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Symbiosis Gathering REVISED!!! September 17-21, 2009 Yosemite, CA
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bephree
Started Topics :
5
Posts :
54
Posted : Sep 13, 2009 10:51
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Official Cooking Policy
YOU MAY COOK ON PROPANE OPERATED STOVES, however the bbq grills on-site are off limits. No charcoal, fires, tiki torches, open flame lanterns etc. Thank You in advance for your cooperation!
No phone service or ATM on site!
Due to recent wildfires there is no phone service nor ATM's on site!
Beer and Wine Available at Evergreen Lodge!
While alcohol is not sold at the Symbiosis festival grounds, beer & wine can be purchased at the Evergreen Lodge General Store, adjacent to the grounds. |
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Mr Liu
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
100
Posts :
186
Posted : Sep 15, 2009 09:25
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On 2009-09-03 05:18, bephree wrote:
also appearing...
Michael Liu!!! |
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Cool, I got my own little mention 
See you all Friday night at midnight!
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2MuchDica
Started Topics :
0
Posts :
51
Posted : Sep 17, 2009 08:42
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Anyone notice the $30 carpooling charge they just posted?!?!?! whats that about? I have to pay another 30 if i already got a car camping pass??? Someone PLEASE clarify... |
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e11even
Started Topics :
6
Posts :
291
Posted : Sep 21, 2009 23:44
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Since this is the Isra Trance Forum and I know Symbiosis wasn't an all " Psytrance" party but seriously where the hell was the Psytrance? I actually used to like Dubstep and play it before this party and I have to say it has really made me hate Dubstep and never want to play it again. Sunday morning had no PSYTRANCE it was all progressive and mostly minimal progressive at that, Ace Ventura was one of the only Dj's that threw it down on Sunday otherwise the music was boring as hell. I have to say I am very disappointed with the lack of Psytrance at a Northern Cali event and wish the Psytrance community wasn't treated like 2nd class citizens. =( Not to mention the only Northern Cali Psy producer who played was Chromatone other than that not 1 San Fran Psy Dj at a Northern Cali party. Eh something seems a bit odd about that.
ON a positive note - The venue was really beautiful and the event itself was set up really nice. =)
 www.horizonscolorado.com |
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psyman
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
51
Posts :
427
Posted : Sep 22, 2009 00:12
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Quote:
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On 2009-09-21 23:44, e11even wrote:
Since this is the Isra Trance Forum and I know Symbiosis wasn't an all " Psytrance" party but seriously where the hell was the Psytrance? I actually used to like Dubstep and play it before this party and I have to say it has really made me hate Dubstep and never want to play it again. Sunday morning had no PSYTRANCE it was all progressive and mostly minimal progressive at that, Ace Ventura was one of the only Dj's that threw it down on Sunday otherwise the music was boring as hell. I have to say I am very disappointed with the lack of Psytrance at a Northern Cali event and wish the Psytrance community wasn't treated like 2nd class citizens. =( Not to mention the only Northern Cali Psy producer who played was Chromatone other than that not 1 San Fran Psy Dj at a Northern Cali party. Eh something seems a bit odd about that.
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But we all knew that didnt we ???
It was Dubstep/Burners event, to bring in the crowds but you could see it on the line up.
More reviews??? Anyone? |
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e11even
Started Topics :
6
Posts :
291
Posted : Sep 22, 2009 00:17
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Quote:
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On 2009-09-22 00:12, psyman wrote:
Quote:
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On 2009-09-21 23:44, e11even wrote:
Since this is the Isra Trance Forum and I know Symbiosis wasn't an all " Psytrance" party but seriously where the hell was the Psytrance? I actually used to like Dubstep and play it before this party and I have to say it has really made me hate Dubstep and never want to play it again. Sunday morning had no PSYTRANCE it was all progressive and mostly minimal progressive at that, Ace Ventura was one of the only Dj's that threw it down on Sunday otherwise the music was boring as hell. I have to say I am very disappointed with the lack of Psytrance at a Northern Cali event and wish the Psytrance community wasn't treated like 2nd class citizens. =( Not to mention the only Northern Cali Psy producer who played was Chromatone other than that not 1 San Fran Psy Dj at a Northern Cali party. Eh something seems a bit odd about that.
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But we all knew that didnt we ???
