tigga
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
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Posts :
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Posted : Jul 16, 2002 13:15
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Location: The Welsh Hills
Mayan Days: Resonant Wizard, Galatic Eagle, Solar Warrior and Planetary Earth
Gregorian: June 1st - 4th 2002
Well, it was what feels like months ago but it was my first outdoor bash of the summer and all because of a dearly beloved Queeny the whole country got Monday and Tuesday of to have a party!
The main organisers were myself and good friends, Gary who is based in Wales, AKA The Paraphernalien and runs Cozmic Stuff records ( http://www.cozmicstuff.com ) and has been doing parties in Wales for a number years under the name Hipnosis and also nights in Liverpool called Alien Resonance but is now no longer involved in that one, and Chris who is based in Manchester and runs the Inverted ambient night on Sundays and is hoping to give a little full-on competition to the more progressive 'Sunrise' trance night in Manchester over this coming winter.
So we plotted a four day full-on psychedelic festival for weeks on end with a lot of synchronicity until the last week before the party. We were tipped off that the local council had been tipped off and had tipped off the police (lots of tipping as you can see)…so some desperate searching for a new location left us worn out and still with nowhere to party so the ‘fuck-it’ attitude blossomed and we decided to go for the original location anyway.
The location was a beauty, a secluded valley tucked away with a river bubbling through, a glade of deciduous trees, a waterfall and epic 360 degree panoramic views of the Welsh hills and moorland from the top of the nearby hill.
The police turned up with the farmer at about 5pm on Saturday only about 3 hours after the first few had arrived, and somehow all the organisers were offsite and so there was little coherence being directed at the Farmer who, at the end of the day, had the final say. Luckily, after much debate and pleading for his trust in us, he said yes. Now the only way we would get kicked off the land by the police was from noise complaints and the nearest house being 7 miles away we were fairly confident about that one!
12 hours of working left us with a party that was kicking. Ben had come over from Holland with his crystal clear 6K Mackie system arranged in a semi-circle giving immense clarity for the full-on Solkin area and Chris has a smaller 2K homebuilt system that we were running all the Psonic Butterfly ambient sounds through. Alex brought his data projector along so we had 50ft visuals on the side of the valley and numerous fire displays.
A nice range of guests to play – Frank from Synapse in Newcastle, Morph from Bristol, Jahbo, Faithless Psykick and Henning from Denmark, ECT from Phantasm, Zorflux from Enzyme in Brighton, Humphrey from Dragonfly/LSD, and all the usual stalwarts filling in the gaps to keep the music running from 11pm Saturday until about 5pm on Tuesday.
The Psonic Butterfly ambient area also contained Positivi-tea and the Purple Penguin café, both based like myself in Leeds, who produced the amazing food, I have never been sustained better for 4 days in my life, let alone at a dirty party in the welsh hills, so I am giving them both a special mention. If you happen to make it to Northern Green Gathering (www.ngg.org.uk) , the northern sister of The Big Green Gathering then we will be again teaming up with these wonderful people to provide a zone of food, tea and ambiance.
All in all I think probably about 250-300 people were there for most of the weekend, and it probably swelled larger on the Saturday night with the locals popping down for a dance. By Tuesday it was down to the hardcore few. The weather,which had been raining for 6 weeks before, broke for the weekend and then rained for 4 weeks after leading all to believe that there was more at work here than just luck. The vibe was fantastic; many nationalities from around the world were represented, lots of friendly people, the odd acid casualty or three, no hassle, little rubbish left lying around (ie a huge pile by the gate – but I won’t get into that one again), great location and a happy farmer at the end of the weekend all lead to a warm glow of satisfaction on all counts. It was bloody hard work all round but well worth it.
I am getting some photos back today so hopefully if I can find a scanner somewhere I will post some pictures soon, and also any details for future parties further north.
And...finally, this is obviously an organisers viewpoint - if anyone came along please post a review because I would like to hear some external feedback....
[ This Message was edited by: tigga on 2002-07-16 13:34 ]  live life; be free |
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