Morocco is beautiful country with lots of rich history.
One of the many jewels in its crown is Essaouira, a port city and resort on the Atlantic Coast. it was a hippie haven in the 60s — rumour has it Hendrix spent time here – and has stunning sunsets amongst many other great assets.
It has plenty going for it so we look at five of the most essential reasons you should go next to the obvious first one.
MOGA Festival
MOGA Festival is a stunning musical getaway in a desert location that runs October 11 – 13. It takes place in the unique and historic Essaouira, a port city and resort on the Atlantic Coast.With a mix of local and international names all bringing the rhythms and plenty of rich culture to explore and names like Bradley Zero, Praslea, DJ W!ld, Louise Chen, Konstantin Sibold, Behrouz, Terekke and now phase two adding further quality with Amine K, Driss Skali, Kenny Dope, Marwan. Find out more on the website.
Sports activities
Kite surfing lessons on the Atlantic sea are a great way to get your pulse raised but also catch a tan. You could also try quad rides amongst the endless dunes or a horse ride along the beach and surfing on the sea, all of which are available from a number of different places.
The souks
These world renowned and super colourful markets are a must visit attraction. Head to Marrakech for the best offerings.The square/souks can be overwhelming to see at first, so get a guide if you can as you will see some things you never would’ve seen if you try to navigate the souks alone.
Discover ancient Essaouira
Follow the lovely Atlantic coastline from Agadir to Essaouira for a full-day tour of the ancient city. Explore the town’s lively port, travel to the UNESCO-listed Media, admire the elaborate marquetry, and enjoy a tranquil stroll down the endless beach. A scenic drive, trip to the old port, visits to isolated beaches and more will part of your trip.
Museum visits
There are so many amazing galleries to visit you will never get them all done so plan carefully. There are those that focus on art, sculpture and pottery with Galerie la Kasbah, Galerie D’Art Damgaard and Centre d’art Le Real Mogador all top picks.
Wit so many choices when it comes to festivals around the world, it can be hard to make up your mind about which deserves your cash. If you like sun, beaches, big scale events and some superstar names, there can be nowhere finer than RFM SOMNII.
This one goes down on a magical and seemingly endless 33km beach on Portugal’s coastal resort of Figueira da Foz. The teary by town is great to stay in and it is easy to get to from local airports. Once you arrive you will be blown away by the scale of the main stage. It literally grows up out of the sand, towers down on you and hurts your neck as you crane to see it all.
The speakers stacks that hang down next to it are giant, the screens awesome, the whole experience will blow you away, even before you hear the music. The music comes from big name EDM stars such as the main man Alesso, plus Dutch titan Afrojack and DJ Snake. Their sun kissed sets bring big drops, singalong moments and plenty of the sort of synths that get hands in the air.
The crowd is young, keen and good looking. They come from all over Europe and are not afraid to get stuck in dancing. They lap up the newer additions for this year who come in the form of hip hop and reggaeton acts likeTyga and Ozuna. Their different sounds keep things fresh across the weekend, as do the extras.
Primarily these include the new for 2019 Casino, which is great place to go and lose loads of money but have loads of fun. A safer bet are all the myriad food and drink stalls that keep you fuelled under the hot sun. RFM SOMNII, then, is a mega festival on a mega scale that is mega fun, and should be on your to do list.
The essential Electric Zoo Festival takes place in New York’s Randall’s Island Park from August 30th to September 1st and this year hosts a special stage with Eric Prydz.
The legendary dance producer has curated the whole arena and on Saturday August 31 he will play alongside Green Velvet, Joris Voorn, Yotto, Cristoph, Ben Bohmer (live) and Miss Jennifer.
Expect vast production that will blow your mind and tingle your every sense as well as a whole host of EDM, techno and bass across the various different stages.
Tickets are on sale from the Electric Zoo website now.
From 25 to 29 September, the 7th edition of Paris Electronic Week will turn the French capital into European’s electronic music hotspot. PEW is a hybrid and multidisciplinary festival, attracting artists, music fans and enthusiasts to party, visit record shops and attend various other PEW branded events. From 25 to 27 September, the festival will offer a programme of specialised, conferences, workshops and masterclasses focusing on topics surrounding electronic music and cultures. The latter will take place at Gaité Lyrique.
