Psytrance scene in Greece

Amorphia Vortexdeco © by Labis La

Since 1991–92, Psytrance has always been around. The golden years were those of the Samothraki Dance Festival, from 2001–2003, when over 30.000 people, from 80+ nationalities gathered on Samothraki island and left a mark in the global psychedelic community. After that only few festivals managed to get international recognition. Surely Butterfly Festival (2005–2007) and Aurora Festival (2008–2012) were two of them.

Since 2010 Greece has entered a new era of Trance. In Athens & Thessaloniki parties are getting bigger, better organised despite the crisis, with festivals also going much better. Third generation promoters are active in an urban club environment. Of course, Harmonia Records and Natural High continue throwing parties in Athens, on a monthly or bi-monthly basis with great success and international guests.

Amorphia came back in 2010, 10 years after their last party. Organising some of the biggest events at the moment, they present classic & headlining artists but also many new talents and upcoming djs, while also going for massive decoration, inviting Flowers of Life, Vortex, BOTN and others!

Poseidon Temple © by Akida Promo

IT Record shop in Athens, publisher of Freeze Magazine, the only electronic music magazine of Greece since 2000, regularly organises dedicated ambient experimental and Chillout music parties. They present artists as Gaudi, Solar Fields, Aes Dana.

In 2010 the first Psytrance oriented, international promotion and booking agency, Akida Promo, was formed by organisers of Samothraki Dance Festival. They offer services with regard to production, promotion, sales. A new and very important label is Sonic Loom Records, a collective network of artists created in 2011 with artists as Orestis, Zik, Kulu, Dark Elf, Ordo Ab Chao.
The newest and most promising festival is Free Earth Festival, running for the first time this June. It is a joint venture of Amorphia & Vortex Trance Adventures who have done parties in Cape Town/South Africa for the last 20 years.

Usually parties start before midnight and end early between 08.00-09.00, with morning trancers always being disappointed. Police is much more relaxed these days. Greek authorities have realised that enforcing wrong policies won’t take them anywhere, but kicks tourism out of their country. There are no police checks or traffic controls after festivals or parties, also no drug screening.

The sounds played nowadays is mostly Fullon & Forest, at Thessaloniki it is Progressive.
Some of the most important artists and djs are (in random order): Doc, Orestis, Archaic, Rideen, Conwerter Zik, Kulu, Dr Sammy, Ordo Ab Chao, Dark elf, Full Face, Hi Profile, Krama, Mindphaser, Teo, and Spiros Wom. The best deco teams of Greece are BOTN based in Thessaloniki and Nikoxil based in Athens.
The trancer from Greece generally knows everything about Trance and is someone you cannot debate with, so be careful! That’s a problem we have, we know everything and we can’t work with each other, I guess that is because of our history!