Psytrance scene in Brazil

Brazil is a country of continental dimensions where you can expect to find many kinds of psychedelic parties. It offers many possibilities for the party organisers to properly host their events: beaches, waterfalls, lakes and forests. Mother nature is everywhere here. It started in the sands of Trancoso in the mid nineties. Old Goa freaks arrived and starting doing underground parties at the coast of Bahia.

The first Brazilians to get in touch with it were the Daime Tribe crew & Celso (R.I.P.). They brought the party model to their hometowns (Sao Paulo & Belo Horizonte) where the first Psytrance seeds started to grow. Simultaneously, Swarup and Ekanta, arrived from the Netherlands as Goa djs and started it in Brasilia (Brazil’s capital).

Throughout almost 20 years, the Brazilian “scene” went through many different sizes and shapes. From small “pure Goa” parties at its beginning, through giant events in the mid 2000’s where 30.000 people would come for a one day “strictly Psytrance line up” party (XXXperience from DJs Rica Amaral and Feio), until today’s medium sized cosy parties. These cosy Goa Parties can be found from South to North, and still you can find big events (5000+) with Psytrance music, but mixed with other genres in the line up. Some organisations involved in proper Goa events: Soononmoon (Bahia), NuAct (Ceara) and Respect (Sao Paulo).

Festival-wise, it went different. There was and still is a constant growth in the number of people and in the quality of our most beautiful one, Universo Paralello, which happens every 2 years (2013 is time!), New Year‘s Eve, in Pratigi, Bahia. Brazil’s climate is, from a European perspective, an endless summer. So festivals will happen the whole year, mainly during national holidays. Carnival (around February) is time for Soul Vision in Sao Paulo and Zuvuya in Goias. September 7th, every year, Samsara, one of our oldest festivals, will happen in Uberlandia. In mid July, in the legendary lands of Alto Paraiso, Goias (very mystical), you can find the FAK – Festival do Kranti, very underground.
Musically, you will find a Psytrance nest. From the deepest Progressive beats, through the Psychedelic groove, to the “no limit bpm” Dark music, there are a lot of talented hands working on it. Of course, the well known The 1st Stone, Burn in Noise, Wrecked Machines should be already in your memory. But artists like Logica, Altruism, Patchbay, Shekinah, Xpiral, Waio, Space Vision, Labirinto, 8th Sin and Analog Drink also broke all frontiers in the last years.

Many international labels release Brazilian Psytrance music, but two national labels also release homegrown stuff:
Vagalume Records and Mosaico Records. Both crews are Brazilian and are constantly bringing new psychedelic music to your ears.
Try Catuaba, a wine made of an Amazonian fruit, purportedly aphrodisiac. Drink it with a lot of ice. Police controls, mainly for drunk drivers, have been really intense in the last years, and, expect overall prices to be high.

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Waio
If you are in Brazil, you should definitely visit Fernando de Noronha. It’s an archipelago of 21 islands and islets in the Atlantic Ocean, one of the most beautiful places I have seen with a rich fauna and flora and loads of marine life for those who love scuba diving. That’s exactly where all brazilians would love to live!
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