Psychedelic Trance scene in Greece. Live your Myth in Greece!

Greece has always been one of the top destinations for the Summer, but let’s see what’s happening with the Trance scene, after a great history with Samothraki & major parties entering the greek field since the last 2 decades..

After the Economical Crisis hit the country, a lot of changes have been made in taxes, insurance, laws and more, really pushing hard Greeks but at the same time, the will & need for expression and partying was getting reinforced, with numerous quality parties going on every week, with lower costs & top international & national acts.

Since the last 3 years, the scene was raised even more, while most of the top players / artists of each genre & style can be seen & heard in indoor parties from 300 till 600-700ppl and festivals & gatherings for even more than 1k ppl.

Artist:

Main Artist:

Krama

More artists:

Aquafeel, Atom Device, D-Twin, Fasma, Entropia, Inner State, Ridden,
Conwerter, Drip Drop, Eunoia, Kulu, Paul Karma, Archaic, Kyma, Waveform, Stranger,
Mind Oscillation, Orestis, Zik, Kaos, Audioform, Wizzy Fusion, Confo, Balliou, Sun
and many more talented producers from prog to psy & dark forest, as well as importnat DJs
such as Chris Pilee, Soner, Sofia X, Teo, Absolut Zero, Doc, Iraklis Mindphaser
ect.

Label:

The most important Psytrance related label:

Movement Dark Roasted
movement-recordings.net

More labels

There are very few trance/psy labels based in Greece, such as Harmonia Records providing some top notch psy tunes since years now,
Sonic Loom including some darker forest sounds of quality producers, Phoenix Groove Records & Movement Dark Roasted providing some
cutting edge quality psy progressive sounds!

PARTY AND FESTIVALS:

The most important Party/Festival:

Seli Mountain Gathering

More parties:

Greece has a great variety of prog, psy, forest, even hi tech parties .. Some of the most important and active promoters of the country are: Amorphia, Artificial Melodies, Blast Your Mind, Cyberians, Dream Land, Exposure, FSI, Movement Dark Roasted, Natural High, Plasmatica, Twilight Zone.. Promoters in the central/south part of the country oftenly promote more than 1-2 events on the same dates, which makes the scene a bit hectic and the crowd a bit tired, but each year promoters try to improve the scene with great actions, such as the north part of the country where the promoters are getting united to provide to the crowd the finest quality of events and vibes in the party scene!During the summer the Greeks and visitors from abroad have the chance to have 2 great options regarding the Festival season, with Free Earth Festival happening in a great seaside in South Greece, and at the end of Summer, Seli Mountain Gathering is being held with the most friendly pricing in a festival ever in Greece, more than 100 International Live Acts & DJs and a massive bunch of extra-positive vibes in 1500m height of Seli mount, in Imathia only 99km from Thessaloniki !

Deco artist:

Name the most creative deco artist:

Botn Deco & VJ Team
Botn Deco & VJ Team on facebook

More deco artists:

Not really a powerful part of the scene, having just Botn & PsyUnity as the most pro deco crews, with BOTN travelling all over Europe to set up deco, vj/mapping & installations for big events & festivals such as Burning Mountain, Tribes Gathering, Noise Poison, Seli Mountain Gathering & more..

The preferred music style in your country:

Progressive Psytrance

Party times:

The parties in Greece are more ‘after-hour’ friendly, having events opening doors at midnight and finishing at around 8-9am!

Afterparty culture.

The After-party is not that popular as Greeks are taught in after-hour partying, so the After-party turns mostly to Chill-out sessions!

Prices:

A small party entrance/ticket may vary from 5 to 10 eur am while mid and bigger size parties can be around 15-20 eur max,
trying to keep the lowest possible prices in beers, energy drinks & coktails varying from 3 to 6 eur, water is sold for 0,5 eur

Drug screening:

The traffic controls after parties or alcohol / drug tests are not really seen and observed lately.. Maybe alcohol check can be happening in big fairs, festivals and not that much on indoor parties, but the behaviour of police is helpful and not annoying any longer, the way foreign party-goers were aware in the past.

Points of interest:

Amorphia Shop, tobacco shop & event presales, Athens
Anapoda, greek pub & fingerfood, Thessaloniki
Battery, venue, Athens
Delos Tattoo, tattoo studio, Thessaloniki
Dream Land, clothes, Thessaloniki
Dsound, audio/gear, Katerini
LFS Studio, sound engineering, Thessaloniki
Love To The Bone, clothes, Thessaloniki
Neraida, venue, Thessaloniki
Principal Club Theater, venue, Thessaloniki
Thermaikos, cafe-bar, Thessaloniki

Best places for activities:

ravellers in the North of Greece shouldnt miss a visit in Thessaloniki’s seaside, a beautiful city with great vibes and cool people, drowned in several Art Forms being very inspiring for Greek Artists of any kind or topic. Near Thessaloniki, there’s Chalkidiki, the finest place for your summer go-outs and holidays, where Dance Xperience festival happened in 2013, and there are several amazing beaches and places for private / underground parties, or beach bars/clubs dropping serious beats!
On the other hand, besides great seasides in the North, Greece includes a massive variety of great mountains and uncompressed nature, where some private and organized Gatherings & Events have been going on since more than 2 decades! The capital of Greece remains also a nice destination, with people in Athens being able to enjoy every week with more than 1-2 party options per date, and a great variety of international and national artists being featured in line ups!

