My Journey to Hadra Festival
I travelled to Europe for the Hadra festival in France recently. I spent a few weeks in Europe playing a few other gigs before the main event.
This is my journal…
I have just boarded the airplane destined for home, and I’m filled with great memories of my most recent European tour. This time I went to Italy, Finland and France.
The highlight of my adventure was Hadra Festival 2017, tucked away in the French country side.
As we drove from the airport in the artist shuttle I saw chateau’s in the distance, so picturesque. I’m really grateful because I would never get the chance to see these amazing destinations if it weren’t for my adventures in the world of Psytrance.
This time my partner in crime was Gabby (from Altered States); together we represented Cape Town the best we could, making dust clouds on the dance floor.
Hadra Festival looked like a well-oiled machine that almost seemed to run on its own, everyone was smiling and relaxed.
I’m sure it was incredibly hard work, but the crew made it look easy. I really enjoyed losing myself on the dance floor, especially at night, with a monster sound rig and the latest in visual mapping, making the stage come alive, almost swallowing you whole.
I really enjoyed the playfulness of this festival, I saw a few people dressed up as theatrical characters causing mischief, and I loved to see the participation by the party goers, some were juggling, some were just getting silly on the dance floor, always smiling and laughing.
The music was full power and psychedelic, the French psy crew know there stuff, and only like it if it’s wild and crazy. As a traveller and DJ coming from South Africa, I was made to feel right at home. I was very well taken care of and guess I can say I felt part of the family.
The whole production was really professional, even down to the food stalls and fashion shops. The festival grounds were clean and all the waste recycled, no hassles, I think our cabin was worse off, after we were done with it, than the whole venue. [laughs] (I blame Mike from Filterheads)
The venue was on a slope, with the dance floor at the bottom, and a river behind it, giving it this fantasy setting as if we were in fairy land. During the day, one could sit on the hill people-watching, listening to the music, feeling one with the whole production… truly magical.
One thing I like about the European festivals is how many people are fully committed to the psytrance lifestyle. In Cape Town, we are so diverse and kind of mainstream, so it’s inspiring to see so many dreaded beauties and tattooed people everywhere, serious psytrance folk. The market place is full of the latest euro psy fashion and accessories; some of these items can only be found at a festival. I also checked out the psy gallery, beautiful artwork and digital prints for people to buy, it was killing me that I couldn’t buy any prints to bring home… next time.
Elfink Pizza
It was a real treat to eat Elfink Pizza again… for those who don’t already know, this group of people go from festival to festival making possibly the best pizza ever.. (I spoke about it in a previous post) The idea is you order a pizza for 6 Euros, all are vegetarian, and you just take whatever comes out the oven and you most probably haven’t eaten in a few hours… it just melts, giving you mini orgasms in your mouth.
At the end of the fest, all the crew and the local Mayor and his wife got on stage to show their gratitude to the people and together, we danced our little hearts out. It felt like New Years or something, I really liked that.
What a great way to end.
If ever you are looking for a festival to visit in Europe besides the well known ones like Boom, Ozora or Modem, I would highly recommend this festival.
A huge thank you to David Shotu, Sandrine, Driss, Tilt, and Benoit for the invitation to be a part of Hadra Festival 2017, and everyone who made my Euro Trip so special.
What I’m listening to:
YouTube: Video of my set:
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