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:
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! :)
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)
real showers without long lines, as well as plenty of toilets
Plenty of food options, and they took real money! (some even took cash, just like Ozora)
yum!
Plenty of shops and nice art at night:
All in all the domes and stages were nice and pretty:
even some games
mikado!
fun talks
there was a lake, but it wasn't safe to bathe in
mainstage
Power-wise, which is a concern for me given how much power my outfit, needs, there were a few plugs running sometimes, where I was able to recharge my battery packs a little, but nothing easy. At least it was better than tomrrowland that had absolutely 0 power for campers.
It did rain a bit during the 2nd day, creating mud. The organizers nicely spread some hay to help:
The highlight, however, was the audio walk with Aiz. It was a very cool experience, role playing-like with a full story narated while walking around the festival, and doing silly things that no one understood because they didn't have the headphones with the story:
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
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
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.
Mysteryland was apparently the longest running EDM festival in the world. I say was, because for the first time dating back to 1993! I also found out that the theme and ideas were licensed to Tomorrowland, and that it was indeed based on Mysteryland. Once inside, it indeed felt like a smaller tomrrowland, although this year it was also lesser as the organizers decided to retire apparently. As a result the footprint was smaller, some things were apparently missing, and some obvious things like bathrooms were in unacceptable short supply, which for a festival older than 30 years, is hard to excuse. Another thing was the fact that it was cut in half by a freeway, which apparently is normal, but honestly kind of weird and made it a bit annoying to get from one side of the festival to the other.
People
Met our Swiss/Dutch friends who nicely helped us get setup with the hotel:
I managed to use the opportunity to say hi to a few DJs as well as friends:
A few people came with costumes:
Festival Day1
Day 1 thankfully had trance at the trance stage (but only one day). Farius played a lovely set, although I missed half of it given that it took a very long time to walk from the south entrance to that stage which was at the exact opposite, across a freeway that cut the festival in two:
Farius and then Ruben
Nifra was next, but that was more techno than trance
hardcore/hardstyle was a big thing now, 2 days at this nice indoor stage
mainstage was decent
Laura Van Dam
back to trance with Fadi/Aly and Fila
Cosmic Gate
Time to walk around a bit:
the days were long, not much darkness
Back for PvD
After PvD's set, there was a bit of time to see fireworks at mainstage, which were actually decent:
Festival Day2
Day 2 was the lesser day, 0 trance and I was not quite sure what to go see:
the hardstyle stage was a bit rough and difficult for me to enjoy for hours
Went to see another stage that had hippie music (Woodstock) but switched a bit for Laura Van Dam
Spent the rest of the day at the used to be mainstage, now 2nd biggest stage. Music was uninspiring but better than nothing:
There were lots of smaller stages but it was hard to know what they were all playing without walking a lot back and forth:
By then I should have stayed until the end for the fireworks, but the music was uninspiring and I had an early flight out the next day. Turns out the fireworks (and drone) show was actually quite good and would have been nice to see, but it was a long wait, so I watched it from my hotel room:
video summary:
The grounds
I heard it was hard to get in and out, but thankfully I had a hotel walking distance thanks to my dear friends who invited me, so it wasn't too bad
10mn walk through the park
arrived right on time at the VIP entrance, which really was the backstage entrance, weird...
this one I found reasonable until I saw how many bathrooms they didn't have, and how people were just pissing everywhere as a result. It's ultimately on them
the south side had some cute decords, but nothing to write home about
if you got glasses, they had a recycling system that felt ok enough
plenty of food options, but they didn't accept legal tender, just play fake plastic breakable money
nice, but very uphill
I did mention a freeway cutting a festival in 2, true story:
There was camping, but they also had a small higher class village attached to the festival, like tomorrowland. Nice village:
They had one ride, and you got to ride once for free with VIP tickets:
campsite was reasonably big
Thoughts/Conclusions
So, how did it go, what did I think? First, I wanted to like Mysteryland, especially after I found out that it was what Tomorrowland was based on, and it looked like a more nicely sized and manageable tomorrowland. In some ways, it was, but let's also be honest that getting in and out was apparently very tricky for people who had to do so, and if you relied on uber, you were going to have a tough time as there were not enough of them. In my case though, thanks to some lovely friends, I stayed at an airport hotel that was walking distance from the festival, so it was a 15mn walk which was quite manageable.