The speakers announced so far: 1024 Architecture, AMS Booking, Anetha, Burning Man, Dif Production, Entente Nocturne, Femur, François X, French Burners (Megasame), Horst Festival, Jean-Yves Leloup, Malo Lacroix, Marc Ippon De Ronda, Nuit Parallèles, Nuits Sonores, RAW, Rinse France, Romain Tardy, Spiral Tribe, Surprize, Teki Latex and Yoyaku. In this article, we present our five top reasons to visit PEW this September.
Audiovisual Performance and Stagecraft at the Heart of the Party
25 September, Gaité Lyrique
With music as the main engine, large-scale live events are now increasingly including new forms of art such as vjing, set design and audiovisual performance, and all of this is designed to hold your attention and offer you a 360-degree show. Often left in the shadows, the highly skilled technicians who create these magnificent constructs are nevertheless an integral part of the festival and party process. But how do you make a name for yourself in this world, and what do you need to know about these arcane practices to make a name for yourself?
Tomorrow’s Party Becomes an Immersive Exhibition
25 September, Gaité Lyrique
Parties have gone beyond their initial role as an outlet for exuberance and are no longer a simple ode to dance, now being more of a call to discovery. The border between music and art has never been as porous as it is today with new formats where music, sculpture and installations merge. And so, far from being limited to the ordinary, the party now finds its place in institutions that previously would never have hosted ‘raves’. But the big question is, how do you attract audiences to this new form of festive artistic expression?
Les Veillées Électroniques à la Gaîté Lyrique
25 – 26 September, Gaité Lyrique
Les Éveilles, a support association for exiles, organizes two exceptional performances at the Gaîté Lyrique, audiovisual and lives, with experimental programming at the forefront of electronic music.
25 September Jeff Mills will debut his Things to Come live A/V show. Anthony Linell aka Abdulla Rashim and Ali M. Demiral will display their Winter Ashes live A/V show. Kanding Ray will play his DJ hybrid DJ set.
26 September
Monolake will play live as well as Peder Mannerfelt. Murcof and Malo Lacroix will perform a live A/V show.
Former trader, François-Xavier Zoumenou has left everything to focus on his true passion: electronic music. As a key artist on the thriving techno scene, François X has built a reputation and been an important part of the movement. In 2011, he co-founded the Dement3d label with Heartbeat. In 2019 there was another important development with the creation of a parallel project ‘Dement3d XXX’ where François X plans to allow artists to share house and techno without limiting themselves to the definitions of the genre. In this talk, he will discuss the challenges of staying efficient in a tough and competitive environment, while explaining how to keep things fresh and relevant after more than 8 years of existence.
Everyday Magic – 24 Hours in the Life of a Manager
27 September, Gaité Lyrique
As the previous workshops, two speakers will help you get genuine insight into the top jobs in order to make informed and intelligent choices about your future path to success. How do you manage the follow-up for an artist about to sign a deal? How do you adapt your vision to that of the artist? How to manage negotiations and the relationship with your artists? These are all questions that will be dealt with during this workshop.
More information regarding the programme will be released on August, 21.
The sixth edition of Sea Dance Festival just got even bigger with the news that techno titans Recondite, Riche Hawtin and Sven Vath have been added to an already extensive bill for the event which runs Friday August 30th to Sunday September 1st on Buljarica beach in Budva, Montenegro on the Adriatic coast.
Further highlights from it includeDavid Guetta, Armand van Helden, Basement Jaxx and Felix da Housecat for the festival that is powered by Exit in Serbia.
This year’s edition of Sea Dance will be marked by a world exclusive because, for the first time in its history, EXIT’s famous Dance Arena will leave the fortress and come to one of the most beautiful beaches of the Adriatic. Together with the legendary EXIT Festival Stage will come spectacular production – a perfect foil for the many brilliant artists on offer.
Tickets are €44/£39 + b/f, from the Sea Dance website.
The 2019 edition of Neopop is one of the best yet with a mammoth line up of some of the world’s best techno talents.
It unfolds from Wednesday August 7th to Saturday August 10th on the beautiful Atlantic Ocean in Northern Portugal’s Viana de Castelo, a historic region that is baked in sun.
he most recent additions are Dax J, Jeff Mills and Matrixxman and these come on top of a long list of titans includingChris Liebing,DJ Deep, Dasha Rush (Live), Héctor Oaks, Interstellar Funk, Ivan Smagghe, Laurent Garnier, Nastia, Nicolas Lutz and Ø [Phase].
Tickets start at 60€ and are available from the Neopop Festival website.
