Ok, so I like electronic dance music, more specifically Trance. When I started in the 1990's, the US was a bit behind in that department.
Still, with San Francisco and San Jose nearby, I've had some opportunities to see some great EDM/Trance DJs. Back in the early 2000's, they sadly played club music in the US that was nowhere close to the hits they had composed and were known for, but over the years, as Trance started becoming more popular, those DJs finally started playing their good tunes in the US too, and maybe from 2004 on, it's only been getting better. Popsicle Halloween 2004 was really the beginning of great music parties in the San Francisco Area, and thankfully things have gotten even better since then
As a matter of fact, after another 10 years (2015 and beyond) the good news is that Trance has grown quite a following in the US, and places like the SF Bay Area, and while Trance has been declared dead a few times in the last 10 years, it's still going strong here.
Trance Family SF is definitely strong in the area, we've been getting more big trance parties every year, including many top DJs that come visit us what feels like every other week now (as of 2018-2019), and through those events, I made many friends in Trance Family SF. Thanks to you all.
Over those years, I got the chance to meet a few of my favourite DJs, including Armin more than once, and my last hobby has been to work on lights for my shirt and pants (version 3) and (version 4)
Well, that was a first for me. It was literally my first festival in France and it was even my first music event in France (and yes, I was born there and lived almost half my life there, but France has no idea what Trance means), I had never really heard of a festival that sounded exciting for me, until this one. I'll be honest that I wouldn't have flown all the way from California for it, but it fit nicely between Timescape, UK, and Nature One, Germany, so there was little excuse not to go.
And yes, it meant I already had my heavy LED outfit and batteries, so I dragged them there. People loved it :)
You could take a local RER or uber to a nearby town, and from there, you could pre-reserve shuttles to get you directly to the festival and be dropped off a litlte bit closer to the entrance. Turns out driving there took you to a far away parking lot from which you had to drag your luggage a long long way, so I was happy I had a shuttle slot (they sold out)
nice little castle
sadly once I arrived it was raining and muddy, totally not fun for regular wheeled luggage
it was probably only 1km, but with the weight I was carrying and dragging small wheels in the mud, that was hell
the line to get in and search were actually quite pretty fast
the search was very reasonable and also efficient, but the light rain was no fun
Because of my gear (weight and recharging needs, including solar panels I brought just in case), I'm not a huge fan of camping (never mind bringing all my camping gear from the US and back in plane luggage, which could cost $200 of extra luggage fees each way), but in this case I was thankfully able to sign up early and get a tipi setup onsite, which definitely helped.
another longish walk with luggage to get to the pre-set tipis
very nice inside
plenty of space, indeed
my poor luggage wasn't happy :)
Overall the entire area was well setup;
cute map :)
bathrooms were basic but decent
One thing I need to note that it's not really setup for people who don't speak french, which is also why I had never really heard of this festival outside of france. It is by design I assume :)
they had cool workshops (although very long line to sign up), but french was required
the one issue with workshops was the long inefficient line to sign up (potentially 2h+)
drinks were reasonably priced, with recycling for the cups. Of course you could pay with credit card/phone
toilets were compost style and clean enough. Free water was plentiful
they were also setup for sorted trash, definitely eco conscious
For power, I was able to find some free plugs inside the festival here and there (none in camping unfortunately), and some company had a service to charge your phones:
The decors were truly wonderful
alice in wonderland-like corners in the woods
projection mapping on the castle
Food options were good, although just like drinks, you could just bring your own anywhere from the camping site to the festival site. The only thing security cared about, was no glass:
My surprise, though, was how decked out people were at night with lights, that was almost burning man level costumes and lighting:
a bit boom-like
The 8 or so dancefloors were scattered around the venue, and actually sometimes hard to find in the dark and the middle of the woods ;)
The days were pretty warm, but there were chill out spaces
went to rest here the last day as the sleep nights were short :)
Every night had a theme, but night 3 was "red", so I improvised ;)
There were all kinds of music. 0 trance indeed, but DnB, Psytrance, Dark Psy, downtempo, 80's french music, and more:
psy on vinyl
even better: f2f psy on vinyl ;)
I arrived thursday, and after 3 nights of fun (and mostly quiet days to recover), it was sunday morning and time to go back. I barely made it to my 14:00 shuttle to the nearest town from where there was a train, or uber as needed:
the shuttles were well organized and on time
got dropped off at a quiet nearby town on a sunday afternoon and headed back to Paris
Conclusion
This is obviously not an internationally focussed festival, and that's likely the point. It's for french people by french people, centered around french culture. It does not mean you couldn't attend if you only speak english, especially if you're happy to skip the workshops, but you'll jump into the deep pool a little bit :)
Do I recommend it? Hell yes! It was definitely another kind of unique:
I loved the people's party mood, costumes and lights.
Security was just the very basic, you were allowed to bring food and drinks anywhere even if they had some for sale
That said, there was some security inside to make sure everything went ok, but I really didn't see any work for them to do (which is good)
No "cashless wristband" bullshit, you could pay with real money (i.e. credit cards and phones), as it should be
There were 8 stages, which was plenty, but interestingly they didn't play the same kind of music each night. So first night, I really liked a state with deep dark psy, but the next day they played downtempo, oh well.
Despite the map, in the dark woods at nights with random pretty lights everywhere, it was quite easy to get lost. One night, I was unable to find a stage I wanted to get back to and that was in a corner I never found again :)
it did have a burning man feel of exploring the deep playa and looking for surprises, that was fun
while walking around in the dark, you had to avoid falling in some creeks :)
price was pretty reasonable considering (a bit over 200E for 4 days/3 nights)
transport in and out was good if you took the shuttles, no ridiculous waits like boom the last day
But I do have to state, 0.0% trance (some psytrance though). It's not that Trance died in France, it mostly never existed, and one of the reasons I fled the country :) However given how much trance I listen to, I guess it's not absolutely terrible to go to a festival with other kinds of EDM :)
Links