This year was, according to my friends, special, and not in a good way:
the footprint was smaller, so it was more crowded
some magical experiences and decors were missing
mainstage was moved, the new location seemed ok to me but was honestly hard to get in and out of, steep uphill, and the VIP area was even more tricky to get to, not a win
the severe lack of bathrooms was quite frankly hard to excuse
there was 0 wifi, not even at mainstage VIP, and there was no cell phone service either. This is quite bad if you can't find your friends anymore and phones don't work :( After excellent cell phone service at Nature One where they had extra cell phone towers just for that, and flawless cellphone service at Hadra Trance festival in the middle of nowhere, France, it's hard to excuse
fake plastic money, do I even need to rant about this again? Oh, and those tokens could be cut in half to pay half tokens since if you're going to have a stupid useless festival currency, might as well make it complicated and give you change in half plastic tokens with sharp pointy edges. Read more on fake festival money and why you should boycott it, here
the VIP amenities, felt limited, especially for the VIP platform for mainstage that was very hard to find and quite hard to reach
What I did like:
despite the apparent/obvious cost savings, it still had a remnant of magical village feel from tomorrowland, its successor. That was nice.
although some places were crowded and it was hard to get around at times, it was not tomorrowland crowded
the food options were good, although they did not take legal currency in any way, so they were useless to me
security, especially in the VIP entrance, were super chill. That was very much appreciated.
there was real free water, but not really, you had to buy a plastic refillable pouch, the same one from parookaville that broke, leaked and destroyed my laptop a few weeks after the festival, and you could only pay with 2 fake money tokens, which was 8 euros. After that, you could refill for free. It's not luminosity bad, but it's not great either. On the plus side, I think you could refill whatever container for free by the toilets, and they did not prevent you from bringing your own empty water containers
water was not really free, it was 8 euros one time cost, free refills
the fake plastic play money, which can be cut in 2
a big more thorough search in GA, VIP was super chill
I was going to say that tokens were complete bullshit since you were forced to buy them with a credit card anyway, but the entrance did let you pay for them with cash. I will let you decide how many people in Holland do not have credit cards or pay by phone:
Now, things get a bit nebulous, but I heard that because the organisers were retiring, they had an incentive to maximize their profit this year, at the expense of the festival itself, not good :-/
Of course, given new organizers in 2 years (and festival cancelled nest year), it's kind of hard to say how it will be.
In a nutshell, I'm happy to have been able to see this very long running festival, and thankful to my friends who helped organize the hotel. The festival itself was ok, but indeed it was not one of its best years. Music-wise it at least had one day of mostly trance (versus potentially 0 for tomorrowland if you pick the wrong week), but the 2nd day, it didn't have much music that I enjoyed, despite many stages. Maybe I didn't find it, or it wasn't there.
I guess let's see how the future edition is, but given that it's been at the same time than burning man, it's been difficult for me to go in the past, and let's see how it becomes in the future with the new owners.
Is it worth flying across the world, for? I'd say no.
Is it a decent, cheaper, easier alternative to tomorrowland? Sure, why not.
Nature One, Germany's Burning Man Like Huge Camping Party with A Bonus 2 Day Festival At a Former Nuclear Ballistic Missile Base
Yes, the title is a mouthful, but Nature One is a lot all at once, so I had to capture that :)
Welcome to Pydna Former Ballistic Missile Base!
Pydna had Nuclear-equipped MGM-1 Matador, MGM-13 Mace, MIM-14 Nike Hercules and BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missiles.
Nature One Part 1: Huge Campsite Burning Man-like Bring Your Own Party
The reason I mention Burning Man here and below, is because many parts of the Nature One huge Campsite reminded me of burning man. The amount of things people brought to build multiple thousand sound camps and fun little camps definitely brought back that feel for me.
Joining an existing campsite (in my case F12) on thursday, didn't really work well. There was no indication I could find on the map on which road to take to enter each side of the festival and campground. After starting from the wrong side, and being sent around, the other side sent us to a long not much moving line to the wrong campsite (F12 was full by then, and everyone was in line for another location). The main thing that was not ideal is that there was no one to direct traffic and help people get to the correct site.
camp ticket checking was efficient
people didn't really know what to do
As we got closer, one of the security guards told me we would not be allowed to drive towards F12 where it was located, because F12 was full, that was non negotiable and we had to drive back out. I didn't really take no for an answer and eventually they let us through. From there, we made it to United Nature One pretty quickly.
This is were I have to express my sincere gratitude to United Nature for being so kind as to invite us in their camp (which has been going to Nature One for almost 20 years in a row). Niko, aka DJ of Silence, was super nice and helped us out with a tent onsite, which really helped.
