TURKEY TR-ipping
Travelling in Turkey passing through a city called opium or ending up in antique Olympos … Secluded beaches with secret parties and eight months of open air party weather surely make a place for psychedelic travelers. Remember the magic bus took off from Istanbul in 1967 ;)
 Altough the scene has been more active in the last three years, there has been small house parties in Turkey from mid 90s. The first open air party in 2001 called LOVE was kind of a milestone, followed up by a few parties here and there. Then at a venue called Saklikent in Ankara, famous psytrance artists started showing up twice or thrice a year, and some were invited to techno festivals. The most important development though was the founding of a forum website for the likeminded Turkish freaks called www.psyturk.com, connecting the people, party promoters, tribes and venue owners, showing the potential of the scene. 
The parties in Turkey are diverse. At Saklikent in Ankara you can go to commercial psytrance nights with mostly Israeli djs nearly on a monthly basis. Then there are psytrance nights by the tribes. Intelligent Monkey seems to be really active after hiring their venue in Istanbul, organizing quality psytrance and progressive nights. Children of Mu led by dj Ta-O specialize in incredible deco and fine choice of locations, both indoor and outdoor. Habehabe Tribe is the only <k>free party<k> crew in Turkey that believes in the goaparty spirit. They only do outdoors, in secret and beautiful locations, keeping the gathering small and the vibe as big as possible. They are more inclined to oldschool goatrance.
 Not much choice of equipment in Turkey, but still we have a few producers. Mindsphere being one of them who has produced goatrance since 1995, never gone commercial and always kept the vibe, and has a few albums worth of productions in his pocket. The only released guy is Lucid Picnic who is a chill artist and had two tunes in two compilations from Peak Records. There are quite a few Progressive (House) producers though well known internationally such as Subsky, Tarkan, and Yunus Güvenen.
As the scene is not so big and Turkey is still relatively poor, we still do not have our own label or a specialized shop. People mostly meet at the parties, then hang out in beautiful natural spots in Turkey like the Butterfly Valley in Fethiye or Olympos in Antalya.
It seems 2006 will be an important year for Turkey as big The Soulclipse festival will take place near Antalya for a week during the total eclipse. I am quite sure we will meet a lot people who read this guide right now and will share a smile on the dance floor.
The scene is friendly and open like the Turkish people. We are famous for our hospitality. Come to an open air free party in summer and relive the old days of Goa, that is how the parties are, small, friendly, unplanned, autonomous and “free” in every meaning of that word.
Facts
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The southern parts are warmer, very nice from March to November.
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Be sure to check out historical sites - the three biggest empires of history had their capitals in Turkey. The natural spots are another story from high mountains to warm beaches.
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Be smart, do not go public, »Midnight express« is a lie, but drugs are illegal. Keep in mind though Turkey is a country famous for its nature and natural products!
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Turkey is still very cheap, both to eat and to stay.
Links/Contacts
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Kodomo
happygoahippie@yahoo.co.uk
interior architect, dj, party promoter, backdrop artist, part time freak J
»May all be happy.«
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