How to travel your country?

Greece is very easy for domestic travelling, with good train connections (from North till Central Greece) and also nice bus network, as well as super-cheap offers nowadays on domestic flights from budget airlines and not only that give extra options.. The National Car road is also in good – not best quality but practical, and the fees on cabs are also eco-friendly for short distance routes, in stead of other eu countries.

Best places to stay:

It’s not that popular to stay in hostels or couch surfing in Greece. The crisis though made all costs and expenses in everything and especially accommodation drop down having great options in super-friendly prices even for higher luxury levels of accommo!

Best places to eat:

Even the so called ‘junk-food’ in Greece has definitely some tasty to give to each and every hungry tourist, new tax laws dropping tax on food had as a result super-low prices in catering, restaurants & grill stores with all kinds of food from vego to meat & the freshest fishes!

Websites:

Psychedelic Mag.
psychedelicmagazine.com
Psychedelic Magazine on facebook
Independent E-Magazine about the Psy scene in Greece

About the Author:

Name:

Tash (aka H2AT)

City:

Thessaloniki

About You:

Tassos Papagiannoulis aka TASH was born & raised in Veria GR in 1984. Since his early childhood he’s been surrounded by art-forms with Music and Design to play afterwards a big role into his way of living, being involved into organizing music events & art festivals since his 13 (!) back in his hometown, and having his first experience on turntables / decks in the last ‘90s !

The new millennium finds him attracted by the progressive genres of Electronic Dance Music industry, and Tash starts to spin House, Progressive, Tech House and Trance vinyls getting his first residency in Mojo (Veria) where his EDM journey started in ’00, and started building a great rep regarding his special mixing skills & unique style.. A couple of years after, he meets dutch dj Stage Van H and they join forces for gigs & events in Greece, forming the DJM Productions (DJ Movement) based in Thessaloniki in ’05.. Since then, the DJM duo has been responsible for successful events in Greece presenting artists like Gabriel & Dresden, Andy Moor, Kasey Taylor, Parham & Dominic Plaza, Harry Lemon, Leama, Eelke Kleijn, Cjay, Gpal, Nikola Gala, ao..

Since then, Tassos has performed in major events & top clubs in countries like: United Kingdom (Ministry Of Sound / Gallery, London), Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, and Kosovo, to huge dance music festivals such as Fusion Festival 2012 (DE), Amsterdam Dance Event (NL), SeeMe (BG), Aurora Festival (GR), Butterfly Dance Festival (GR), Baracuda Openair (KS), and most recent 41N Festival (GR) organized by Movement & Fmedia, ao.. All this time he has shared the decks with top artists like: DJ Tiesto, Nick Warren, Jody Wisternoff, Quivver / John Graham, Spektre, Minilogue / Son Kite, D-Nox, Antix/Fiord, Guy J, Guy Mantzur, Sahar Z, Dousk, Cid Inc, Luis Junior, James Monro, Neelix, Vibrasphere, Atmos and Ticon, to name a few…!

As a Producer, he’s been experiencing in his home-studio since the mid ‘00s, presenting his debut release on Greed’s swiss legendary SOG Records, with important releases to follow on labels like the infamous Baroque Records (Uk), Kasey Taylor’s Vapour Recordings (Au), Andy Moor’s AVA Recordings (UK), Presslab (It), Pure Substance (Ms), System (Us), Spherax (Sl), AlterImage (Us), Echoes (Il), Lowbit (Uk), Iboga Records (Dk), and Tribal Vision Records (Cz) – to name just a few – being a part of the TVR artist-roster alongside artists like Perfect Stranger, Brisker & Magitman, Vibrasphere, Tegma, Jaia, ao.. His first album came In late 2008, entitled ‘Movement’ alongside Stage Van H launching at the same time their own label imprint, Movement Recordings based in Thessaloniki.. The album climbed on #6 of Psyshop’s Top-Selling Charts, following the 1st label CD Compilation compiled by Tash, himself entitled ‘Technical Progress’, another release reaching the Top10 @ Psyshop Charts..!

His productions have been receiving the support of main ‘players’ of the industry incl. Hernan Cattaneo, Sander Kleinenberg, Armin Van Buuren, Markus Schulz, Dave Seaman, Above & Beyond, Nick Warren, Jody Wisternof, and many more..! Nowadays, Tash is getting busy with label duties on Movement Recordings, alongside touring the world for gigs as also Label Nights in Greece & Movement Tours all around while he collects inspiration to sit down and work on his first solo Album CD to come up in 2014 ! So stay tuned for his forthcoming studio projects, shows & updates!

LINK:

tash on beatport

Your favorite Psytrance music ?

Balkanian Psy Progressive Trance

Your Role

Active DJ of Prog House/Techno since 2000, Producer since 2005 & Label Manager of Movement Recordings (Techno/Prog House) & Movement Dark Roasted (Psy/Prog Trance), responsible as well for major events, festivals & artist bookings.