I did bring a few offerings which are legal currency at burning man ;)
My original plan was to stay at a hotel 30mn away (not counting driving in and out, no idea how long the daily lines were), but they rightfully convinced me to come a day early and camp, as the campsite was really a significant part of the party, and that sure was true.
United Nature had a very nice setup:
very useful camp kitchen during the storms especially
hiding from more rain :)
I did bring enough chargers to setup a couple of charging stations for everyone
private toilets
real generator to power the stage and the entire camp
and it was a big crew indeed
also well setup for food
big team :)
The United Nature one stage was actually really impressive:
the camp was filled with DJs, including some who played trance. Yeah!
smoke bubble machine
smoke machine
LEDs and lasers
lasers in the rain
but yeah, it was lots of rain at times
it was a real nice setup even if it got quite muddy later at night
What was unexpected is all the camps and parties at the campsite, that some people never even went to the festival. After setting up, went for a walk to see some of the other camps, of which there were many. Walking the entire campsite end to end would probably take 1h, although the central parts had all the sound camps and end to end was about 30mn:
as I mentioned, the area is big
lots of smaller camps, almost burning man-like. Bier Garten!
also lots of drinking going on ;)
Snow in July ;)
it does stretch out quite a bit :)
lots of games were centered around drinking somehow ;)
K@noc, was the only camp I found outside of Nature United, to have a nice selection of trance DJs. Much thanks to both :)
woohoo, a whole day of trance, but it was indeed rare
Many camps looked similar to what you'd see at burning man, but without the corrosive playa dust:
The one thing is despite the many many camps, most of them, played techno, techno, and also techno :)
The camps did keep going at night of course, some literally went 24/7, especially some next to where I slept :)
The campsites had toilets and water of course, and other things like:
for pay showers
vending machines
drink options if you didn't bring your own
water delivery for camps
the campsite had food vendors that thankfully accepted real money (although you could bring all the food you wanted to your site)
one great thing they had were 3 cell towers from the 3 major providers in Germany. Cell coverage was excellent despite an estimated 50K people
ample medical help, and they seemed busy :)
this was a pre-set camp for people coming by bus
lockers
While Parookaville was busy preventing use of gas and solar generators (which basically means solar panels and batteries), even preventing batteries that were the size of what I use for my outfit (and are allowed on planes), Nature One allowed all of these and even had a full bigger battery rental setup:
89E is not bad for power power stations and replacements all 4 days
Part of the time was spent hiding from the rain, which thankfully did not hit during Nature One festival hours themselves:
Since the whole place did become a muddy mess, they did cover some areas with hay to make it more bearable:
Since it did rain a fair amount on Thursday and Friday, so I was able to hide in camp, and used the time to fix broken bits of my outfit :)
did fix my LED shoe, but it was so muddy, I never actually used it
Somehow rain did not stop people from shooting personal fireworks from the camp :)
some were quite good
While it's clear that some people never left the campsite, but for those who went to Nature One, you could get your festival wristbands, as well as load up some of the fake but required festival money on said wristbands (more on that later)
you could top up from machines, or on your phone
adding money was easy, of course getting back the leftovers, a lot lot less. Shocker! :(
With all the fun happening at the campsite, it wouldn't be difficult to forget there is an actual festival (running from 20:00 to 06:00, or 18:00 to 08:00 if you go for extended hours):
let's go from here
to here :)
There was a fairly long walk from the campsite to the festival (or twice as long or more depending on how far you were camped):
it's unfortunate that they didn't find a way to open the festival on the side closer to the campsite
eventually made it
Right here, I need to state that just like campsites, 80-90% of the music was some kind of techno, hardcore, hardstyle, or acid. I realize that there are lots of kinds of techno, but given that I'm not a huge fan of techno, some of the nuances were lost on me ;)
Thankfully there was one psytrance stage, and a bunker that played some trance mostly on saturday:
Hi Talla 2XLC
And Alex Morph
Also got to meet Ed Lynam who closed saturday night
The festival had lots of food options, putting aside the fact that they didn't accept real money:
unfortunately way too many people still smoke in Germany and those lovely people were there pushing cigarettes as hard as they could ;(
extra needs were taken care of :)
Mainstage actually played various kinds of music that were other than techno:
The highlight cool factor-wise was of course all the former bunkers with huge concrete blast doors, where nuclear ballistic missiles were stored and could be taken out and fired within minutes in case of need:
how cool is this?
