Aurora Festival 2009

[Snapinho]

Ok, there are usually no reviews of festivals, but since this was my first time in Greece, and thus my first time on a Greek festival, and I had quite a good time, I feel I had to share some of my opinions - or whatever you call them. Impressions. Experiences.

 

I think I've never danced this little. Partly because the chillout lineup was outstanding, partly because I usually sleep at night and during the day it's too hot to dance (for me at least) and also partly because I was physically not too able to dance.

 

Met mars briefly and Anoebis a little less briefly, and since I didn't bother to go online on my holidays I had no clue of whether there was gonna be a Psynews meetup, which didn't happen.

 

Anyhoo... nice place for a festival. Quality camping as far as I was concerned, our tent was in the shade almost all day, enough room for lotsa hammocks, the best part being all these old guys that stayed on the camping the whole time. Some people had their home (caravan) right next to the stage, and I can't imagine they really enjoyed themselves, but they wouldn't budge either. Gave a nice surrealistic touch to the surroundings.

 

One of the first acts I wanted to see was Banco de Gaia, but unfortunately something was wrong with the lows, so I had to plug my ears, and couldn't really hear anything other than bass and kick. Nice visualshow though.

 

Friday afternoon Gaudi gave a great show... very live, playing with theremines, controllers, toasting, and to finish off his set, dancing with the crowd on Bob Marley's Jamming. Happy hippy! I was very pleasantly surprised.

 

Carbon Based Lifeforms enjoying Gaudí

 

Saturday was gonna be kick-ass day and oh boy, was it ever. CBL performed in the morning, and did a beautiful set... about as good as I expected and my expectations were quite high to begin with.

 

The menu for the night was quite spectacular. Me, my gf, some blankets and pillows, a good spot in front of the stage, a trip and a half, a sky FULL of stars and the craziest chillout lineup you could want. Asura, Solar Fields, HUVA Network, Aes Dana ... we left 15 minutes into his set to dance our asses off to Eat Static at the main stage, only to return an hour and some later with fresh supplies for The Orb live! Yes! I had always wanted to see the Orb at a festival, on acid... only difference was that I had dreamed of them performing late afternoon, but otherwise it was close to perfect for me.

 

Asura was excellent, nice trancey dreamey stuff as I expected. Solar Fields was very good too, quite uptempo, but not enough to keep me from lying next to my girl and make me get up and dance. HUVA Network I didn't really like: too harsh 4/4 beats, and I missed the chemistry. Didn't find it anything special, to be honest, but maybe that was due to the fact that I had been lying down, listening to Ultimae for the last 4 hours.

 

Weird programming though for The Orb (which, for me at least, was the biggest name in the Chillout), at 5:30 AM. Not that many people were there, but that just made me feel more special (and a little bad for them). At least they seemed to be enjoying themselves, at least after the first minutes when - again - something completely fucked up with the bass happened. After that was fixed, I was in aural heaven... lotsa crazy samples, nice funky groovy renditions of classics as Perpetual Dawn, Little Fluffy Clouds, A Huge Evergrowing Pulsating Brain, etc. etc. Fucking excellent.

 

Sunset after The Orb live... nice 'waking up'

 

After a dip in the sea, watchting a spectacular sunrise, being too tired to offer the Orb a spliff when they sat right next to us on the otherwise deserted beach, taking a shower, putting on new clothes, we were ready for Merv's second Live of the night. Oh my! A lot of my favorites were played, in - as usual - great new versions. And to make me even happier, he finished his downtempo set with an extra long version of 'Gulf Breeze', one of my favorites. Nobody could wipe that smile off my face, and even after having been awake for 30some hours, I was still feeling energetic.

 

Merv doing an excellent live downtempo set, sunday morning.

 

The only disillusionment was Soulsurfer (I think it was sunday afternoon). What a complete ass. Having utter disregard for the (little) audience that was there, he did absolutely nothing. Didn't see him open up his laptop and press play, but fuck... he called some guy on stage, chatted with him for half an hour, only returning to the knobs when he saw someone taking pictures, and posing. After that dude had left, he felt lonely, and left the stage twice, the first time to piss, but the second time to chat with whoever was backstage. Lame ass shit. I booed him, when I saw him drinking beer and not giving shit, something I have only done once before at a psytrance festival (and 1200 Mics really had that coming too, hehe)

 

Soulsurfer 'Live'

 

All in all: excellent festival, good amenities, although I don't really understand why they programmed all the great acts in one night. The 'normal' people that hung around were great decoration, otherwise I found the deco none too spectacular. Very 90's stringart blabla.

