DJ at the end of the universe - Vortex electronic dance music festival

As an amateur DJ I love playing music. Any DJ will tell you that today the equipment is easier than ever to use. Anyone can mix songs and call themselves a DJ. The hardware or sound equipment is intuitive to use and user-friendly with plug and play features. You plug in your flash drive full of your favorite songs and you play them one after the other. The synch button which is a recent feature over the past few years, makes it easy to align the BPM or beats per minute between successive tracks. So now you too can be the dj at the festivities this week for your family and friends.

Of course, being a DJ requires good taste in music and there are many different genres of music and events or gatherings at which certain specific music is preferred so you will need more than just the modern easy to use tech. You will need good taste.

Taste means knowing which songs to play at what time to whom, based on your crowd and the event. Here in the video clip above you can see my friend DJ Pure playing some tunes this past week while a live band prepares to follow up. The live band is actually also accompanied by a DJ who plays some electronic backing sounds to accompany the musicians. Today’s music is a crossover of acoustic and electronic, traditional and digital. At the recent Vortex Trance Adventure festival on the south Cape coast of Africa, DJ Pure played at the smaller dance area, though the sound system was massive, pumping out a powerful sound on ironically small speakers. Such is the quality of today’s modern equipment – smaller is bigger as far as sound goes.

On the smaller dance floor the sounds were more tech, minimal and lighter with a BPM (beats per minute) of around 120. On the larger main dance floor the BPM was around 140 and upwards. It may appear to be a small difference but it is noticeable to the dancers. The main dance floor was packed to capacity on the main day – Sunday, day four of a 5 day event. You can get a little glimpse on the second video clip.

Having the facility here in South Africa with all the vast natural surroundings and countryside, it makes for ideal camping and outdoor music festival activity. The law also facilitates large outdoor gatherings, and the new venue this year on the N2 highway, just outside Riviersonderend, was beautiful. The various swimming areas on the river where idyllic. And the shaded forest-like campsite really made is cool in the summer heat. Dancing amid the trees in the forest is an ancient revelry, perhaps once linked to Bacchus or Dionysus on Greek and Roman legend. The party goers at the Vortex Trance Adventure do indeed enjoy their forest revelry and the music is the central ingredient that brings everyone together.

DJs from all over the world are paid to come play at this annual event and this year was as good an event as the past 25 years, despite the new and untried venue. You can’t always be sure what will manifest when you invite 7000 people to come camp out at your dance floor at the end of the universe. The DJs kept the tunes spinning for 5 days, on three dance floors, although there were breaks on each dance floor for a few hours each day while the other floors continued, so you could always find some music to dance to regardless of the time of day or night at which you emerged to party.

The nice thing about this kind of event is that is attracts people from all age groups,17 – 71, and beyond. So there is no limit, and it is family-friendly. I have been to some of the events with my mother in previous years. And I still see aged happy campers and dancers mingling with the teens on the dance floor. You can’t really segregate the ages in this modern electronic era of music. Nor can you separate nationalities or cultures. Whoever is updated with the latest trends in electronic music from whatever country, will appreciate and enjoy the music, it’s universal. So one thing about Psychedelic Trance music is that is Transcends any divides, whether age, gender, religion, race or nationality. It brings the world together as one family under the same rainbow flag with the same anthem.

Long live Psy Trance in all its various sub-genres, long live electronic dance music and long live the lovers of dance music culture for it is those who remember to dance that will live long and prosper.