Also each bunker hill had stages on top:
Sunset was late, a bit past 21:30, but Nature One went all night:
definitely took work getting up and down
All in all, many stages to get around:
Thanks Talla for the trance
Day 2 had fireworks, but those were sadly a huge waste of time, barely managed to stay on a steep hill and wait patiently for fireworks that were shot behind the hill, so I was barely able to see them. Sad :-
So after wasting all this time for a fireworks show that was mostly not visible, went to see the rest of Alex Mprph who played great trance:
Soon after that is when Paul Van Dyk played mainstage. A nice mix of trance and some techno to make the Germans happy :)
Hi Mom :)
PvD's set where I'm visible a few times :)
And after PvD, finished in the Heaven's Gate bunker for more trance (well, a mix of trance and techno):
Videos Summary:
Instagram Videos Summary:
How did this compare with other German Festivals, i.e. Parookaville?
Getting in and out of Parookaville was bad, even if you biked, there was a required shuttle with huge lines
I never went to the Parookaville campsite, but I know it's nowhere close to N1 in terms of fun and party. They have a long list of not allowed stuff, including generators and even solar generators that are as safe as can be. They even restrict USB battery packs to what can fit in your pocket (mine barely do, but I have very big pockets)
Parookaville festival was 3 days vs 2 for N1 but of course N1 wins by far on all the campsite parties
Both festivals require unnecessary fake money with cumbersome refund procedures
N1 did not require privacy invasive personalization and denying entry on perfectly valid 500E tickets like parookaville did
Parookaville had so many silly rules like disallowing camelbacks or any water container except their 0.5l pouches that failed and leaked, but they did provide free water inside while N1 did not.
Parookaville had fewer stages but they were of better quality
N1 wins by 1000x due to the coolness factor of the venue :)
N1 wins by plenty on the burning man-like campsite atmosphere and all the parties, that was unique and very enjoyable
So there you go, hope this helps and clearly for me N1 was a winner.
Thoughts/Conclusions
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, it was August in Germany, but it was quite cold. Thankfully it didn't rain during the actual Nature One Festival Hours:
So, what were my thoughts? I'll start with what wasn't ideal:
Weather was poor, everyone was prepared for rain and mud, but doesn't mean those were fun. I didn't even bother using my LED shoes in all that mud, and my LED pants are covered with mud I'll have to carefully clean at home. Thankfully that was the last festival of that trip. Yeah, call me sheltered and afraid of rain, that's fine :)
The required fake money BS. Sure, it's not parookaville joke plastic money, but it's still a completely unnecessary system that I am convinced is geared against the festival goer more than help. "Cashless" they call it? It's too bad that I don't have cashless plastic cards in my wallet already or a phone that can pay to tap for almost 10 years. This really has to go, but it won't unless enough festival goers complain loudly.
Unsurprisingly, just like virtually every festival that does this, getting your unused money back is somehow manual and designed so that enough people don't bother and lose their leftover money. As I write this, no one can get their money back, they have to wait long enough that some amount will forget. Sigh....
On the upside, security at the festival entrance was pretty lax, so it was easy to bring your own food and drinks but that was definitely against their rules. I'm totally fine with having to buy food and drinks onsite, but allow pay by card and phone.
I unfortunately have to add that they did not make drinkable water available inside unless you bought some. Ironically there were huge containers of water to wash your hands next to the toilets, but it was marked as non potable. Of course, now you have people drinking it anyway and taking their chances. That's probably the most disappointing thing on a festival that got so many things right. Come on, this is not Lumi, you are better than that Nature One...
no drinkwater it says, and since they didn't provide another source, people drunk that
They had a pretty useful app, but it was all in german. It's Germany, so it's not like I should complain, but mentioning that thankfully Google Pixel can translate graphical apps by scanning them and translating their output. That helped a lot.
Sadly one of the messages I translated was the one who said to go climb the hills to better see the fireworks, not saying that the fireworks would be half not viewable if you were on the left hills and not at the top of them. I guess I know for next time now, but it sucks to have mostly missed the fireworks after patiently waiting 40mn for them :(
but back to positives, the festival was super permissive on what they allowed. In the campsite you could bring anything you wanted, even fireworks in the campsite, hence the burning man feel I mentioned
festival entrance was also quick and painless, no huge lines and security was pragmatic and looking for real threats. Good for them.
it's obviously not a trance focussed festival, I guess Germany is mostly about techno nowadays, but if you knew where to look, there were other kinds of music, although that was a lot of walking to go find them, almost as much as EDC Vegas :)
More generally there were around 15 stages at the festival (even if 1/3rd of them were small in bunker holes), plus probably over 30 in the campsites, so even if a lot of is was techno, you cannot complain that you can't find music you like, although you have lots of places to check out :)
I said it before, but I'll say it again, cell phones worked remarkably well. That was impressive.
