And if you are curious about my LED outfit, you can read more about it on my led peacock engineer medium post and if you'd like to read all my festivals or dreamstate, or clubbing posts, please click on the links higher on the page to get taken to those categories.
In case you didn't know, it's been shown that ADHD folks lack the same amount of dopamine that most people get naturally, which can be partially fixed with drugs like adderall. But indeed, EDM has also been shown to help, and it's been clear to me that Trance music definitely hits the spot for many ADHD folks in numbers alone :)
A few reference articles:
Captured Malta in 2024 was loads of fun if you forgot about the thailand-like hot humid weather last year. Thankfully the weather was more bearable this year: still pretty warm during the day, but not nearly as humid, which was the roughest part in 2024.
The lineup was another mix of Rong and Euphoria Malta: some bigger name DJs as well as plenty of lesser known DJs who were quite capable of playing lots of lovely trance for us to enjoy.
This year, the main 3 days were at Gianpula Village, which itself has a choice of 11 stages, and I not only didn't mind the mostly single location, I thought it was more convenient for staying nearby and not have to go all the way across the island to different clubs each night. Personally I like Ginapula and it provides enough variety in a single location, that I was happy to keep going there every day.
Given the 3 trance festivals in Malta we now have every year, I'm going to continue the little game of comparison:
Most days: Euphoria wins with 6 days
Most hours of trance: Euphoria wins again with 68H. Captured actually has the least of all 3, but let's be clear that it was still more than plenty.
Boat Party: I'll state that once you've done it once (and I've done it 3 times now), it's not essential. Captured actually won because the boat was bigger and nicer
Time of the year: while it's true that May for Rong and Euphoria is nicer and milder weather, september may be a more convenient time for you and for US folks Captured is a win since it's not right before or after EDC Vegas
DJs: Rong definitely is the most expensive of all 3 and brings more bigger name DJs. However Euphoria goes to show that you don't need lots of big name DJs to have lots of fun. Captured sits in between both, and can be a bit of the best of both worlds
Emma Hewitt: Only Captured offers a lovely live trance vocalist. I absolutely love live sung trance, so huge huge plus for me
Venues: all 3 festivals have pros and cons, but on convenience, Captured using mostly Gianpula Village was s plus for me. If you prefer to try different clubs most days, Rong and Euphoria will take you to more (but also means more daily transport and no central hotel)
fake money/BS tokens: Rong: yes, and that sucks, Euphoria and Captured: no, and thank you
Seeing Ferry Corsten and others play vinyl when they never do so normally: big win for Captured
Most DJs/Stages: Rong won that one but at the same time, I don't really need to have more DJs I can see at the same time :)
Psytrance: another win for Captured, which was the only one to feature psy on at least one day (saturday). You might not care if you don't like psy, but I do :)
The only thing that wasn't perfect was the communication, lack of updates for DJ changes/swaps, and afternoon parties that were actually more fun this year given the weather was not as humid, but were only announced on a FB group in a post that FB censored for a while and in my case it only ever showed up 3 days later. Also, not ideal for people who are not interested in using FB, for them there was no way to get the updates. Hopefully they also get sent in a daily Email as needed in the future.
glad to be back :)
Day 1: Thursday, Boat Party and Club tigullio
we got a bigger boat this year
this was the older, smaller one
Thrillseekers and Space Brothers:
Day 1 video summary:
AFter the boat party, we went to club Tigullio
we were ready for Solarstone :)
more shirts :)
Day 2: Friday, Gianpula Village, Club Phoenix
Unfortunately, I didn't get the pre-party info for friday because FB never showed me the last minute post, so I missed it, so I went directly to Gianpula. There were 2 stages running that night
pool party was still open :)
first time meeting Three Drives!
Day 2 Summary:
Day 3: Saturday, Gianpula Village Triple Room Big Party
Saturday was the big day, 3 stages, biggest names, and psytrance! Party went rrom 19:00 to 04:00 and it was a lot! Actually no, it did start with pre-party around 16:30 at a far way hotel. After missing the rooftop pool party the previous day, I made it on saturday :) But it's a bummer it wasn't better announced and many missed it:
with wind on th root and in the shade, weather was ok
time to chill while listening to lovely tunes
After the rooftop party was over, time to go back to Gianpula Village.
group picture
big props to Captured for having the vinyl set room
what's better than having Steve play vinyl for us?
and psytrance!
Back to mainstage:
my favorite part again, Emma Hewitt
she sung a lovely set
And then, Gouryella:
And we ended with Craig Connelly
Day 3 Summary:
Day 4: Sunday, Recovery Party at Gianpula Marakesh
I expect sunday to be pretty low key since saturday had a lot of locals who came to party, but turns out Monday was a national holiday in Malta, so lots of people came to party sunday too, even up to 04:00 when Sam Mitcham closed. Sunday was single stage but honestly I actually prefer that. When there are 2 or 3 stages at once, and the other stages aren't crap music I don't like, it's tough because I know I'm missing out every hour.
Interestingly, Miss Monique went to play in some other club that night, which took some crowds away.
By day4 and after 6 festivals, my LED panels were starting to fail, so I had to field replace one, which I engineered to be a bit easier to do than last year :)
all working again, and ready for Orkidea :)
Marakesh was another room I had never been to, Gianpula has 11!
I could see where I was staying ;)
That night was actually a blood moon (moon eclipse), but it was very dim where we were:
Orkidea:
Andy Moor:
And Sam Mitcham closed the night by playing until 04:00:
picture with the man! Thanks Sam
Day 4 Summary:
Final Thoughts/Conclusion
I cheated and put them at the top :) That said, I can repeat that I can still recommend Captured Malta, it was loads of fun this year again. If you want a mix of bigger name DJs, while still keeping family feel and organizer that is also a DJ, then you'll have a great time at Captured. It's just hard for me to say you must go to one of the 3 over the other 2. Ideally you get to go to all 3 :) but if you can't, maybe the month where you can get time off will help, or if you like water activities, including diving, Malta water in May is cold, and much much nicer in September :)
Just like I had to thank the Euphoria folks for all the work and fun we got, I definitely need to thank Sam Mitcham and his crew for all the work that made Captured happen again this year, and the 4 great days of fun.
99 Instagram videos summary:
