Changing times in the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic has all it needs to become an ideal destination for Trance freaks. A convenient, central European position, cheap prices and liberal laws make it an attractive place for partying, yet it still remains hidden from the eyes of many international Psy fans.

The beginnings of the Czech Trance scene can to be traced back to the late 90´s, however it had to wait until the year 2000 for its introduction to the wider community. A group called Hedonix organised a series of parties that managed to attract a large crowd and present this new phenomenon to electronic music fans from across the different styles. Soon we had a chance to hear some of the big international DJs and live acts and the core of the Czech Psy community was formed.

Nowadays the local Trance scene suffers from stagnation. The promoters have a hard time attracting new party people and the number and size of the pure Psytrance events is decreasing. Most of the parties during the winter season are organised either by a couple of Prague based Psy teams like Zero Point, Mystical Waves and Trancedelic Family, or the crews from the city of Ostrava in the East.

On the other hand, we have seen big progress in the artist area. Legendary Psytrance live act Mutant Star has finally released its debut album and Roman Rai is enjoying great international success with his smooth, progressive tunes and is preparing material for his debut CD. Other local acts performing regularly are Fractal, Gondar and Hypnotekk to name a just few.

The Czech Republic has also two professional music labels – Tribal Vision Records (

Progressive) and Oxygen Records (Morning Full-on). Also worth mentioning are VJ & design group, Mimo TV and some of the finest deco teams around (Fluorobotanics, Cybofunk, Elemental, VKC...).

Unlike in Western countries, the Progressive branch is pretty much separate and largely considered to be a part of the club scene. What we might refer to as the Full-on/ Dark Psy scene isn’t really expanding at the moment and seems to be waiting for some new inspiration. This could happen next summer when the open-air events, which with their underground and family-like atmosphere have always been a local speciality, attract visitors and new ideas to the country – czech them out!

Facts

make sure to visit the capital Prague, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe
pretty cheap country, especially alcohol prices are incredibly low compared to Western countries
the currency is Czech Koruna (no euros yet!)
although soft drugs are illegal, smoking weed is more or less tolerated and you should not have any problems with joint in clubs.