Psytrance Festival Special Summer 2010

Thanks a lot to all those who followed our call and took part in our summer survey to tell us their preferences and expectations for this year’s open air season! For sure there are as many views and opinions as there are Trance lovers in this world. Unfortunately, we can draw this really multicoloured spectrum of opinions only in a simplified way; for it would not only blast the length of this article but also become confusing to put all the hundreds of different opinions just side by side. But exactly this is the quality of a survey or a statistic: To show trends by subsuming single opinions into tendencies. And thanks to social media like Facebook, we are still able to hear individual voices in the end! With this in mind: Here we go with the results of our summer survey!

When it comes to summer provisions, the scene plans carefully: Half of the participants answered to plan way ahead before going to a specific festival. The rest consists in equal parts of spontaneous and part-time spontaneous ones. The availability of holidays is a secondary player in this respect, because only 6% named this reason as the most important one when deciding for a festival. The lineup is much more interesting: Every third person decides for or against an open air depending on the musical program. Quite comprehensible, because it is dancing what these manoeuvres are about in the end. A spectacular venue is also attractive, 18% named this as the most important reason why they decide in favor of a festival. And the same number is interested in meeting friends above all and looks especially for festivals where many of them is going to. Kerstin wrote us via Facebook: ‘It’s not all about money and size of a festival it’s about vibe and energy!’ For sure she says exactly what many Trancers are thinking. But still it is just one side of the medal; because this vibe and that particular energy include quite a lot of consideration and also money in the end. I advise you to take a look at the Festival Inside Report in the available issue.

Concerning the journey to a festival, only half of the participants are willing to use actually more ecologic though a little less comfortable public transport. These ones might be congruent with those 50% who said that they are willing to go without certain everyday comforts like lots of clothes to change or daily showers for a few days. Nevertheless, a conspicuous number of people emphasized the importance of sufficient, clean sanitary facilities in their comments for the festival promoters, 52% see an urgent need for improvement at events in this respect. By the way: Our interviews with several promoters confirm that water from above and human excrements are really serious issues for them, too

No serious issue any more is the originally vegetarian spirit of Trance festivals: Only 23% object to meat being sold at open airs, 37% don’t care about this issue and the majority of 40% explicitly approves the availability of meat delicacies. Similarly to the expectations concerning hygiene, this reveals kind of a paradigm shift within the scene, at least for those who have been celebrating Psy Trance for a while now.

What remained pretty much the same in comparison are the musical preferences. The results of the survey draw a pretty conservative picture in this respect: Good, old Psy Trance is expected by 23% of the festival visitors, the same number prefers Progressive Trance and also Full On and Ambient is appreciated by quite a part of the scene with 19% resp. 16% naming these styles to be their most wanted ones. Other, rather new styles as Dark Psy and Nu School / Techno are appreciated only by a minority. Numerous comments like ‘Take a look at the style of the parties of the late 90s!’ – ‘Back to the roots, spirit and feeling instead of technical overdose!’ – ‘Where has the Psy Trance gone?’ or »Focus on the core group of Psy Trance fans; don‘t make it too attractive for outsiders- They simply don‘t catch our spirit and way of celebrating!’ reveal a desire for a closed Trance community like it used to be in past eras.

Concerning desires for special festivals, again there are very much different ones. But it is interesting to see that the popularity of Ozora that could be witnessed already last year, obviously continues: This festival is most longed for in eager anticipation, even more than Boom in Portugal! But also Antaris and Fusion are highly anticipated.

Last but not least, your Goa Popstar magazine would not be complete without a Top 3 of the hottest accessories for the coming open air season, which we have been investigating very carefully. Coming in third, is quite a boring long runner, the sunglasses. Much trendier is place number 2: A change of brain! But the fanciest accessory for world wide dance floors during the upcoming summer is The soap-bubbles-blowing-lawnmower!

Roberdo

»Dear party promoter! Thank you so much for giving us the space for the best times in our life!’ (Psychriz)

‘Dear party promoter! Keep the prices moderate – a few big names will work, too, no need for 30 international acts… local DJs are good too!’ (Philocybin)

»It is a great idea to get one of these classical film- boxes (those black ones) at the entry as a portable ashtray for the cigarette butts!« (Greenja)