You can now party anywhere in the world, in any temperatures, any setting, at any altitude. Which is great, because there is so much competition that festivals are falling over themselves to get your attention and wow you.
Many idyllic escapes now exists so here are our five favourites.
After three much-talked about editions, there a special and unique atmosphere has now been created at Epizode that has quickly made it one of the most respected and essential experiences in the year. The carefully curated week-long showcase is a cultural spectacular that runs around the clock and makes you the lead role in a one-of-a-kind film, and it all unfolds on the blissful beaches of Phu Quoc, an island paradise hideaway off Vietnam’s West coast with a soundtrack from returning favourites and exciting new names such as Ricardo Villalobos, Apollonia, Loco Dice, Lehar, Lilly Palmer, wAFF, Guti, Nicolas Lutz and Craig Richards as well as plenty of Russian and Asian artists.
This festival took a year off in 2018 because of the devastating hurricane that wrecked the Caribbean island. Now it is back, bigger than ever, with the whole island’s infrastructure having been rebuilt. Stages are on beaches and jungle clearings and are truly beautiful. This year Zip, Axel Boman, Apollonia, Fumiya Tanaka, Traumer, Francesca Lombardo, DeWalta, Enzo Siragusa, Archie Hamilton, Guy Gerber, Marco Carola and more all played so expect more of the same in 2020.
Envision is a four-day wellbeing and music festival held on a beach on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast with the rainforest as a dramatic backdrop. Lee Burridge, Bedouin, John Acquaviva, GRIZ, Sabo, Tycho, Nicola Cruz, Trevor Hall and many more will all play, and there is plenty of yoga, natural remedy workshops and astrology to enjoy next to the music.
Groove Island is a game changing, truly one of a kind new event in the paradise of Catalina Island. It takes place on September 27th – 30th and offers a wealth of music, activities, great accommodation and plenty more, zip wires, a gold tournament, the worlds largest ballroom dancing hall, a wine mixer, hiking, natural beauty on the mountains bays, beaches and sea. and DJs include Andrew Rayal, Mark Knight, Shiba San, Chus & Ceballos and many more.
There is no line up for Burning Man but anyone who is anyone from the worlds of house and techno play. It goes down in a sandy Nevada desert which becomes huge pop up city where money is replaced with bartering and art installations litter the site, which also features giant stage structures such as the iconic Robot Heart. This is one culture gathering that genuinely changes peoples lives.
The first wave of names for Bristol’s 10th season of In: Motion events has been revealed. The award winning party has now been serving up big scale raves in a raw warehouse for a whole decade and once again they offer plenty to get excited about between now and Christmas.
Brands and labels like Drumcode, Bugged Out’s 25th Anniversary, MK Presents Area 10 and Wum Disco Club welcome DJs such as Four Tet, Pearson Sound and Eclair Fifi, Sven Vath, Paul Oakenfold, Mr Scruff, Dana Ruh, Green Velvet, Maya Jane Coles, Steffi, Pan-Pot, Nicole Moudaber, Sub Focus, Camo & Krooked, Shy FX, Problem Central and many more.
Further announcements will crop up over the next few months as In:Motion landslides into its tenth season, firmly remaining a spearhead of UK nightlife.
Pre-sale tickets are live at the In: Motion website.
‘The Reckoning’ from Terminal V is all set to be the largest Halloween rave Scotland has ever seen at Edinburgh’s Royal Highland Centre on Saturday October 26th.
It has just been announced that the rave now takes place over a third party space with an additional 10000 capacity, so the total goes to a whopping 20000 people. The new interconnected space will allow for even more lights, lasers, special visual effects and unique new stage designs to add to the unrivalled experience of the whole thing, making this potentially the biggest Halloween rave in Europe.
The second wave of names announced to play include Âme, Annie Mac, Bontan, Horse Meat Disco, Jamie Roy, Krystal Klear, Laurent Garnier, Luciano, Maceo Plex, Sally C, Rennier Zonneveld, Stephen Brown, Theo Kottis, Michael Bibi plus 1 very special Terminal V favourite who will be announced 1st week of August. These artists join the already announced Ben Klock, FJAAK, Marcel Dettmann, DJ Koze, Gerd Janson, DJ Seinfeld, HAAi, Red Axes, DJ Tennis, Alan Fitzpatrick, Skream, Hot Since 82, Frazier & Rebuke, so you can be sure of an unforgettable night.