 

Find the Belgians.

 

Girl Attracts Guy. Puppy Attracts Kiddo.

[Trunksan]

This is what I wrote at Isra:

 

I just came back from the festival (as I'm working tomorow) with mixed feelings:

 

Organisation was better, nicer sound system, deco, cleanliness, especially the sound system at the chill stage was GLORIOUS! Still no much shade... The chill stage wasn't ready in time because of a power failure... but these things happened

 

I hardly heard any music that I liked at the main stage Goasia, BPC, MWNN, Fiteria, Protoculture, Tristan and Digicult are the only ones that I listened to and stood out.

Wanted to see Lauging Budha but was sleeping.

 

Most nights after midnight I though the music was crap and actually most of the time during the day.

 

At the chill stage the Ultimae crew (CBL, solar fields, aes dana, Huva netowrk, asura etc) ROCKED as usual, Banco De Gaia was FANTASTIC, Shulman was nice as a LIVE band although a track they played sounded a bit like something Remos or Pegy Zena would play, Xerxes was good as well.... Too bad I missed Entheogenic...

 

Can anyone tell me when Simon Baring played because he definetly didn't play when he was scheduled??

 

WHERE WAS THE ORB?

 

The whole programme was too jammed and there didn't seem to be much flow in the music-style at the main stage. I also feel that the quality of the festival was compromised by the Dark artists at night and the MASS number of Full-on artists.

 

The camping was VERY full so I'm glad that the organisers have made a good profit. A lot of people from the Balcans and the rest from the EU.

 

I just didn't have as much fun as last year, didn't like the music much either and hoped for more, the chill stage saved it in a way. I also felt there wasn't the same warmth and joy as last year... everything seemed kinda dull.

 

I suspect next year (if they decide to repeat it) is going to be even crowdier but I won't be there.

 

I hope all ppl have a fun time Monday and return home safe!

 

Peace out!

 

 

 

 

---------------------------------------

Psynews comments:

 

 

The chill out was great.... The main stage not so much..... I think a major factor for me not having as much fun was the fact that me and my GF were working on Monday and had to drive a long way on Sunday (in fact we arrived at 3am and I woke up at 7:30 to go to work).

 

I was with the suntrip crew a lot, since we were interested in more or less similar acts....

 

I see that the orb play after the Ultimae guys, after Aes dana we went to sleep because we had to get a rest, pitty .

[Sideffect...]

Find the Belgians.

 

 

 

true...

[Snapinho]

Trunksie: how come you missed the Orb? In the original lineup they were scheduled to play around 5 at night, and this didn't change much ... in fact they only played half an hour later or so. Still: very weird time. Weird, strange, sick, twisted evil stuff...

 

THE FUCKING ORB! Was very happy to see 'em.

 

But full camping? You've obviously never been to a - let's say - German festival... I loved the amount of space. Plenty of shade for everyone as far as I could tell.

 

Dunno what happened to Simon B. either... when we got there, some dude was playing Dubstep, waaaaay too loud. That was another strange thing; at moments the sound in the chillout was phenomenal, at other times it was an affront to my ears. Painful, even at the far ends of the chillout.

 

Anyhoo, am curious to hear other people's experiences. Heva still out there? Suntrippers? Did Drosophila make it? Cray3?

[cray3]

i was there at aurora ...and i had a great time with my greek friends....i have no complaints regarding the music and organisation...

 

i agree on the soulsurfer ass..too bad i didnt have a pistol with me to shoot him.

 

i was wondering if i could meet some other psynews guys..but didnt know how you look or there was no way to find out..except i met a guy who wore a suntrip records tshirt with whom i had a brief chat.

 

cbl, asura, solar fields, HUVA, atriohm, optokoppler, deviant species , andromeda, and many many more (i cant remember now) ..enjoyed the whole festival..

 

astral projection was disappointing

 

my pics are here http://picasaweb.google.co.in/frijik/AuroraFestival#

 

and one major complaint is regd toilets for women..when will the hippies learn to keep the toilets and the bathroom clean..i was disappointed by the way some females used the bathroom..before yellin at everyone to go green and all that, how about practising some cleanliness for yourself first.

[Trunksan]

Trunksie: how come you missed the Orb? In the original lineup they were scheduled to play around 5 at night, and this didn't change much ... in fact they only played half an hour later or so. Still: very weird time. Weird, strange, sick, twisted evil stuff...