N1 forwent a fair amount of unnecessary stuff that Parookaville felt the need to do, liked forced personalization of tickets required for entry, while N1 was just happy to just scan your barcode and you were in. Nice, thank you.
While most things were in German, most relevant staff spoke English well enough to help. I was actually surprised to find out that many German speakers spoke fairly limited English. I didn't expect them to speak English like the Dutch do, but being French myself and the French are not known to be great English speakers, turns out the Germans aren't much better than us :)
The crowds were all super nice and happy to have extra lights and cheers brought to the event :) but it's true that only a small percentage wore cool outfits, although this is typical for European festivals. Still, I'd say people had more outfits than average for Europe, so that was nice.
Music was loud but not overly loud, which was nice
I mentioned it above, but I'll say it again, the venue itself was amazing and definitely unique. It has a cool and slightly eerie factor that I haven't experience anywhere else
I was worried about huge lines driving in and out (like parookaville saying it could be up to 6h wait getting in the campsite), but despite the lack of proper routing issues getting in, it took less than 1h to make it to camp, and about 45mn to drive out dealing with all the roads they had closed and the big detours to get back to Koblenz. Not bad, considering.
It is also fairly cheap. Honestly just raise the price a little, provide drinkable water and stop the fake money and profits from keeping the leftovers that people end up abandoning. The festival is really good and worth extra ticket money.
Definitely they are doing plenty of things right, because 30 years! The communities that have made Nature One their home, is an impressive sight.
And it's probably the only music festival I know of that you can go to, not even go to the festival, and have a great time at all the campsite clubs, multiple dozens of them.
Here, I need to make sure to express deep gratitude to United Nature One for the invitation to their great camp, it made the whole experience much more enjoyable and complete.
Well, that was a first for me, literally my first festival in France and even really my first music event in France, ever (and yes, I was born there and lived almost half my life there, but France has no idea what Trance means, and I 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
Rick Weekender and his crew is probably powered by triple expressos and buckets of red bull, because they're at it again. He has been putting quality mid sized events in the UK, featuring trance. Since I'm not local, I sure can't attend them all, but I already went to Anomaly Summer of Trance as well as Euphoria Festival Malta just 2 months prior and both of them were quality smaller scale events. Unsurprisingly this was another of similar quality.
It was of course different, which is both good but also requires more work since the entire setup is different. This time around it was by a farm, mostly in the woods, 30mn from Cambridge. Apparently the literally filled the perimeter with huge container-size hay that was stacked up around the perimeter. Just that was impressive. Inside, they planned for bad weather (and we had some, it is the UK afterall) and filled the entire area with wood chips to limit the amount of muddy mess, and it indeed helped. I'm just noting that it was non trivial amounts of work before any of the rest was installed: sound systems, lights, lasers, and everything was water proofed as nothing died in the rain. Well done!
seriously, how much work was this!
Most people camped, but with my gear to carry and recharge, it's not a reasonable proposition for me. Thankfully there were some hotels 10mn drive away and while I was worried about lack of ubers/bolt, this turned out not to be a problem. The most I had to wait was 15mn or so, and they were never unavailable.
So, let's start:
basic map, but to the point ;)
very nice for campers
food was sufficient but often only one option was open/available
Entrance to the woods:
The wellness tent was a nice addition, familiar to people who go to Insomniac festivals: a place to chill out, hide to regroup, and/or lay down and get help if having a bad trip or otherwise. Nice addition:
The usual troublemakers
Birthday Boy!
Mr Erection Supervisor, He's famous!
congrats on the many outfits and costumes
so much win in this shirt ;)
Our lovely DJs
Of course, the great things about these events is that you can mingle with the DJs:
Unkonscious team!
Lange!
