Enjoy The Summer In GERMANY

The complete story about Trance in the Germany!

Author: Claus Baldauf
Date: Jul 13, 2005
Views: 4136

Enjoy The Summer In GERMANY

Being infected with psychedelic trance for about 15 years now, Germany’s scene offers it all – from cosy little parties to overwhelming huge international gatherings, from dark guitar-driven full on nights to fluffy prog-housy floors, from very young to old dancers, artists, activists. From love and spirit to selfish businessman styles. Let me try to guide you a bit ...

            As there’s still snow outside while I’m writing this, we’d better start indoors. Berlin scene is very happy as they now have two steady psy clubs to dance in, Ministerium für Entspannung (Department of Relaxation) and Pi Club. Like in other parts of the country that are as heavily tranced, there’s also a number of venues used by promoter crews regularly, but not every week. Like in Hamburg where Traxx club is one possible choice every weekend, while you might find from none to three other psy events and several suitable afterhours.

            Even Natraj Temple in Munich is not at all the only venue to watch out for when in the South, though in that part of our country the scene is smaller due to a more conservative social climate and stricter authorities.

            Right in the middle of beautiful nowhere among hills and trees near Osnabrück there is another club, while not exactly opened every week, called Waldfrieden (Forest’s peace) - famous by the way for their annual festival Waldfrieden Wonderland with some of the nicest vibes we have in Germany.

            There are also lots of indoor parties in the western part, in Münster, Wuppertal, Essen, or Köln (Cologne) – and in lots of places all over the country, such as the big psy venue in the region of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Fabrik club. As I can’t give you all details here: goabase.de or mushroom-online.com will guide you through winter (and summer;’) to all the big and small names you could be hoping for.

            The most spectacular time of this year for trance travellers might be the second half of July, when Fullmoon Festival and VooV Experience take place with one night to sleep in between within a distance of 25 kilometres in the middle of Hamburg and Berlin. From July 15 to 21 you will get the full on treatment Chriss’ and Schippe’s party became famous for within just a few years. One act per day will play progressive, the rest of the time is dedicated to twisting and twirling madness.

            It’s the second time that VooV Experience (July 22 to 24) will even have their own train station on the site. At Germany’s hugest and oldest psy festival, in their 13th year, expect a massive international crowd, lots of thousands of freaks graced by a line up eager to show the latest developments in psy, progressive, and chill. Last year it was simply perfect , including the weather. It is outstanding how Amrisha, Antaro, and Scotty, manage to combine spirit and professional work with their team. This includes a very good relationship with the people of Putlitz, the place near the location. Instead of being annoyed by music and traffic they feel honoured by an event so famous held near their home, they come and dance and chit-chat with the freaks, enjoying the spectacular laser show. There’s no place in Germany where our scene can feel as welcome.

            It’s the first time since 1996 that Antaris Project, the third huge famous German festival, will move to a new location. Still somewhere between Hamburg and Berlin, still with fantastic state of the art blacklight visuals, and for sure with a thrilling line up.

            Shiva Moon and Waldheim Pooja Open Air are two more events by people from the first generation, and there are as established ones organized by a younger generation like ov-silence Open Air, named after its Hamburg based promoter team and label, or Liquid Time, first huge open air party of the year in May. DJ’s Syncron and Montagu, who run the Fabrik club, organize festivals such as Psychedelic Circus, Tshitraka, or Indian Spirit, which in September always is the last bigger open air - really beautiful last year with about 8000 people dancing good bye to the summer.

In the West you find good open airs, too, such as Evolution, Naked or Lost in Music, all near Köln. If you are looking for a beach experience watch out for parties at Rügen at the Baltic Sea, if you’re up for a subcultural melting pot you shouldn’t miss Fusion Festival in the East or check Soma in the West (Köln).

            No summer weekend without parties. Mostly you will get three floors, chill out included, except at smaller and/or free parties. You will meet up to several thousand nice and colourful people – and when the sun comes out even those re-appear that don’t go out so much anymore.

            Winter’s crowd is a lot younger and lately shows more and more signs of escapism and consumism. While still in a very wealthy state, people especially in the underground don’t have so much money to spend – but for sure do save it for the summer. As this is the psy time of the year, and everyone on the scene is looking forward to their beloved festivals, to experiencing trance culture at its finest again.

            The impact the economic situation has on labels is not really good, of course. But some great labels keep up their work such as DJ Bim’s Midijum and the very successful Y.S.E./Millennium which is London-based, with their A&R Alex Ligowski choosing the artists living Dortmund. While Antaro’s Spirit Zone moved to Ibiza, Hamburg is home to smaller labels such as Plusquam, Jum Jam, or ov-silence. You find small labels all across the country. Some of the trance family are more into prog house and techtrance nowadays, in Munich there’s Yaniv’s Hadshot, and in Köln DJ’s D-Nox and Tobias Bayer do a terrific job on both, Plastic Park and Sprout Music. This reflects that there is increasing interest in fluffy tunes and connecting to other electronic scenes while another part of the scene goes like: »Stop this fusion, just give me the real psychedelic stuff«.

            Of course there’s still a lot of great trance music being produced, famous acts such as X-Dream, Haldolium, or Planet B.E.N (no on his own, selftitled  label) came with new albums, all doing great in very different directions. We have Sebastian Krüger and his Avalanche Records, Electric Universe, S.U.N. Project, Star Sounds Orchestra and lots of new and not-so-new-anymore artists. Come and check it ...

            Last not least we should be aware that the police show an increasing interest in picking on the scene. Last year in a few cases they put up huge control points to go through before reaching the party, in autumn small promoter crews in eastern and northern places had to face troubles, and from reading some police essay on the net we all know that the authorities think of psy parties as gatherings of potential drug addicted criminals. Local police for example announced they will send undercover agents to events like Fullmoon and VooV Experience.

            This is the time to show these people what psychedelic culture really is about – laughter, dancing, sharing good thoughts and music, living creativity and respect, taking care. This summer would be just the perfect time to do so.

 

Facts

  • Population: 82.5 million people
  • Economical globalisation is forcing changes upon the country. Far more than five million people are out of work, high social standards are being questioned, and after 9/11 the government like many other feels the urge to control people a lot more.
  • While cannabis use is very common it is attacked a lot by and in the media these days. Magic mushrooms are
  • forbidden now. Still there are no heavy fines for owning small amounts of illicit substances when caught the first time and not driving a car ...

 

Links

www.antaris-project.de
www.chaishop.com
www.esbikei.com
www.evolution-festival.de
www.fabrik-theclub.com
www.fusion-festival.de
www.fullmoon-festival.de
www.goabase.de
www.indianspirit.de
www.interzone-pa.com
www.jumjam.de
www.kischkusch.com
www.midijum.de
www.millenniumrecords.de
www.mushroom-online.com
www.ov-silence.de
www.picircus.de
www.planet-ben.net
www.psychedelic-circus.de
www.soma-festival.de
www.sproutmusic.de
www.shivamoon.de
www.tshitraka.com
www.tribaltools.de
www.voov-experience.de
www.wald-frieden.de

 

Contacts

claus@mushroom-media.com
liese@mushroom-media.com
matthias@mushroom-media.com
sam@chaishop.com

 

Text

Claus Baldauf

acidpopper@hotmail.de

Head of editorial team at mushroom magazine, DJ, freelancing journalist

 

Date: Jul 13, 2005
Text: Claus Baldauf
Photos: Voov Experience, Kai Mathesdorf, Frederik Flanger, Tabua
Taken from: The Trancers Guide to the Galaxy 2005

   

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