Psychedelic Experience – The Festival of smiles kicks off the European festival season

It started as a small party and has turned into an international event: The Psychedelic Experience Festival unites people to celebrate the start of the summer with sound, vision and magic. The organizer Rene Lauckner (Laugi) reveals the whole story.

It started 14 years ago with 300 freaks dancing in the rain. Today, the Psychedelic Experience Festival has turned into one of the most popular psytrance festivals in Northern Germany attracting around 6000 visitors from about 50 countries. As the kick-off of the European festival season, the event wants to invite all psychedelic travellers from the 30th of May till the 2nd of June 2019 to a common journey.

For sure, things didn’t always run just smoothly for the Psychedelic Experience crew. Laugi remembers the beginnings of the festival in 2004. He was 20 years old, when he brought the first Psychedelic Experience into life: “It wasn’t as easy as today, where DJs just hop on the stage with their laptops. Instead, keyboards and big monitors had to be carried. Moreover, it was not uncommon, that a live act had to finish a gig early because of technical problems.“ Back then, the Psychedelic Experience Open Air wasn’t more than a single party night. Neelix, whose first album had just been released, was DJing there in between self-made decoration.

“The family vibe is important for the festival”

Laugi says about the development of the Psychedelic Experience Festival: “I was still wet behind my ears, when I started.“ Once, all drinks out of one of his beverage carts got robbed. Also, his juvenility and own stupidity caused problems as he says. “Wisdom came with age“, he knows today. “And it took some years to build a team, that I can completely rely on. This family vibe is extremely important for the festival.”

The organizer refers to the year 2013 as the most emotional moment in the history of the Psychedelic Experience Festival: “We drowned in the rain. Tractors had to pull deadlocked cars from the festival grounds already during the preparations of the event. We all had to carry straw bales. But the guests didn’t let the continuous rain keep them off from partying. In terms of emotions, it was unforgettable. For us as a team, it was the ultimate experience.“

2019 on the line up:
Astrix, Vini Vici and Captain Hook

For many years, Laugi and the Psychedelic Experience Festival have now been deeply rooted in the psytrance scene. Moreover, the 35-year-old organizer is Label Manager at Solartech Records. Solartech Events also regularly organizes the well-known indoor events “Intact Expanda“ and “Midnight Sun“ in Hamburg.Continuously, the Psychedelic Experience Crew wants to create new festival highlights for their guests. “Every year, we want to go the extra mile in terms of decoration, light, sound and line up“, says Laugi. So, in 2019, you can read names on the line up like for example Atmos, Sonic Species, Mandragora, Outsiders, Ritmo, Perfectone, Liquid Soul, Rinkadink and many more. With a new concept of decoration, visual limits are supposed to get expanded. The international shop streets will offer surprises.

Laugi, also known as DJ Natron, has been part of the psytrance scene since his teenage years. “Psytrance culture is part of my life. What I like about it: Background, profession, age, religion don’t matter. Psytrance unites all people. That is also an important part of my festival politics. As long as everything runs peacefully and everyone smiles, I am happy. Our scene is characterized by tolerance. The spirit originates in awareness and a feeling of being together.“ Moreover, regional projects for kids receive regular donations from the festival.

Any wishes for the future? One sure thing for Laugi is to continue uniting international freaks on one big dancefloor. It’s possible to extend the festival grounds for up to 10.000 guests partying in a happy summer vibe full of sound, vision and magic.