Incedent Noise
Space brothers
my dearest Alessandra <3
Timescape Day 1, Friday
Friday started a bit later since many locals were travelling from all over the UK, and I'm sure some amount came straight after work. Thankfully the weather was good on the first day:
After a good day of fun, we retired to the silent disco tent
we were missing chocolate and marshmallows on a stick :)
Video Summary:
Timescape Day 2, Saturday
Saturday had rain, sometimes hard rain, for half a day. But the brits were prepared of course, it's not like it's the first time they see rain ;)
but it kind of rained seriously for a few hours, so I did hide there for quite a while
this is what happened when you didn't have rain protection :)
you could hide in this saloon :)
I did come back early to see my friend Lonskii of unkonscious fame
the chill out tent was also a good place to hide and very waterproof
more rain :)
rain finally stopped around when Rinaly started. Sweet!
the forest was dark enough to allow for lights and lasers way before sunset
it did get fully dark eventually
The festival was also an opportunity for me to test new hardware. I had just finished making new hats, but the cutest one with the smallest LEDs barely lasted the 3 days before the LEDs started breaking, oh well.. As for my LED panels, given how wet things were and my sweating on top of it, I found out that it caused water to condense directly on the panel electronics and mess up the display. The last 2 nights it started glitching as a result. Thankfully it was fine after it dried out and I figured out that I can just duck tape the back to protect it from moisture.
wee!
end of day2 around campfire
Video Summary:
Timescape Day 3, Sunday
Day 3 had more rain, and hard rain, until 15:00 or so, so I showed up a few hours after opening. Not trying to be a sugar cookie, but while people were hoking about me being electrocuted, which indeed wasn't going to happen, once my electronics get too wet, they will fail, and potentially get damanged, so given the cost in time and money to replace them, not worth it. Apologies to the DJs I missed earlier on those 2 days.
it got fairly muddy by day 3, though
Unfortunately, although it wasn't raining, by then there was thunder and lightening nearby, which caused the festival to be shutdown for 30-40mn. That was a bummer for Ferry Tayle, whose set I was very much looking forward to, but got cut by more than 2/3rd.
Eventually we got back in, and it was impressive that all the gear survived:
Rinaly came back as her evil sister who plays techno :)
By some miracle a kind soul invited me to the DJ booth meet Dave Pearce and get this great shot with Marcella Woods
kudos buddy with the POV flow toys
honestly impressive lighting and lasers for a little festival in the woods
And just like that, day 3 was over, so we spent a bit of time at the chill out tent to finish the night (with silent disco):
Video Summary:
Conclusion
Originally I was planning on going to Summer Sound Festival in Helsinki which was the same weekend, but given that they failed to post any real lineup or update their website until a few weeks before the date (too late for me), I got too pessimistic about it, and figured the 3 days of Timescape would be a better bet. I didn't get to visit Helskinki, and we did get wet, but Timescape was still loads of fun and so glad I went. Namely:
yeah, the rain and mud were not fun, but the event still had incredible vibes
after many of huge festivals that have lost the friends and family feel, it's really nice and refreshing to have nice smaller festivals where you get to experience that
which includes mingling with the DJs
it was a different location, but ultimately had a similar feel to ASOL and Euphoria Weekender, which is not surprising since all events were by Rick Weekender, who clearly has a track record of doing an excellent job
Is it worth travelling across the world for? Well, it depends how much vacation time you have, how far you live and how much money you have :) If you must pick, I would recommend Euphoria Malta first, but this honestly was a very good second if you happen not to live too far (in my case I do, but it was the first one of 3 festivals in a row :)
Just like Euphoria and ASOL, it featured some great Trance DJs that do not get to play bigger festivals as often. I see it as a great thing, but if you prefer the more popular "big name" artists, then go to those bigger more expensive festivals where everything is also more distant :)
Also, I hope the UK people realize how lucky they are to have these trance events, few countries have that many. And those who actually make them happen, and are the rockstars!
Huge thanks to all the DJs who came play for us and party with us, and of course Rick Weekender and all his team for all the work!
sizing up batteries, the P5 do indded use 2x as much power for 2x more pixels
Added some switches and potentiometers to reduce voltage and current to improve runtime
they don't look great when not lit up
better now :)
lot of crap inside ;)
end result
and I can stack them to transport them
will try to carry them that way so I don't smash them and damage the strips that don't love to bend
Demo time:
Or same on youtube:
Of course, as luck would have it, on my very first flight, TSA was "interested" with my hats on their first flight:
And here is the behind the scenes you don't usually get to see. I do not often point out how unreliable LED gear can be, and how easily it can break. Sure enough, the P5 LED strip failed in 3 different places after just 3 days of use. Super disappointing. Thankfully the P10 strip seems to be holding up so far:
Welcome to Euphoria, aaargh, the sun, it burns :) (thankfully it ran until 02:00 to 04:00 almost every night and actually the day weather was cool and plesant):
With less than a day to pack/unpack after EDC Vegas, and fix my new LED outfit which has plusses, but it's unfortunately more fragile and needs more maintenance, I barely made it to a plane to Frankfurt and then Malta to arrive half way through Day 0 of Euphoria Malta's 6 days of Trance! I can't say I was super awake, or that I stayed until the end that first night, but I was glad I at least made it this year :)
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 and become what is is now. While I don't have a time machine, and I did ask Craig Conelly :) to go back and experience these nice and small lumis, I don't need one anymore, because Euphoria is where it's at, except with much more lovely people running it.
