Pirates Paradise – My Adventure to Universo Paralello

Pirates Paradise – My Adventure to Universo Paralello

Happy New year to you all who read this, it is taken me a few days to pull myself together to write my first blog post of 2016 – but how does one put into words the most amazing adventure ever…

I will try my best to convey my experience of this incredible Festival.

Universo Paralello in Bahia Brazil has been a big dream of mine to experience. This festival has been running for over 15 years in Brazil and Juarez Petrillo (Dj Swarup / First Stone) and his brilliant crew work so hard for two years to create  a festival of such epic proportion.

Universo Paralello  as the name suggests is more than a festival, it’s a universe, a pirate’s paradise, and possibly one of the slickest events I have personally seen of this size. I would like to say a big thank you to everyone involved, and a special mention to Ekanta Jake who made this trip possible for me , and a big thank you to Aladin and Zumbi (F.F.M bookings) for taking such good care of us at the crew camp; you guys rock!

And so my journey began…

It’s the biggest travel mission ever to reach the venue, like days of traveling. Let me explain my schedule to reach the venue.

I played Ultra Noize Xmas party on the 25^th December, then literally went straight to the airport after the club, got on 2 flights to Sao Paulo, slept for a few hours, we got in a car and drove for 2 days. As we crossed the border into Bahia we could feel the massive heat difference. I have never experienced heat like this; OMG, I sweated in places I didn’t think possible!!! My English heritage didn’t work in my favour here at all, heh heh. We arrived in the dark, and again sweated like it was day time as we missioned with all our stuff, taking a donkey and cart to the crew camp area. I met up with my sister Britta and our party week began.

Every day at Universo Paralello for us was a new adventure and making new friends to hang out with. It was really nice to connect with the crew, as I have met a few of the artists over the years in Cape Town and on my various tours and also making new friends is what it’s all about, as our psytrance scene is very diverse and global. So here I was on a New Year’s festival with a chance to blast it all together.

The Dancefloor

The first night I walked onto the main floor I was just blown away at the magnitude of the space. Our lovely South African beauty Carin Dickson (Artescape) designed the décor, creating the stage to be a massive psychedelic pirate ship. With the visual mapping, lights and everything combined the stage literally morphed into a Pirate ship in front of us and the shade cloth design was inspired by star fish- it was absolutely mind-blowing. The dance floor itself was full of travellers and party goers everywhere. Everyone looked like pirates to me; maybe it was the setting but the dreadlock psy family, the most amazing tattoos and leather wear, the girls looking like pirate princesses with stunning jewellery and piercings, it was all totally surreal. We were surrounded by palm trees and beach sand. It could have been a setting straight from Pirates of the Caribbean.  

My Set

I played my set the morning of the 31^st at Universo Paralello  on the 303 stage on the beach.

This stage was a playground for many amazing artists and DJs from all around the world. I was placed in a rather different time slot to what I’m used to I’m not gonna lie, but I found the tracks that worked for me and pulled a sunrise set together that got all the people in the surrounding space up and dancing. I had smiles all around and cheers from the floor. As the sun rose the view from the stage was magical, palm trees and ocean, people dancing everywhere, all the way down to the sea edge. It was an amazing way to end the year for me. Daniel Portal and his girlfriend Ally from Cape Town were with me as I finished and later that day we partied for his set which was full power – we really showed how it’s done in Cape Town!!!  

New Year’s Eve at Universo Paralello 

For New Years Eve night it is tradition to wear white as the clock turns 12. This sets the intention for peace and the whole dance floor of what seemed about 20,000 people erupted as the New Year ticked over. Cheers and roars from the people, love and energy whirling around us as the legends Tristan and then First Stone blasted us all into 2016.

The glow of white worn by everyone added to the magic, and there were trapeze artist hanging from the ceiling and fire walkers on blazing tightropes, everywhere you looked was on fire! We stomped so hard in that moment, Britta and I were freaking out. As she said “the dance we had in that moment would set an intention for the new year!!”

So bring on 2016!!

The Music

The music at Universo Paralello was some of the best in the world and on the biggest stage I personally have ever experienced. The sound just moved through us all like thick mist gluing us all together in waves of energy.

I have to admit I  went to this festival and immersed myself right into it, totally loosing myself on the dance floor and my attempt to experience Universo Paralello full and open heartedly was achieved. I danced in a bikini for the first time in my life because the heat was so intense. Britta and I  were wiping dirt and sweat off each other in sheer survival on the dance floor… in this party space, you just had to let go of all ego, and just get down and dance; everything was so massive that to free yourself in the dance space was easy and the happiness derived from those moments is why we do this. It’s why we travel across the world to gather together and dance! I felt like I was in Matrix 3 (movies) when they have that massive tribal party – I loved the freedom I felt, and the chance to get lost in the sounds being created by these musical geniuses and to hear it coming straight from the source; I have never felt so at one with the psy trance family and now I feel inspired and want more!

Festival Life

We spent a lot of time on the beach during the days at Universo Paralello, either to just cool off in the warm waters of the ocean, floating in the waves, catching the most insane tan, all the girls wearing Brazilian style bikinis and a there was a huge structure anchored for people to climb on and jump off into the ocean. Most days we would walk along the beach to the different stages; the size of this festival took up a whole beach front, 7 different dance floors all accessible from the beach so you could go jump in the sea and come back to the party. The music ranged from psytrance, techno, deep house, chill out/world music and bands. There were beach buggies driving groups of people up and down the beach and if you were lucky to catch a guy grilling blocks of cheese on a stick, I have never seen that before… yummy!

 The food market area was huge and if you walked a little further it became a huge pirate market with people selling clothing , crafts, jewellery and all sorts of things. There was such energy in the air and constant flow of people creating this party village. There was never a dull moment.

I can go on for ages writing about this piece of Pirates Paradise at Universo Paralello – my only suggestion to you reading this is –  start saving up for the next two years and get yourself to one of the best festivals our planet has to offer. I can’t wait for the next one.

What we ate at Universo Paralello 

Açaí –  (Wiki: The açaí palm is a species of palm tree in the genus Euterpe cultivated for its fruit and hearts of palm. Its name comes from the Brazilian Portuguese adaptation of the Tupian word ïwaca’i, ‘[fruit that] cries or expels water’)

Coconuts that we sipped with a straw and then we had the coconut sliced open and we ate the soft part of the inside.

Caipirinha – very popular alcoholic ice drink with cachaça, lime and sugar – it’s freaking strong!!!

Catuaba – made from extracts of a plant from the jungle, it looks like wine and tastes a bit like it and it’s quite potent. It is said to be an aphrodisiac, so obviously people were drinking loads of it.

For dinner every night we went to this famous Italian group who tour all the big festivals; they create the best vegetarian pizzas and the concept is to just buy, there is no ordering system of what toppings you want etc, the pizza makers just keep the flow of pizzas coming, and you just choose what you want, it was amazing, and of course they took good care of us DJs and artists… one big family affair!!

I will be visiting this pirate world in my dreams until Universo Paralello  # 14 in 2017.

Thank you for sharing this adventure with me.

 

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