Of all the stops on my festival Odyssey Ozora was the one I was least looking forward to. 8 days of militant psy-trance – a genre that I have never been a fan of and that I was going to have to tolerate entirely alone. I very nearly considered bailing on the whole thing. It was the first festival since my 2 and a half-week break and in that time I was taking great pleasure in wondering around foreign cities aimlessly, making new friends in hostels and trying and failing to chat up a series of Parisian women. All this made the idea of Ozora a bit a chore that was until Arielle, a really friendly (or super friendly as they like to say) Canadian bird that I met at Nowhere the months previous got in touch to tell me that she and 2 of her friends were also going to be at the festival. So solid company and the sudden realization that the whole point of my trip was a festival odyssey and it wouldn’t be an odyssey if I missed out a large chunk of the trip. As a compromise I missed the first 2 warm up days of the festival, meaning my stay would be only 5 days and not 7…. Also I was going to be leaving on Sunday to catch a flight to Lisbon… I cant remember why I decided to do this so far in advance, but can only imagine it was entirely down to the flights being cheaper.
Ozora is considered by the Psy-trance community to be a mecca of the genre. Some of the biggest names in the business play over the course of a week at a location that is permanent for the festival. Meaning that a lot of the structures such as stages and sculptures are there all year round. My only previous with psy-trance festivals was BOOM 2 years earlier and I found that to be a very warm, eye opening experience of a community that was getting the most important aspects of a festival absolutely right. When recommended Ozora it was sold to me as ‘BOOM without the tourists’ and when I spoke to psy purists in the lead up to the event many of them would tell me they preferred the Ozora experience to any other festival of its kind on the circuit. I was eager to find out why.
The trip to the Hungarian village went very smoothly. A shuttle bus services runs for several days from Budapest airport and takes about 2 and a half hours to get to Ozora. Upon my arrival my first experience of the hippies that attend such a party, were a harmless bunch of strangers who invited me over to chat with them because I was ‘sat there all by myself’ The conversation was of course about aura’s and how susceptible each of us felt we were to reading a different persons energy. One hippie asked the other ‘What do you think of his?’ pointing to me ‘I’ve only just met him but I feel like I can trust him’… A fair judgment I thought.
The festival is held in a valley in a completely unassuming part of the Hungarian countryside about 6km from the village of Ozora. Camping begins as soon as you walk through the front gate and I noticed that many parties had formed huge campsites with shade structures and decoration. I chose to pitch my tent in amongst the bushes on one the hills like a lone wolf. Which was a double-edged sword because although the nearby shrubbery meant I had enough shade to sleep in till the early afternoon, it also meant that the laws of gravity would mean I’d wake horizontally on the wall of my tent.
It took a good afternoon of walking around not really knowing where I was going until I was to get my bearings. Just a few hours into my stay at Ozora however I almost considered leaving in a blind rage. For the life of me I couldn’t seem to find any water points and the stewards and security on hand, unfortunately couldn’t speak much English and didn’t appear to know what I was talking about. I was livid. Did these corporate hippie cunts really expect us to be paying for our water all week? My anger subsided however when I eventually found a tap…. Then several more taps and then by the end of the day I noticed that the site did indeed have a lot of free water on offer and my anger subsided.
The grounds which the festival is held on is a very pleasant valley setting, with the main stage in particular held in a huge dip surrounded by hills which you can climb to view over the whole site. There is a beautiful wooded area with a kids playground, venues for talks and even a herb garden where food workshops take place every day. My personal favourite stage was ‘The Dragons Nest’ A wooden stage carved very meticulously to look like a sleeping dragon. Where you can catch a full program of world music and other general electronic music that aint trance. Then there was another trance stage that I never visited, a chill out dome and a couple of barn like venues that again held lectures and cinema screenings. There’s certainly no shortage of things to do.
One thing that psy parties are renowned for, even by people who don’t attend them is their décor and Ozora is no exception. Its main stage is an impressive psychedelic canopied structure erected around large tre and the rest of the festival is landmarked with impressive sculpture carved into trees and décor that doesn’t even take the use of psychedelic drugs to appreciate. There’s also a huge tree house structure that houses several original visual arts works. At night all the structures and sculptures come to life with lighting that moves the forests and turns once inanimate objects into sentient beings. Visually the festival is second to none.
