Family Spirit in the CZECH REPUBLIC
The small country in the middle of Europe still might be a pretty unknown place for many of the trance travelers - however, it has a lot to offer and it´s definitely not only cheap alcohol and beautiful girls that should catch your attention.
The history of the Czech trance scene goes back to the late 90´s when djs from the Sonic Distrotion crew started to organize their very first events. However, the brand new music style waited for its introduction to the wider public for the year 2000 which is being considered as the real milestone in the development of the whole scene. At that time a promoter group called Hedonix organized a series of relatively big parties which managed to attract a larger crowd and present this new phenomenon to electronic music fans across the scenes. Since then, the number of psytrance enthusiats have been growing and more and more people got involved into the activities connected with this musical movement.
The more detailed description of the whole story was written in the last issue of Trancer´s Guide but actually many things have happened since then. Although the average number of the party people on the Czech trance parties could be hardly called as "rapidly increasing" during the past year, we already had a chance to host some of the big names from abroad - Neuromotor, Para Halu, P.O.T.S., Salakavala, Analog Pussy to name a few. Tocnik festival organized by Tribal Vision held on a medieval castle of the same name managed to connect psytrance scene with some other music styles and for the first time attracted nearly 1000 people. Regural trance nights are nowadays held in Roxy and Cross, surely the best two clubs around. The fresh news is the preparation for opening the first Prague trance shop. There are even two Czech labels already established on the world scene - Tribal Vision Records (run by djs Slater & Schwa), orientated to progressive branch, and Oxygen Records (djs TV & Nem), releasing morning full-on music. Also Inpsyde Media and Psytropic Records hired their Czech label representatives recently - djs Cymoon and Rawe, respectively. The most popular artists are still Rai (releases on Tribal Vision, Millenium, CR2, Groove Zone...), Gappeq (Ketuh, Oxygen, Sundance) and Mutant Star (debut album coming soon), but there are more producers working hard on their own stuff or even performing as live acts already - at least Rawe, Spacer, Gondar, Fractal, Searcher and Procyan are the names to remember. Integral part of our parties are also top-notch UV decorations made by Flurobotanics, Cybofunk, Cybertronix and newly also by a group called "Vytvarny Krouzek Ctverecek" (= artistic circle square), and visual projections, mostly arranged by Mimo TV, Visual Division or Perplex.
The best time for the trance traveller will be definitely the spring and summer period. Czech open air season traditionally starts with Witches Valley, party held on Valpurgia´s night. Its followed by Bioles open air in May, always featuring interesting guests from abroad and amazing decorations. However, most of the bigger events will be organized in July - especially Taranis festival (14.-16.7.), as a Czech-Moroccan cooperation, and third edition of Mystical Ritual (21.-23.7.) by Mystical Waves worth your attention. Tocnik 2006 is also in plan for August. Find detailed info about events and a lot more at www.psytrance.cz.
Although the trance scene in the Czech Republic still belongs to the smallest in Europe, it´s the right place for travelers that are looking for the pleasant, nearly family atmosphere and friendly and open minded people around. Check it by yourself!
Facts
- The Capital and the largest city is Prague, one of Europe‘s most beautiful historical places.
- Used to be one state with Slovakia (= Czechoslovakia) until 1993.
- Still very low prices for entrance to parties, drinks and food.
- Quite a tolerant society towards soft drugs users.
Links
Text
Slater
slater@chaishop.com
Label manager & DJ of Tribal Vision Records.
www.tribalvision.cz
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