 

 

As I mentioned.... I went to sleep after Aes Dana we had a long drive the day after so we had to get some rest.... Plus I was drinking beers and smoking all afternoon so by nighttime I was quite drunk , I think on the timetable they were booked as Le petit Orbe.... So I was like: "Are they kidding me? Whos is 'Le petit Orbe'", so I went to sleep.

 

As for being crowded, last year it was probably 1/3 of people in attendance so that's why I said crowdiert. I haven't been to a German festival, the only continental festival I've been to was Glade in England, and there the camping was just on grass on the side of a hill, so it was much crowdier and definetly not as nice without trees.

 

I think the organisers should go for less but more quality acts (just like Ozora this year) although I see how they wanted to attract all kinds of crowds: Dark, Prog, Minimal, Full-on, Goa which in a way happened but as a result there wasn't much flow in the music.

 

Simon B played after Highlight tribe acording to Vince (Aes Dana), don't know when that was.... ANyway last year he played a PHENOMENAL set, the guy is a showman, he mixed all kinds of music, house, reggae, dub and he had great connection with the crowd so I really wanted to hear him again.... again pitty

 

DAAAAAAAAAAMN WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORK!! I COULD ENJOY THE FESTIVAL TO ITS FULLEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[GaySatanicHippie]

i was there at aurora ...and i had a great time with my greek friends....i have no complaints regarding the music and organisation...

 

i agree on the soulsurfer ass..too bad i didnt have a pistol with me to shoot him.

 

i was wondering if i could meet some other psynews guys..but didnt know how you look or there was no way to find out..except i met a guy who wore a suntrip records tshirt with whom i had a brief chat.

 

cbl, asura, solar fields, HUVA, atriohm, optokoppler, deviant species , andromeda, and many many more (i cant remember now) ..enjoyed the whole festival..

 

astral projection was disappointing

 

my pics are here http://picasaweb.goo...AuroraFestival#

 

and one major complaint is regd toilets for women..when will the hippies learn to keep the toilets and the bathroom clean..i was disappointed by the way some females used the bathroom..before yellin at everyone to go green and all that, how about practising some cleanliness for yourself first.

 

 

You are aware of the fact that soulsurfer and Andromeda is the exact same guy, right? I heard Andromeda at Ozora and he was great there as well

 

Anyways, from what I read here Im glad i went to Ozora, that one was much, much better than what people report here.

[Malevol3nt]

lol @ the invisible performer

[Snapinho]

lol @ the invisible performer

 

It's an actual photo I took during Soulsurfer's set.

 

Sad innit?

[Penzoline]

The only disillusionment was Soulsurfer (I think it was sunday afternoon). What a complete ass. Having utter disregard for the (little) audience that was there, he did absolutely nothing. Didn't see him open up his laptop and press play, but fuck... he called some guy on stage, chatted with him for half an hour, only returning to the knobs when he saw someone taking pictures, and posing. After that dude had left, he felt lonely, and left the stage twice, the first time to piss, but the second time to chat with whoever was backstage. Lame ass shit. I booed him, when I saw him drinking beer and not giving shit, something I have only done once before at a psytrance festival (and 1200 Mics really had that coming too, hehe)

 

Soulsurfer 'Live'

 

To think he got paid for doing that. Jeez.

[Snapinho]

Well, to be honest, at least he doesn't pretend. Oh wait, he did. But I mean: there are probably more 'press play' artists than ones doing something really live... Eat Static being my number 1 hero.

[Caffein:me]

Hot damn i'm so envious of you guys making it to aurorae ;(

and what a program!

I would cut of my left toe just to be there one night.

 

I will however be there in 2 years

for now, its only me & overcrowded german festivals.

 

Nice Photos Cray

and damn again. It almost hurts not being there. Who knows if there ever gonna be this many cool artists playing again?

 

With the drugs that many of the dj's are taking, the lifespand isn't the longest ones, so a silent prayer... Let them surivive for at least 2 years.

 

hmpph..

[cray3]

You are aware of the fact that soulsurfer and Andromeda is the exact same guy, right? I heard Andromeda at Ozora and he was great there as well

 

Anyways, from what I read here Im glad i went to Ozora, that one was much, much better than what people report here.

 

 

nope..i am not aware they are both the same..when i reached the chill stage, i saw a empty stage with laptop playing some tunes and people said it was soulsurfers' laptop..i waited for 10-15 mins and no one came on the stage..i got pissed and then proceeded to the main stage.