The first couple of days of the festival the weather was a humid 30 degrees. I’d acclimatized to such temperatures by now and there was plenty of shade to cool off in and there was also a not too infrequent breeze that would often sweep through the valley. I also think that the month on the road with its 2 huge encumbering festivals and hundreds of miles worth of traveling and boozing in different cities was starting to take its toll. I was feeling fatigued and my desire to do anything but lie in the shade and look on with envy at those who had the forsight to bring hammocks became my daily routine. I’d wonder for a bit, sink a few beers, maybe get some lunch, then hide in the wooded area and doze off until the evening time. I wasn’t even swayed by the daily mediation classes or list of interesting & hippy nonsense looking talks on offer on one of the stages. Regardless of this I felt comfortable enough that I was in an environment where if I wanted to just spend my day chilling in the stage or watch the remarkable site of hippies dancing to ambient in the chill out tent, this wasn’t a problem.
What I also quite liked was the free daily newspaper that was handed out each afternoon. ‘The OZORA chronicle’ I think it was called. Which was basically a appear with candid interviews with artists and DJ’s talking candidly about the scene, what stage times had changed, the up coming weather and a few segments talking to festival goers. Was yards better then most other free festival newspaper I’ve read over the years.
There are many bars and food options at Ozoro, where both you have the option of paying in Hungarian Forint or classic old Euro. Pints of beer weigh in at a very refreshing €2 a pint but food comes in at it’s classic €7. Although there are more generic stalls where one can settle for the good old burger and chips for about €5. The market areas had all the usual hippy tat on offer, yet no hammocks, which I think would have made a killing if they’d have seen the amount of envies looking folk gazing at the chilled out fuckers lazing in their hammocks at any given opportunity.
I didn’t buy any drugs at the festival although there didn’t seem to be any shortage on LSD and MDMA also seemed pretty popular. I think I dropped a bollock by bringing only Forints with me. I don’t think many dealers would have been too chuffed accepting that cooky currency. I did meet one chap in the campsite selling ketamine but I knew it be extortionate and plus I already a pill to do me one night and I really didn’t feel like tripping in any particular way.
Vibe wise Ozora is as friendly as they come and just about as diverse as you’re likely to see from a European festival. With the nationalities probably weighing in at about %40 Hungarian with the rest filled with French speakers, Portuguese, Australian, Spanish speakers and of course the English. There were also a noticeable amount of Germans that I got talking to. The festival is very family friendly and I took a lot of mirth in watching just your standard, non-hippy Hungarian family clearly attending the festival because they felt it be a good week away with the kids. This is of course true as there are plenty of areas for kids to play in and the crowd although energetic never seemed to be too wasted or intense. When I’d stroll around during the days most of the crowd seemed to be weaving their yoghurts, flinging diablo’s into the air or chucking a Frisbee between one another. A real sense of unity all around and nothing but smiles on everyone’s faces. The women of course were top of the drawer, but unlike BOOM many of them opted unfortunately to wear clothes. Although I did see a few who walked around topless with complete gay abandon.
I noticed some elements of Psy-trance I can really dig. Especially at their big parties. The sound sytems are usually second to none and the crowds will dance like their lives depend on it for nearly 24 hours. The BPM can make it sound like acid techno from a distance, which is fat, it’s just when you get a bit closer and here those dopey synthesizers and weird squelches that I think make it sound fucking lame. But they are what is supposed to be the appeal of it! I can dig it during the day but when the sun goes down it does get truly terrifying. More on that later.
The first big act I was to see and the only one on the bill who’s name I’d heard before was the English band Sphongle. Basically a psychedelic world music act who really got the crowd going and who just happened to please me as well. Another stand out act I was to see on the main stage was Juno Reactor & The Mutant Theatre. A top production Psy act with a ludicrous stage act that didn’t look out of place on the west end. Huge neon lit robots and glitterball dancers all made up a very camp but very eye pleasing and entertaining live performance
By about Friday evening I met up with Arielle and her 2 friends who just happened to be 2 equally friendly and chilled birds from Uruguay and Germany. We walked around the festival taking in the vibes of the evening before setteling at the Dragons Nest for Orlando Julius & The Heliocentrics. An unexpected slice of excellent live afro beat from a man who by all accounts was a total legen in the scene. Afro-beat is seldom dull. So we danced for the entire set, then the rain started to fall and the girls thought they’d go get some shelter. Knowing what a piece of shit my tent was, I decided it probably best not to return to my digs for quite some time as the whole thing was probably flooded. I was also enjoying the pill that I’d eaten some hours before and went back to the Dragons nest for a pair of DJ’s playing hard DnB, a rare treat in such an environment. As that finished I found myself tricked into the fast kick drums in the distance. ‘Was the main stage playing gabber?’ I thought quietly to myself. I trudged my way over in the pissing rain. Stopping intermittently to talk to other friendly festival goers. One chap even accosting me to see if I wanted to share some whiskey and a story with him. As I made my way over the valley though I was met with the terrifying ‘dark-psy’ A version of the genre so off putting I found approaching it genuinely horrifying. The tempo may be faster but those silly samples and synthesizrs take on a very sinister edge, with visuals to match. I couldn’t handle it and the rain weren’t easing off anytime soon. So I made it back to my tent bare foot and broken and lay in my bed with a survival blanket over me with the rain pouring down on it until the sun rose… I think I got some sleep but I couldn’t be sure. Regardless it was never going to be enough to break my spirit or put a dampener on just how great my evening was.
