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Psychedelic Trance Festival - Easter Vortex '07 (South Africa)
This is probably the last big festival of our outdoor season. Vortex is an institution over here and they always produce an epic event.
The flyer was pretty spectacular - always a good sign.
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The lineup looked pretty promising too.
- Panic (Neurobiotic Records)
- Eduardo (Neurobiotic Records)
- Dj Bim (Midijum Records)
- Kai Mathesdorf (Midijum Records / Mushroom Magazine)
- Annarchy (Domo Records / Ear Peaks Music)
- O.O.O.D. (Organic Records)
- Droidlock (Elefantronika Tour / Wirakuta)
- Protoculture (Nano Records)
- Indiginus
- Gandalf (Alchemy Records)
- Sonic (AfroGalactic)
- Wobblz (Alien Safari)
- Artifakt (Timecode)
- Spies (Sub Track / Mnemosyne)
- Tune Raider (South Africa)
- Psyfly (Mushroom Magazine)
- Dave Mac (BPM Magazine )
- Cooks (Nano)
Most of the above are local DJs known well to the scene here, but there were some big names here too!
The actual event is housed on an apple farm that borders a large lake for Theewaterskloof Dam. The farm has a river that runs through it and camping is either side of this feature. It was good thing as during the day it peaked at over 30'C (what's that in 'F).
A 5 min walk from the camping area (which housed about 4000 revelers) was the main dance area.
The rig was insane. Huge towering speaker stacks and a DJ pulpit that was covered with artwork, as well as around the edges of the dance area. The theme was dragons.
Behind the dance area was a miniature village of stalls selling all things trance/hippie/alternative and stacks of food places too.
The night time was something else. The artwork had UV paint on them that came alive under the massive arrays of black-lights.
Saturday night started off with some good sets - particularly the early evening where the DJ mixed live didgery-do playing with a tribal/trance theme. Was awesome! Later on though the rest of the music on Saturday night wasn't that good in my opinon, or at lest not to my tastes then - it went dark-psy really quickly - although alternative entertainment was to be had elsewhere.
Sunday am (early am!) was good - with the likes of Psyfly and OOOD(Colin) playing some awesome tracks as well as Panic.
Sunday evening though was just spectacular. First Cooks, a female SA DJ, then Gandalf and then another SA female DJ called Tuneraider had the floor absolutely rocking with some good fullon and dancey psytrance. Absolutely kicking.
The vibe on the floor was awesome - dark, dragons everywhere and lots of happy shiny people dancing the night away. Hooked up with some really nice dancing neighbours! Danced from around 8pm till 1am when the dark-psy returned, hung about for a bit then headed back to base camp because the guy I really wanted to see was starting at 5.30am - Protoculture.
Awoke quickly and threw the dancing togs back on and headed back to the floor for Protoculture - who was without a doubt absolutely amazing - thumping dancable psy that was just awesome as dawn broke - danced again till 8am. Every mix was a gem and a journey. After that was a DJ called Eduado - quite good although my legs were feeling it a bit after the evening and morning revelry so had to chill for a while - in the river!
A very long weekend of hedonism - it's good to be tribal!
___________________
When fighting monsters, one must see to it that he does not become a monster himself, for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you...
...omnium finis imminet
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