Template:Germany 2009
From Psychedelic-Traveller
[2009] Psychedelic downgrade in GERMANY
- written by Roberdo
Downgrading is a pretty unfamiliar issue in our ever growing faster, bigger, better society. It is kind of uncomfortable for us, simply because it mostly means a loss of convenience. But just like every wave in the ocean has its increase, its climax and its decrease again it is really necessary to follow this natural rule and to downgrade from time to time. So also the German Trance scene is currently facing a phase of decrease, but that does not mean that there are no exciting new things going on any more.
The current changes can be seen most distinctly in the festival landscape: Already two years ago VooV Experience turned to VuuV festival which adapts the reduced visitor numbers with its reduced size. The other primitive rock of German Psy Trance festivals, Antaris Project, just announced that this year is the last edition after 15 years history. And another very special festival already disappeared from the map this summer: Tshitraka made itself a name as THE festival for Progressive Trance, presenting extraordinary wicked line-ups from this genre. After the promoters went massively into the red last year it will not take place any more this one. Finally there also won't be a Fullmoon Festival this year because of bureaucratic trouble but the promoters assure that there will be one next year again.
While some of the classical big festivals have to downgrade these days, a pretty fertile underground scene is evolving again, bringing about lots of mid- and small sized outdoor parties. Thought not having such massive line-ups, these events feature the original freaky and very familiar atmosphere of Trance festivals, so it’s really worth to watch out for these ones!
Not really being a phenomenon typical for Germany only, also the musical development can be described as kind of reduction: The ongoing trend for Techno and minimalism means a decrease of speed and psychedelic elements in Progressive Trance, also well established artists like Audiomatic or labels like Spintwist deliver technoid sounds nowadays. In consequence also some people change the scene completely and attend pure Techno parties now, which in turn increase. However, that is only one side of the medal: While the ones get slower and slower, the others crank up the speed: Dark Psy keeps up a very psychedelic atmosphere and its devotees fulfil the dread-locked, chillum-smoking freak cliché –if anything- most. And its getting more and more popular, quite some of the big festivals present an extra floor this year and also pure Dark Psy events like Psychedelic Wonderland or Psycrowdelica emerge.
Although downgrading in terms of one big scene, there are still very interesting things going on in Germany. Both big festivals and rather underground events are worth visiting. If you are travelling by car, be aware that there is lots of drug screening going on, especially in the surrounding of Trance parties. And make sure you don’t miss the excellent German “3B”: Beer, Bread and Bratwurst!