Now, the DJs are DJs that don't play the big stages every day, they probably don't get paid loads, which in turn allows keeping the event affordable without big crowds, which honestly made for a great experience. I've even got to meet some I had listened to for years, but never seen in person, that was just plain awesome.
And because it was basically a big family party, there is no ridiculous bar fight bouncer security like the place you know, although if you wanted to get your genitals groped at the entrance, I'm so sorry, but Euphoria will not be the place for you :) All the clubs were super nice, and the security folks there to make sure everything went well, not to harass customers. Best case scenario.
So, like I mentioned last year after going to Rong and then Captured Malta, I took a chance a wrote a comparison of all 3 festivals, even if I hadn't been able to go to Euphoria. You can go here for that malta trance festival comparison and I am happy to see that my review of Euphoria was actually pretty on point before even having had the chance to go. You can go visit the page, but the relevant bit, I'll paste here:
"Euphoria Festival Malta is indeed the cheapest and most grass roots of the 3, if it weren't just a few days after EDC and I could have attended, I'm pretty sure it's similar to Anomaly Summer of Trance in feel, just without the 4 stages from ASOL: smaller festival feel, more chance to chat with and meet the DJs, and so forth. The DJs will be less mainstage big festival DJs, but that's also a good thing in many ways, and I really mean this: I've attended lots of big festivals with the big name DJs, I do absolutely enjoy them, but it's really a nice and a breath of fresh air to enjoy smaller festivals that simply have more of a family and friends feel and where you're going to get real trance (more techno and hardstyle in the bigger trance festivals this year). I hope I didn't screw this description since indeed I wanted to attend, but just couldn't"
The one thing I missed is how many hours of lovely trance Euphoria actually had. 68!!! That is a winner right then, and as I properly guessed, no techno or hardstyle being pushed everywhere, sooo nice.
Day #0 Preparty, Zion Bar
After landing and unpacking, took a bolt to the south side of the island, to Zion Bar
this is why we come :)
PLUR, the European way :)
Day #1, Beachaven
After much needed sleep, made it to Beachaven, day 1. Nice bar with view and indoor night club:
Day 1 Video Summary:
Eventually, sun came down and we partied outside a bit longer before having to go indoors:
Day #2, Beachaven
Back at Beachaven for day #2:
We got an absolutely lovely 5H thrillseeker set
we got to chat afterwards
Then more partying indoors:
Thillseekers (partial set):
Day 2 Video Summary:
Day #3, Gianpula Phoenix Club
Day 3 was at Gianpula in one of its numberous clubs
they were already getting ready for Captured in Sept (will be back for that)
surprise Lost Emotions b2b Xijaro and Pitch
and Marcella Woods was awesome, first time I got to see her
Day 3 Video Summary:
Marcella Woods (full set):
Day #4, Liquid Club Malta
The next day was in a night club all day and night, Liquid Club. and it allowed for 2 rooms
haha, I love this shirt :)
Day 4 Video Summary:
Day #5, Gianpula Rooftop
Monday, one last day, home stretch back at Gianpula rooftop with the swimming pool. Glad to be back :)
By the 6th day, just like Captured less September, my LED outfit fell apart, but this time the new design allowed for replacing a failing panel much more quickly and without a soldering iron, progress ;) screwdriver and duct tape were the essentials (but jokes aside, not super happy with how fragile the new panels are, will need to find something better and more durable):
Sunset was beautiful from up there:
And a bit after midnight was it for Day 5 (really day 6). That was a lot! I think I managed to do 60 hours of trance out of 68h available over 6 days. Wee! Anyone who has not done this probably cannot comprehend how many 6 days is and how exhausting it is (in a good way, haha). Definitely worth experiencing.
Day 5 Video Summary:
The People
Lots of familiar faces of course :) great to spend time with fellow trance lovers again:
[rigimg:1024:8127*|my friend Dmitriy won the "best troll shirt" award and those two crazy people also went direct from EDC to Euphoria. Respect!]
As I mentioned earlier, one great thing at Euphoria is that you can meet the DJs and chat with them every day:
Steve!
Andrea!
David Forbes was surprised to see me again after 5 days :)
First time meeting Ronski Speed!
