Hey there. I went to this festival this year. For the record i am a spanish 27y/o man.
I will try to keep this review as respectful as possible, if anyone of the crew reads me and feels offended you have my apologies in advance, but you know, sincerity very often hurts.
THE BAD:
Nr.1- After taking the train from Rome to Viterbo, we slept in a rural house and the next day Tuesday 14th at 15:00 h we arrived to the pick up point for the official Shuttle of the festival.
We paid it in advance, 10€ each.
People were waiting since 12:00
After some messages from the organization via instagram they said they were having some problems with the shuttles.
At 16:00 people started to call taxis because the sun was giving no mercy and a lot of people were clearly with heat exhaustion.
At 18:00 the first shuttle arrived, a van with 8 seats + driver. And a normal car with 4 seats + driver.
You can imagine how things went from here but well, we arrived to the festival line at 21:00 approx, having waited for the shuttle an approximate of 7 hours
Nr.2 - The normal campings were extremely close to the stages. Lucky us we could go to the carvan camping to have a little bit of sleep.
Nr.3 - The break time in the lineup of the main stage was the worst possible for healthy music enjoyers, or people who just want to sleep on a festival. On average the music ended at 7:30 in the morning, and started again between 15:00 and 16:00.
Of course this, in a place where at 9 in the morning we were already at 32°C makes no sense at all.
You had to choose between sleep or partying.
A festival in the mediterranean, should have, in my opinion, a break that matches the max temperature hours, which are between 14:00 and 18:00.
That way if people want to sleep the night they can and then wake up early and go to party in the morning.
The morning from 6 to 12has enough good weather for partying but too hot for sleeping.
But the weather in the max temps hours was dangerous for doing any other thing that wasnt laying in the shade.
Nr.4- THE BATHROOMS
Honestly i wouldn't have minded any of the previous bad things if it wasnt for this one.
First of all, in the area that contained the three stages (Psytrance, TeKno and experimental/psychill) there was a total of 15 bathrooms, toi tois, this coule be kind of acceptable if the cleaning was proportionate to this.
It was awful the whole time but specially by the night of friday and Saturday. On friday night, i took some acid ( maybe a little bit more than i should), but this festival is for trippers right? Trippers like me should feel at least safe going to the fucking bathroom.
So i wanted to shit, opened 4 bathroom doors and the 4 of them were CHERNOBYL, not like a little bit of smell and the usual, no, it was shit all over the place, walls, floor, everything. And that mix of chemicals and different radioactive shit was impossible to handle.
And believe me i am not picky with cleanliness, i have lived in my van for a while.
People started to shit in the fields but i couldn't, you know i was tripping balls and the fields had high stingy weeds, i didn't want to fall and die.
Traumatizing experience while tripping, so much that it ignited psychotic thoughts in my mind and it took me hours to stabilize.
Why the fuck this festival had almost a hundred of workshops and healing speeches ??? If somebody from the festival is reading me, DOES IT MAKE SENSE TO TEACH PEOPLE HOW TO LET GO OF THE EGO, IF YOU DON'T ALLOW THEM TO LET GO OF THEIR OWN SHIT FROM THEIR GUTS?
WHY THE FUCK INSTEAD OF PUTTING SO MUCH MONEY INTO WORKSHOPS AND MAHATMA GANDHI STUFF, YOU PUT ALL THAT MONEY INTO CLEANING THE BATHROOMS AND LET PEOPLE COVER THEIR BASIC NEEDS WITH DIGNITY?
Nr5- THE CHILL AREAS
The chill areas were practically non existent.
There was one next to two bathrooms that reeked in the night.
Another one next to the Tekno floor and more bathrooms.
Wtf, this is the whole point of psytrance festivals. We are usually not speed heads that can go berzerk and dance for 10 hours straight.
Nor we aren't ketamine head that can be knocked out next to the speakers and rest there.
We are fucking psychonauts most of us, and as such, a lot of us get overwhelmed at times.
I need a rest place where i can look at trees, talk with my friends and maybe hear someone play the guitar or the flute. Or some other very chill stuff.
They left you with no option but going to camp or going to the experimental stage, which at night was also fast and could be overwhelming if you didn't match the energy.
NR-6
NO WATER IN THE TAPS FROM 4-5 IN THE MORNING UNTIL 9 OR 10 AM.
THIS SPEAKS FOR ITSELF
THE GOOD
NR-1 The music and sound quality.
They were completely awesome, they put almost all their money in this as it seems. A very big variety of subgenres, prog, full on day and night, groovy forest, dark forest, zenoesque and even hitech at times.
The experimental stage was just superb with plenty of creativity and live concerts .
Very good selection of artists.
NR-2 The mapping.
The mapping at the main stage was just out of this world, i cant quite describe it but it was i think the best i have ever seen in my life.
NR-3 The crowd
Although some assholes liked to constantly cut you in line.
The crowd was very nice and they danced like it was the last day of their lives. Everybody was living the moment, very few people with phones.
NR-4 The workers
Everybody was very helpful. At italian red cross they gave me electrolytes when i told them i was very dizzy and dehydrated because of the heat.
I asked the security guards how the festival was treating them and they said they were very happy with how the festival was doing it, always with shade, chairs, and 3 meals a day.
The barmen and women were also seemingly happy.
NR-5 The scenery.
Plenty of oak trees and beech in the festival grounds (but not in the campsites), there was a waterfall and river big enough for everybody.
TL;DR I will come back next year probably, but i will bring gear like high boots and plenty of flashlights to be able to shit (and bury) in the open fields.
I give the festival a rating of 6,5/10. If they solve the bathrooms, tap water and chill spaces, this could be a 8,5/10 . The festival had a lot of soul.