It was Dubstep/Burners event, to bring in the crowds but you could see it on the line up.
More reviews??? Anyone?
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Well Duh.. But from what I understand this event was originally a Psytrance event many years ago before it was even called Symbiosis. I thought I read a post from Bephree saying Sunday Morning was still gonna be a Psy line up. =( Oh well, I guess you gotta go to the middle of a cornfield in Iowa to get a real psytrance party!
www.horizonscolorado.com |
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paradigm
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
54
Posts :
1098
Posted : Sep 22, 2009 02:05
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well here we go....
Every year, this event slides farther and farther from its roots. Yes it gets bigger and more grandiose every time, but each time, its looses part of its soul.
Indeed the event was in a amazing location, and the production level was very much, above and beyond anything the states ever sees.
Kudos to the crew on that.
Also the workshops, and non musical acts, were wonderful and entertaining...
However... this event, WAS ORIGINALLY A PSY EVENT, it is directly descended from what is considered the most legendary psy event in West Coast psy history...
It is very very far from its roots todays, and in fact, as a trancer, I have never felt such like a second class citizen at a event. We were given the worst stage, with the smallest sound, in the dustiest area, in the back corner.
Very segregated, I almost felt like a black man, in the 50's at this party.
Yes i know Treavor, Kox Box, and Hallucinogen all played sat night at the lake stage (the best stage IMO btw), but Treavor is part of the crew, and gets prime time every year and Posford plays every year, even tho we all wish he didnt. That gives us, Kox Box as the only brought in act to headline for the trancers.
A mear pitance for a 4 day long festival, that once was focused on trance..
Sunday morning, was not, as promised "sunday morning" Not one morning trance act played, and while Ace Ventura and Sun Control Species were good, there was not 1 full power morning act.
But what about Domestic you say? Nope.. didnt make it due to a medical issue, but filled in for by ..... a house dj. Big surprise there right? Guess i should be glad i got a house dj, and not another dub step dj.
..... and speaking of dub step. in my 14 years of being in the overall EDM scene. I dont think ive encountered a sub-set of the culture as annoying as the feather and leather dub step crowd. Id rather have militant junglists, techno eliteists, coked-out house head heads, or hell even candy kids. The hippy inspired, pseudo hip-hop, "green" bling of it all was just obscene.
and BTW... whats with the eco-friendly, mostly veggie eating crowd doing adorned in obscene amounts of dead animal parts (i.e feather and leather)
do they understand the total oxy-moronic nature of their group...
sorry, got stuck on a tangent there
anyways, if the event goes on.... since, the org seems so set upon limiting and isolating the trance....
why not just give us our own stage in the neither regions of the venue. Give it to a local collaboration of crews and let the trancers do their thing un-molested. They will be happier and the dub steppers will be happier to not hear it either. If we want to catch another act or show, we will venture out, then return to the comfort of our own, welcoming, non-judgemental, non oxy-moronic dance floor.
"sigh" rant over.... not that it really was all bad. It was nice in parts, the space was wonderful, the weather amazing, and the overall set up incredible. However feeling so pushed aside and swept under the rug over the weekend, was frustrating, insulting, and just plain shitty
Logical Light Music - SF
Straylight Productions -SF
Sound/Mind - Denver
Xcience - Midwest
mixes for dl at :
http://www.thehothouse.net/straylight/paradigm/index.htm
"He who ha-ha's last, ha-ha's best" |
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nod
Started Topics :
3
Posts :
270
Posted : Sep 22, 2009 02:17
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Quote:
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On 2009-09-22 02:05, paradigm wrote:
as a trancer, I have never felt such like a second class citizen at a event. We were given the worst stage, with the smallest sound, in the dustiest area, in the back corner.
Very segregated, I almost felt like a black man, in the 50's at this party. |
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hoekstra'd
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On 2009-09-22 02:05, paradigm wrote:..... and speaking of dub step. in my 14 years of being in the overall EDM scene. I dont think ive encountered a sub-set of the culture as annoying as the feather and leather dub step crowd. Id rather have militant junglists, techno eliteists, coked-out house head heads, or hell even candy kids. The hippy inspired, pseudo hip-hop, "green" bling of it all was just obscene.
and BTW... whats with the eco-friendly, mostly veggie eating crowd doing adorned in obscene amounts of dead animal parts (i.e feather and leather)
do they understand the total oxy-moronic nature of their group... |
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that's just the west coast, brah. last year those kids were listening to electro-house.
http://www.djnod.net |
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psyman
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
51
Posts :
427
Posted : Sep 22, 2009 03:28
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So After all the promises and the shameless self promotion the organization did not give trance to the people.... I kinda figured that is the way it will be.
