Marc's Blog: festivals - Euphoria Malta, 6 days and 68H of Trance Heaven

Welcome to Euphoria, aaargh, the sun, it burns :) (thankfully it ran until 02:00 to 04:00 almost every night):

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: