Shankra Festival [10 July 2018]
Shankra Festival is located in the valley of the Swiss Mountains, in a small town called Lostallo, north of the border between Switzerland and Italy. I arrived on Thursday afternoon on a Train from Zurich to Belinzona. Immediately, as I arrived at the festival gates I could feel a very warm welcome. I walked into the festival, found the artist's camp and set up my tent, which took me almost 2 hours! I really needed a few cold beers after that!
Drinking our beers at the main bar, we met an interesting man from Italy, who told us he had cycled all the way from from Genoa to the festival! It was a 300km ride which took him 3 days and he said it was an easy ride for him! WOW! Very impressive! Thursday night after eating some amazing Spaghetti Bolognese we decided to start the night on the Horizon floor. The DJ playing at the time was Bi-Molecular, then Angry Luna, who both played a perfect Progressive set to get us warmed up for the night. We then moved onto the Shankra floor where the Psy Trance was buzzing with powerful sets by Mechanimal and Mad Maxx. We caught part of Fungus Funk's set, but we decided to call the night at 2am after a very adventurous day.
Friday morning I woke up at 9am, with the morning sunshine cooking my tent. It's too hot to sleep at this point, so time to have a cold shower and get some fresh fruit salad's, and Nutella crepe's and vegan cakes for breakfast from the Chai bar on the Lotus floor. After breakfast we decided to walk to Lostallo Town. We found a nice local bar and had a few beers outside, relaxing in the sunshine at 30°C. Back to the festival in time for Symbolic's set on the Shankra floor to get us warmed up for the night. Two hours later, after another tasty Spaghetti we returned to the Horizon floor as we were feeling the mind-blowing Progressive PsyTrance pumping out of the sound system. Dancing on the Horizon floor from 9pm - 2am felt like being in another world, a problem-free world of joy & happiness. As much as we would have loved to stay, we decided to get some rest. All the DJ's at this time are worth mentioning, Human Element, Yuli Fershtat / Perfect Stranger followed by Haldolium! Great sets from all.
Saturday morning, up at 9am again, cold shower and sweet breakfast at the Chai bar. After a relaxing morning I went back to the Horizon floor in the afternoon, and continued from where we left off. DJ's Seratoni, BRT and Eemus had us moving to Progressive and Techno, and we really loved dancing in the rain. The rain came down very hard in the afternoon, we decided to take a break to get dry and have something to eat.
Now it was time for the night party, and we went straight to the Shankra floor. A very overcast evening after the rain, as it was getting dark, it was really the perfect setting for some Forest & Dark Psy. The sounds coming out the speakers had the whole dancefloor fully focused into the music. No one was talking, everyone was focused into the music and moving their bodies. It was incredible. Good work by Galactic Explorers for setting the mood. Next up on stage was Altruism & Melting Point, followed by Rezonant. We really loved every minute on the dancefloor.
Sunday Morning I set the alarm for 7am. After a 4 hour sleep, I had a quick shower and a fruit salad for breakfast and went straight to the Horizon floor for the start of H-Sunrise, the DJ playing before me. Hi Sunrise did a great job with his unique Psychedelic sounds and phat bass at 145BPM. I took over at 10:30am and played till 12pm. I had so much fun and loved the crowd. It really was the perfect ending to a super festival. After my set it was time to pack up, and make our way back to Zurich.
Really great work by the Shankra Team. Everything was very well-organised and very clean. The security was good and friendly! All the music was perfect, great work by all the DJ's. Finally all the people were amazing too! Great dancefloor crowd with so much energy!
After returning home, I was very sad to be back, but on the other hand I was happy to be back in the studio. After 1 day of rest I went into the studio and put down some new ideas into my current project. I was feeling very inspired from all the wonderful music at Shankra. Here is a sneak preview of my inspiration.
Thank you for reading, I hope you will be encouraged to visit Shankra next year 17-21 July 2019!
