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Posted : May 7, 2004 02:03
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By popular demand, a short review of one American’s experience in Mexico City’s Goa Sounds Festival 2.
Pictures available at http://www.fotki.com/doku/parties/goasounds2/
When this whole odyssey began I was a little apprehensive about attending a festival in a different country without any knowledge of the language, but as time went on my anxiety gave way to enjoyment and I had a great time. After flying in to Mexico City airport on the day of the festival, my traveling companion and I found transportation relatively easily at the prescribed gathering area. Tickets and transportation was $70USD and a really good deal as far as I was concerned.
Venue: The venue was located about 2 hours away by bus way up in the mountains surrounding Mexico City. Upon arrival we were searched by storm troopers with very very large guns. They pointed to various articles of mine and said things in Spanish. There was concern that they were going to seize all food and water prior to entering the event, but this did not occur. Thankfully, in the end I was allowed through without any trouble. The stage was set up at the far end of a vast field as it curved up into a hill, the vending was located opposite of the stage toward the entrance. There was lots of food vendors and moderately prices bottled water. Bathroom facilities were lacking and many people ended up just going in the woods. It should also be noted that there were NO TRASH CANS on the entire premises which meant people just threw their trash on the ground. I am told this is because the area is so poor that the people who work the land are paid to clean it up afterwards, I do not know if this is true.
Sound and Deco: The deco was immediately noticeable and was exceptional. Lighting was also quite good but the programmers kept the light shinning out away from the stage which made watching some of the live acts kind of annoying. The sound was big, but not overly loud. There were no sound glitches until the last act of the last day when a new mixer appeared to be switched in.
Music: The music consisted of 50 straight hours of full on psychedelic trance. It was merciless and played throughout the entire day. Some of the acts that impressed me:
Sharigrama - A local live act with a full on sound. Opened their set with a nice tune to the lyrics “we are the world, we are the future”. I am still looking for this tune.
Melicia - Brought with him a live vocalist that was extremely psychedelic. Very cool.
Neuromotor - WOW. W-O-W. I heard that Neuromotor was an act that had to be experienced, but I never imagined this. Fred was incredible, the entire crowd was in a fury. At one point, Fred jumped in front of the decks and ripped off his shirt, then proceeded to dance to his own kicking tunes in front of the stage. It was inspiring.
Hallucinogen - At this point I was getting sick of 145bpm full on, so when Simon started to kick out tunes at ~110-120 I was relieved and satisfied. He played some of my all time favorite tracks including gamma goblins and shamanix.
Max Lafranconi – One of the members of Etnica (who’s live set I missed unfortunately), had the mind to pull out a progressivepsy set after almost 48 hours worth of full on. It was a terrific diversion that really impressed me.
Some of the acts that did not impress me:
GMS – I slept through their live act, and their DJ sets were not so much better.
1200 Mics – It really brings cheesiness to a whole new level. Fun to watch but not so much to listen to.
Raja Ram – He really should have done a Shpongle set with Simon because his DJ set was ridiculously cheesy.
DJs – It’s as though they all shopped at the same store for their records, cause I consistently heard the same tunes over and over and over again. Really boring.
Here I will interject a serious point. Astral Projection, Astrix, and Wizzy Noise were all dropped from the lineup before the party. Eskimo was a no-show. I asked one of the organizers about this and he said it was due to law enforcement issues Eskimo was having in Israel. The same excuse was given for Wizzy Noise. I don’t know if this is true, but it was pretty crappy none the less. Also, with all this changing in the lineups the time schedule was completely shot to hell. We had no idea who was playing on stage most of the time and planning our short sleeping periods was incredibly difficult. No revised schedule was posted anywhere.
Vibe: Mexicans know how to party. The party vibe hung in the air all during the day and all through the night. Although it wasn’t the friendliest vibe, I was still impressed. There were some of those much heard of “chakas” I believe they are called. On about two occasions items were attempted to be stolen from our tents, but because of my fellow American trancers we were able to watch after eachother’s stuff without too much trouble.
All in all, I had a great time at Goa Sounds 2. I met Americans from NJ, SF, Austin, and St. Louis (I am from Detroit myself) and we all camped together and had a great time while the music played on in the background. I recommend everyone in North America try to attend a party in Mexico to see how they do it down there, because it’s really something to be scene. A big thanks to North America’s largest psytrance scene, mi amigos en Mexico!
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