After arriving on the Friday evening and setting up camp in the dark, we explored the grounds which displayed a carnival-like scenery. I scouted the terrains, first coming across the performance of the fire-dancers to the beats of bongo drums, creating a tribal atmosphere where many of us gathered around to watch. Looking around, we were wrapped amongst an enchanted decorative beauty and I was fascinated with all the effort and love that went into every detail to enhance the magical experience of the festival. I immediately felt a sense of community amongst the crowd and felt at home.
Many of us congregated in the hall on the first evening to listen to the four bands perform. I was quite captured by the groovy styles of Late Night Fox– a 4 piece band with guitar, drums, keys and extraordinary strong vocals from the young talented lady Dani.
We then moved outside and were drawn into the melodic Psy-Trance played by the DJ’s as they sat on the ground behind the decks. We early party goers were drawn into the blissful evening whilst having an intimate warm-up stomp well into the early hours of the next morning. This night was definitely my highlight of the party.
A splendid sunny Saturday brought upon a Mardi Gras like energy with many more festival goers enjoying the playful daytime delights of hoola-hooping, poi-dancing, juggling, laying around the poolside, exploring the festivities, or getting their groove on to the chilled out tunes that were soon to take us into a diverse night of the very many genres - including Drum n Bass, Electro, Dubstep and some Swing and Glitch that were to be played on the second floor with a little bit of Reggae to soothe the beats in between. The main stage was brought to life with a dynamic high spirited energy that washed over the crowd as we gathered together to stomp to the spectrum of psychedelic rhythms that flowed into the night. The décor on the main stage was a simple yet effective tie dye stretch that was illuminated by the UV projections in the dark.
If you wanted to take a break from all the craziness, there was a chill out area decorated by Lee-Anne Flack from Food for Life the main charity and the Pixi Purple team. You could lay back on the couches and escape into a tranquil mood with incense for days…
At 18h00 FLOOTING GROOVES tickled our minds into his trippy tribal Psy with grinding glitchy-basslines coming through the sound of a true psychedelic experience. Our bodies were filled with delightful pleasure on the dance floor and our souls soothed to the mind-blowing melodies unfolding into the night.
We all ‘linked up’ at 01h00 and sat down in silence on the main floor as we were enlightened with a positive affirmation of global peace and unity. This was an incredibly touching experience. We rose up together in the celebration of community as Parallax followed behind the decks, tuning us into a miraculous whirl of glory on the dance floor!
After a seemingly endless night, a well-deserved power snooze was much needed. At 06h00-08h00 we troopers re-united as Portal blasted his cheeky high energy progressive beats at sunrise for a lively stomp! I soon found myself lured into the deeper sounds of Sunday on the second floor as Karl Douglas took behind the decks bringing soulful harmonious grooves with Techno kicks for the very first time, getting our feet beating and bodies swinging. More people came to join in on the jam, as well as the colorful circus crew on stilts from StarGate productions to add to the cheerful swaying groove.
Positive vibes radiated amongst the atmosphere and we were immersed into the escalating bouncier beats of the day with our talented local acts – Thalia, Dre’ama, Silo, Suffix and Zezia (his own produced music was insane!). Sami Cartwright got on the mic and asked the rest of the community to all pick up litter as we danced out to the closing set by Prefix. This changed the tune and ended off a wonderful festival for Mother Earth as intended.
This was my very first Earthdance, and in my experience I felt the organizers really brought the feeling of the theme ‘Community’ that reflected the sense of unity amongst us all. The impressive combination of vision and spirit shined through and was incredibly revitalizing. I look forward to the next one!
Iliana Kirilova , Dean Koonin - Main Organizers
John Vichos– DJ manager and Line up
Dirk Bloem– Bar, Projections, second stage, Organisor
Vicky McHattie– Décor
Samantha Cartwright – On the ground project manager of festival.