The following day I went on a fruitless journey looking for the girls campsite. Not only had I only a vague idea of where exactly they had camped, I hadn’t remembered what kind of car they had drove in on, nor even what colour it was. Just a few nights earlier I had gotten myself completely lost looking for my own tent. Once the lights go down all those valleys look the same.
We spent the afternoon at an absolutely wonderful mindfulness session, which involved everything from giving the person next to you a massage, to then staring intently into a partners eyes for no other reason then just to observe the windows to their soul. The session was then finished with a guided meditation that completely soothed any comedown that I may had been nursing prior to the session. A wonderful way to spend an afternoon. There was a talk on the significance of psychedelic trips on at one of the lecture stages immediately after, but after that relaxing session and knowing how full on those talks can be and also considering that I’d be at BOOM within the week I thought I’d give it a miss.
Noticing I was running low on cash, I made my way to the nearest cash point. There are unfortunately no ATM’s on site so you have to venture to one in the neighbouring town of Ozora or an even further one in a town many more kilometers in the other direction. My ‘ATM’ hitchhiker sign worked immediately and a cool Israeli bunch gave me a lift to the neighboring town of Ozora where apparently their cash points close on a Sunday. Not wanting to trouble my ride anymore I asked them to leave me at the festival gate, where the burley and sturn faced security scrutinized me for my actions and near enough intimidated me into a taxi which cost me almost as much money to and from the cash point as I initially wanted to withdraw. A mistake I hope you learn from. The taxi drivers in Hungary are pretty much thieves.
I managed to bump into the girls later that evening for Oka. An Australian fusion band with a wicked digeridoo blowing lead singer. What was wicked about the set though was the elderly Hungarian couple in their 70’s jumping around to all the tunes. One of the most inspiring things I saw all trip. I bid farewell to my beautiful female friends and thanked them for their wonderful company on what had initially been an autonomous festival. I have no doubt we’ll see each other again somewhere down the road. Life has a funny way of sorting itself out like that.
So despite my hazy memory of Ozora I have to say it totally kicks arse as a festival. It’s easy to tell from its production and the fact that it is it’s own legitimate site lets you know the organisers aint fucking around. But it’s the psy community that makes it. They have perfected a festival experience where everyone looks out for each others well being. The beautiful festival site is spotless, everyone is respectful of one another and no one at anytime seemed far too wasted for their own good. Ok I admit the music may be a bit naff a lot of the time and some times the views can be a bit intense. But it’s what comes with a spiritual crowd I suppose. One interesting thing I noticed was how the vibe reminded me of a Jesus camp I worked at for a few weeks a number of years ago. The same vibe of families or ‘tribes’ as they like to call themselves all getting along. There was even a set where I saw a live artist drawing whatever the music inspired them, a full on conga line break out on the main stage and even a young couple holding their hands together in prayer before eating their evening meal. This however is a spirituality that seems all the more organic and I never felt like I was under the prying eyes of any dogma, nor did I experience any real ego’s whilst I was there.
There were times however when I did feel that I was the one out of place though. Like I was some explorer who had just wondered in on a party and every gaze I got was of curious wonder as to what my intentions were at such a party. This as souly my own self consciousness though. Nobody here really minded what I was up to as long as I was having a good time.
I dunno if I’d return to Ozora unless a bunch of friends for some reason decided they were well up for it. It’s a great week long festival with plenty to see and do and if nothing else really showed me just how pure and on it the psy trance community it is. At the end of the day the music is essentially just acid techno with Terrence Mackena and Timothy Leary on the mike. I’d take that over a wet field in England filled with kids flooring themselves on ketamine listening to jungle. Which lets face it is just a series of the same drum loop altered slightly with inaudible samples of homophobic and misogynist religious fanatics shouting over it.
I find that in my demographic the psy community is wrongfully mis understood. Their parties are clean, the music is loud and never ends, the drugs are pure and in abundance and the women are pretty and damn friendly. Why not at least give one of them a try?