Not fear I would say. Some response from the organizers needed about that. Too much money for NO trance that is lame. |
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paradigm
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
54
Posts :
1098
Posted : Sep 22, 2009 05:34
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i disagree, those kids have been about dub step since its inception. Tho, they also follow the Burner glitch thing.
Its just getting worse and worse every year
Logical Light Music - SF
Straylight Productions -SF
Sound/Mind - Denver
Xcience - Midwest
mixes for dl at :
http://www.thehothouse.net/straylight/paradigm/index.htm
"He who ha-ha's last, ha-ha's best" |
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jds
Started Topics :
8
Posts :
384
Posted : Sep 22, 2009 21:11
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I had a great time. It's Symbiosis. It's the most successful fusion of themes here in North America. I think the crew does a great job of bringing together energies from all areas of the spectrum.
Considering the size and the location, I'd say the organization was great. The will call SNAFU on Thursday afternoon sucked but they got their act together after that and things moved smoothly. Porta-potties were mostly clean. Lots of garbage collection areas with separate bins for recycling and composting. Generally friendly people, not too many tour shrapnel wannabe homeless drug peddling dirt bag kids (close to too many, but thankfully just under too many). I brought my own food but the vending area smelled nice and it looked like a lot of people were enjoying it. The tea area was awesome. Great spot to chill out. The eco-exploratorium was amazing. The Lotus Pagoda and Village stage were always full of people enjoying talks and workshops. The lake was always full of people enjoying the water and the sun. The decoration on the stage areas was all beautiful with good sound systems as well.
Overall, a spectacular space to spend 5 days with new and old friends.
The people complaining here have obviously been before so I'm not sure what you were expecting different? I saw no promises to the opposite of what I experienced. Having also been to past events myself and seen the lineup it was pretty much exactly what I expected.
Sure, the 'Alt' stage was a bummer. It would have been nicer if everything that was going on there happened on the field stage (if the sound would have been ready) instead of kicking trancers into the dusty corner of the alt stage like that. But look at the turnout at any stage during a trance set. The majority of people were focused on other music so the field stage wouldn't have supported it anyway. Perhaps what was going on at the Lake on Friday night could have gone on at the Field (if it was open) and the trance at the Alt could have been at the Lake instead?
Having that awesome field stage sound system raped by Les Claypool and Bassnectar Saturday night was also a bummer. For me, the highlight of the festival was Sunday morning and afternoon. Ace Ventura, Shadow FX, Tetrameth, Sun Control Species, Atmos, Perfect Stranger, Extrawelt... This is what I went for. Too bad the speakers were all blown to pieces and farting by the time their sets rolled around though (one base bin actually caught on fire during the day). Oh well, I still had a phenomenal day at the field all Sunday and I hung out the night before to witness the sound system ass raping since I knew it was the best the system was going to sound while being blown to hell.
As for the people, whatever. I'll party with most anyone. Burners are ok. I don't really care what people are wearing. I see past all that. You are not your pretty clothes, you are the person inside. Once you get past their insatiable desire to make a spectacle out of themselves, they're fun to be around, just don't take them seriously. Never let anyone vibe you out. Especially someone in a costume. But ya, leather is murder and the neo-tribalist fashionistas deserve to be reminded of that at every opportunity (I tell them, and I encourage you to do the same).
So ya, there's my take. I dug it. I have the feeling it will be even bigger next year so I doubt I will attend. It felt like there was upwards of 6-7K people there at the peak. I'm just not into large events. It never felt uncomfortably crowded but 2K is really my comfortable max nowadays. I just don't need that many people to have a good time.
Congrats to the Symbiosis crew, good luck on your future events. |
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paradigm
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
54
Posts :
1098
Posted : Sep 23, 2009 04:29
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venue maxed out at 4500...