Marcella Woods, so great to see her perform
Mark Sherry
Darren Tate
Should you go? Would I go Back?
If you read the intro, it should already answer this. At the same time, I do not think Euphoria should grow too much in size, or it will lose the wonderful family and "we are all one" feel, so I'm wondering how much I should recommend it :) So, if you're looking for a big party, big name DJs, Euphoria is not where you want to go. Consider Rong in May (the bigger of the 3 with lasers and confetti and smoke and fireworks :)) ) or Captured in Sept as an in between answer (not too big, but some bigger name DJs).
Other things I didn't note earlier: the organizers did a great job sending beforehand info on each venue, opening times, when food would be available, etc.... In and outs were also allowed without issues. Last but not least, unlike let's say rong, there was no nonesense of requiring attendees to use some fake wristband money, which is always a huge plus, for me :)
And lumi, well, if you've read past reports, you already know how I unfortunately have to feel about it (if not, you can find that in the previous posts). While I'm glad I got there in 2019, even though by then it was already feeling a bit too big, I feel like it lost its family feel quite a while ago given its current size, and honestly I don't need festivals to play 4 or more trance DJs at the same time (and that comment is also true for dreamstate socal), so it was really nice to only have 1 or 2 stages at most at Euphoria and not have to stage hop or agonize that much.
Since I'll always regret never having been to Lumi 10 years ago when it was nice and small, it was actually fantastic to be able to experience this with Euphoria, and really I have to repeat how nice it was to have a festival where we were all one, no VIP, no backstage passes, and DJs coming to party with us and chat and have fun!
Also, while I enjoyed Captured festival last sept, the weather was pretty brutal (Thailand like hot and humid). Euphoria was nice and cool in May, even during the day, that was a true pleasure.
Now, if you're in Asia and february is not the month you're gone snowboarding, Unkonscious is still a very clear choice and another great way to spend 6 days with trance. If you're in Europe or Europe is closer, then Euphoria is clearly a great choice. And if you're just that dedicated, you can go to both of course :)
Now, the hard question is should Euphoria grow to allow more trance lovers to experience it without losing what makes it special? This is a tough question, and I'm not sure I have the magic answer to it. But the fact the organizers are so nice and dedicated to the event, I'm confident whatever they decide, Euphoria will remain a great place to go.
Euphoria was absolutely a unique event (and I mean that in a very good way :) ), and I'm so happy I managed to drag my butt there, this year.
If you want to relieve the best bits of all 6 days, you can see all the instagram stories all in one video:
As for the "will I go back?". Honestly I really want to. I'm not going to lie that going 24H after EDC Vegas was brutal, EDC really wipes you and it's another multi flight 16H trip which I can't do in coach and survive, so it was expensive. I'm super happy I did it though, and hope I can do it again. Also, I have to admit I also had a great time at Rong Malta which is 2 weeks prior, even though it's a bigger more mainstream festival, but also with lots of trance, and it's not reasonable to go to both plus EDC in the middle, so I'll have to pick 2 out of 3 no matter what. Decision, decisions :)
But for people with fewer life problems than me, haha, absolutely, please go and be part the family!
Huge thanks to Rich and Steve and all the DJs who played for us:
it's not enough to run the event, he also DJed multiple sets!
So, I probably should start with the price, to put things in context. It was $516 for 2, which, well, is not exactly cheap. The menu looked good on paper, and to be fair, they technically delivered, but I had imagined a bit more for that price, although it's also fair that delivering a multi course dinner in the middle of EDC is going to cost more, and they could not keep us that long since they had more servings coming after ours. I think they were actually pretty late given that it was the first day, so it took us a while to get in, which for the first serving that was supposed to be at 18:00, was a bit more complex since they had to bus us in directly inside EDC before it was officially opened. That part took a while, but we eventually got here with a skydeck bus (although 30mn late or so).
Getting to the welcome point was a bit tricky since it was a fair distance from the rideshare dropoff and the normal EDC shuttles would not get you there in time, but we made it and were eventually welcomed:
made it! (18:25 to be precise)
Given the pricetag, I should give the menu. They did absolutely deliver on what was promised, but indeed I was hoping for a bit more food given the price :)
first serving
second serving
One thing that was above expectation were the performers who entertained us. There were plenty and they did a great job:
The price did include all you can drink, alcohol :)
While enjoying desert on the 2nd floor, the next people were in line, and that was also our exit towards wasteland:
So there you go, hope it helps you decide, I'd say it was a good experience overall, but somewhat pricey.
