up with very different events, very different vibes, pricing that can be double for what you get. So you and I cannot expect a mostly consistent experience across the different editions of ASOT around the wrold., and that was one my mistakes. Realistically few people are going to travel to multiple ASOTs, so very few will ever experience those differences and I guess it actually makes sense to adjust to each local market.
I think at the end of the day, it does very much matter for people to have a local-ishy event to save on travel costs and attend when they otherwise wouldn't be able to. So, each event is still a win for people who live locally, and this was clearly shown by the fact that it sold out even as a single day 9h event over Asot rotterdam that is 2 days + pre/post-parties that was not sold out. Does this make sense? I can't quite explain it.
Clearly, I was the odd one out for that event. Even if you agree with the feedback I gave on improvements, I have to be honest that I'm the one that didn't fit in, fair enough.

I'd say the main things I would wish for are:

If stadiums are to be used, very carefully negotiate with them which of their long list of rules, have to apply on the event day, and make sure even goers are aware of all the rules. The list I saw posted was way inadequate and mostly said I Shouldn't bring my backpack and I did not.

ASOT/Alda/Insomniac English speaking hosts to help people at the entrance in case of problems. The stadium staff had 'may I help you shirts', didn't speak a lick of English, and honestly had no reason to care if people were happy, and that showed. Being told to just leave and not come back when I had agreed to comply to removing everything they wanted, was not ok. Neither was being told that my ticket had been scanned, so I could not come back in, even though I had never been allowed in to start with.

Double security within the event and complicated rules about not even being able to take your drink bought inside the event to another place inside the event, were way over the top and nonsensical.

Not overpacking the event so much that you can't safely go to the bathroom or get a drink and make it back to your seat (they just completely blocked off re-entry and entire sections of seats, even if you had one there and your friend was waiting for you)

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2026/06/01 Malta Trance Festivals: Rong vs Euphoria vs Captured

π 2026-06-01 01:01 in Clubbing, Festivals, Malta

People fairly often ask me which Malta trance festival they should go to, and why. I've listed them in the order they appear in the calendar, and been twice to each of them. First, I can recommend all 3 of them, and given what has become of lumi, all 3 are welcoming festivals in a lovely country (Malta) with either chill enough or super nice security folks and policies. As you can guess this matters to me. Yes, Lumi has more trance in 4 days than all 3 of those festivals, but can you really see 4 DJs every hour, including when they are in on bad stages with no space, bad sound and/or terrible sound bleed? I realize some people actually like the anxiety of missing sets, stage hopping and agonizing on which of your favorite 2 or 3 DJs, you're going to miss for the next slot (on that Note, Dreamstate Socal which is my favorite trance festival worldwide, is also terrible on this issue with up to 6 stages and some epic sets I missed because I couldn't see them all).

So, before I dig into these 3 malta trance festivals, my other favorites are:

Dreamstate Socal is #1 to me for the night and lights, costumes, atmosphere

Dreamstate SF is #2 because it's 45mn from where I live and still 2 days, therefore beating all other one day dreamstate events

In Asia Unkonscious is fantastic and run by lovely people (and yes, that counts)

in the UK, Timescape is 3 days and lots of lovely trance and DJs too, run by the energizer powered Rick "never sleeps" Weekender :)

Now, let's go back to Malta

Rong vs Euphoria vs Captured

Rong Malta simply wins on "lineup, lineup, lineup". You want to see all your favorite big name trance DJs. Rong is where it's at, it costs more but it pays for them, and if that's what's important to you (I won't judge, I melt for many of them), Rong is where it's at. Its main drawback in my opinion is Uno is too small and I'm not a fan of that place anymore, especially with their new likely low paid contracted staff, especially security. Similarly Cafe del Mar has become too small for that crowd. Days at Uno had 2 stages, the rest of the days, just one stage.

Euphoria Festival Malta is indeed the cheapest and most grass roots of the 3. It does have the most DJs, and 7 days next year, 7 days! Yes, many of the DJs are not "big name DJs", but so what? They are lovely and they play trance, isn't that the most important thing? It's really a nice and a breath of fresh air to enjoy festivals that simply have more of a family and friends feel and where you're going to get real trance. As of 2026, a bit of psytrance was also added, which is a plus for me :) (but Captured has more). EW had one night with 2 stages, rest of the days were one stage.

Captured Festival Malta would go in the middle, it had more of a mix of DJs between lesser known, cheaper to book and easier to meet before/after their set, to bigger name DJs that cost more, come with riders (a list of expensive alcohol bottles to provide before/after the show), that are less likely to mingle in the crowd. Depending on the day, it was 1 to 4 stages of music (the most of all 3 festivals). This was the only one of the 3 to have psytrance (on day 3 only).

For comparison, Lumi would fit here as bigger even (4 stages for all 4 days and 11h/day), and most DJs (too many for me) in that amount of time.

All 3 festivals have boat parties now, and all 3 go to multiple locations around the island. Captured spends more time at the Gianpula complex, and that happens to be my favorite location in Malta.
Euphoria will stand out as the 'cheapest' of the 3, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. How is Euphoria different? It's actually a small festival in size, and purposely so. It's meant to be affordable, and to focus on trance music and fun. There is no VIP, no backstage, and DJs, when not on the decks, are part of the crowd and the party. What else can you ask for? This is the lumi from 10 years ago, before it got too big, and that I never got to attend before it was too late. I don't have a time machine, and I did ask Craig Conelly :) to go back and experience these nice and small lumis, but that didn't pan out :) With EW, I don't need one anymore, those are the lovely vibes that are hard to find anywhere else today.

So, the winner is...

Haha, nice try, I'm not going to give you a winner. All 3 of them are good for their own reasons, all have their own drawbacks, and all are worth going to. I had a great time at all 3, but in different ways and for different reasons. Go to all 3 if you can, or the one that is at the time that matches your time off schedule.

I think I'll be pragmatic and maybe point to your time off calendar as well as your budget. All 3 are fun in their own way, and none of them are a bad choice, and by that I mean no showstoppers or things that really would turn you off like some of the stuff at the trance festival that shall not be named anymore :) If some of you think I might be hard to please, actually I'm happy by default, and you have to give me clear reasons to be unhappy with unnecessary BS. I am sensitive to clueless security (I used to be a security engineer, so I know a thing or two about the topic and call easily tell clueless from real security), and BS like fake festival money which is thankfully absent from all 3 today. Also none of those 3, unless that other festival, did any nickel and diming, which I hate.