I think there were close to the high 3's or low 4's there...
dont think it was a sell out
Logical Light Music - SF
Straylight Productions -SF
Sound/Mind - Denver
Xcience - Midwest
mixes for dl at :
http://www.thehothouse.net/straylight/paradigm/index.htm
"He who ha-ha's last, ha-ha's best" |
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ohmy
Fractal Cowboys
Started Topics :
50
Posts :
285
Posted : Sep 23, 2009 05:18
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im completely going to remix a les claypool song, that was sick''
big ups
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Kwazzy
Started Topics :
7
Posts :
71
Posted : Sep 23, 2009 05:42
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ok so here's my take, i didnt really set myself up for an awesome stretch of continuous psytrance lineup at all since i knew the core musical lineup is getting further away from psytrance every year, hence the huge crowds.....at times i felt pretty out of place talking about psytrance to some neighbors and random people i met, even in 2007 it was a much larger psytrancer crowd.
awesome things: the production, the stages, the work shops, parts of sunday lineup, friday nite after Spook came on and the beautiful venue
shitty stuff: incredibly poor management of the door (we waited 5 hours), psy lineup and stage dedication(we really got shafted in timing and place, i ended up spending more time in my tent than the musical areas), and a ridiculous overdose of dubstep (i'm really gonna have a bad reaction to dubstep from now on)
overall, as a psytrancer you cannot go to this party with huge musical expectations, even when they bring a few kick as names. KoxBox rocked the heeezy.....wish we coulda seen more psy on nice, big stages and better timeslots than sunday with refried brains after 3 days.
but i do want to send a big shout out to the crew, without these big crowds and musical diversity, this production will never happen in the U.S with a solely psy lineup, and you need big crowds to throw down big productions.
"There's a crack in everything, thats how the light gets in"
http://www.unitednationsofpsy.com |
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zariat
Started Topics :
2
Posts :
17
Posted : Sep 23, 2009 06:58
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Quote:
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On 2009-09-22 02:05, paradigm wrote:
well here we go....
However... this event, WAS ORIGINALLY A PSY EVENT, it is directly descended from what is considered the most legendary psy event in West Coast psy history...
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ok - i am not following you AT ALL here. the first Symbiosis Gathering was on 2005 and had a diverse lineup with many genres of music. i am a founding producer of this event and it did not 'descend' from any other event or production crew. not goa play or any other one. several of our producers have worked on MANY other events, and while the experience has inspired and taught us greatly, Symbiosis is entirely its own thing. Trying to box us into your idea of some historical era of psytrance on the West Coast just isn't real... we were always based on the idea of bringing diverse styles of music and types of people together in an event that is about much more than the music itself.
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It is very very far from its roots todays, and in fact, as a trancer, I have never felt such like a second class citizen at a event. We were given the worst stage, with the smallest sound, in the dustiest area, in the back corner.
Very segregated, I almost felt like a black man, in the 50's at this party.
Yes i know Treavor, Kox Box, and Hallucinogen all played sat night at the lake stage (the best stage IMO btw), but Treavor is part of the crew, and gets prime time every year and Posford plays every year, even tho we all wish he didnt. That gives us, Kox Box as the only brought in act
to headline for the trancers.
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Again, another misconception - Treavor is not 'part of the crew' at all. He gets prime slots because he deserves them, period.
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A mear pitance for a 4 day long festival, that once was focused on trance..
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It was *never* "focused on trance."
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anyways, if the event goes on.... since, the org seems so set upon limiting and isolating the trance....
why not just give us our own stage in the neither regions of the venue. Give it to a local collaboration of crews and let the trancers do their thing un-molested. They will be happier and the dub steppers will be happier to not hear it either. If we want to catch another act or show, we will venture out, then return to the comfort of our own, welcoming, non-judgemental, non oxy-moronic dance floor.
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You know what? Why don't you throw your own festival like this. Go ahead and do it just the way you want it. No other serious festival in America that books multiple genres of music even books trance at all anymore. We show love, try to bring together diverse people and ideas, bring you new artists like Perfect Stranger - and in an environment full of massive art and workshops that no other trance-only festival could support these days (in north america)... And it's never enough for some people.... We care so much about this community (of which we are a part) and have all worked really hard to hear so much crticism. Can you give us an example of an event in North America that is comparable to ours that does things the way you like...? Honestly, I'm wondering if it's possible.
http://symbiosisevents.com
http://symbiosisgathering.com |
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