Ozora festival in Hungary is held every year during summer days on a private estate near village Dádpuszta, and it originally started as a party called Solipse which was held during Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozora)
This the official website 2016: https://ozorafestival.eu/ – also on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/Ozora.Festival.Official/?fref=ts
You will find lots of information on Facebook and on YouTube too, lots and lots… Official communication and videos as well as contributions of participants all over the world.
Three years ago I heard about Ozora for the first time. And I went there. I reported on Ozora Festival 2013 in German: https://reflexionen.wordpress.com/ernstes/berichte/ein-paradies-auf-zeit/ – also here https://santonina.wordpress.com/berichte/ein-paradies-auf-zeit/
And here is my report 2016. Part I is a short information about the character of this festoval. Part II will follow as soon as possible with personal impressions, remarks, and recommendations…
OZORA 2016
How to start? The festival is huge. With its sites, programs and many facettes everyone has his/her subjective impression of this great festival. “Ozora Festival is a Psytrance-Festival, one of the biggest in the world. It is held every year during summer days on a private estate near Ozora-Dadpuszta, and it originally started as a party called Solipse which was held during Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999” (quote(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozora).
Geographic position
It is rather a short trip from Hungary’s capital Budapest to Ozora. The site is about 4o km south of the big lake Balaton. From the eastern end of the lke you travel thourh small towns and typical villages and finally the presence of authorities – police controls, guards stopping you to park you car. You arrived.
A psytrance festival is different
People from all over the world meet to celebrate and to dance. But instead of sober stages and simple buildings and tents visitors of psytrance festivals experience and show overwhelming creativity. You look around and it is incredibly amazing. You feel in a paradise of art and fantasy. Words cannot tell, you need to see. Pictures can reflect some impression of the diversity, beauty and originality.
Other festivals might start copying now, by offering workshops and some interaction, begin to exhibit pieces of art, as well. But all these effort cannot reach the creativity of psytrance festivals.
Art and artisans
Some artists stay on the area a long time before the festival starts, some come here in fall or even in winter time. They create all sorts of buildings, form landscapes, construct decorations, grow plants. Their enthusiasm, love and devotion to their job can be felt…
The majority of visitors however come just in time for the opening, or maybe some days sooner or later. They pay, they consume, they party. They stay at the camping sites in valleys and on the hills, separated from the artists area. To me, their way of consuming a festival appears as “festival for beginners”.
It is their choice. But if they knew what they are missing… Many people stay at their tents most of the time, eat, drink, smoke… Once in a while they go to main stage or gather nearby. Maybe for one dance or two. And then they go back to their tents, eat, drink, smoke… I would be terribly bored that way.
Sharing and showing
The psytrance festivals have an old tradition of sharing, however. Sharing hugs, offering food, whatever. Also the way people perform… So many people dressing themselves, coloring their hair and their skins, decorating themselves, carrying funny items such as glittering umbrellas, light objects, fantasy flags… Beautiful faces, ure joy of being alive and being (back) here. You think you watch beings from fairy tales passing by…
Some of the participants are prepared to share their skills with the community. From fireworks to painting skills, from artistic shows to artisan works, from massage to shaman ceremonies, many people love to contribute. It is impressing. When you get so many gifts, wo much attention, when you are surrounded by creativity, it has an effect on you. You start thinking it over what you could bring or do, at present or at next Ozora.
Entrance
But it takes some efforts to enter this paradise. Your welcome is a huge “Welcome to Paradise!” but first you have to line up in order to change your voucher into a ticket or to pay your ticket. You have to show your passport. You get your wrist band and a tiny program booklet. Then you go more than half a mile back to the parking lot. Now you are permitted to drive to the entrance of you temporary paradise. After some more controls the next action starts – you are inside now, in the territory, looking for the best camping place in your opinion.
Camping
But there were hundreds of campers already… I went up and down some hills several times, again and again the same route, irritated, looking around… The place I wanted to reach could not be reached any more. Wooden pillars set a boarder and that was it. But I found a nice place.
While I was building my blue tent, I was welcomed by the rhythms from one of the nearby stages, the typical rhythms that would be my companion day and night for the whole week. Right, I arrived without physical companion but I knew other Austrian people I know would be at this festival, too.
Dark side
Back in paradise, green grass and sunshine, a good feeling, but knowing this paradiese can be hell, too. True Ozorians would not steal, we know, but yet we all had to be careful. Thieves take advantage of neglicence. Long-distance walks, people lining up for food, drinks, shower, toilets. Permanent noise. Heat, wind, rain. stormy weather… Only cold water in the showers, for washing my long hair a very cruel thing. No comfortable seats, sitting on the floor is quite normal.
But in spite of all these negative circumstances it is pure joy being part of the game, so-to-speak. The stay is enjoyable and full of surprise, fun, and collecting impressions. You meet wonderful people every day, every hour, wherever you walk and stay. You get attracted by so many unusual things and acrions to see.
Oneness
More and more, in the big community, you start feeling oneness and understanding. This is amazing. No religion, nor sect, peole from all over the world, having maybe little in common but yet this feeling of “one heart and one mind”. A big family. You meet people while taking food, listening to lectures, dancing,…. There are a great number of occasions to exchange some thoughts. Someone comes up to only you offering you hugs, this can be so moving… And of course there are many other ways showing attention, telling a visitor you likehis/her outfit… Dancing together, assisting each other to climb a hill or to activate the old blue well together…
There are many official stages and improvisation is allowed and welcome. There is the huge colorful main stage with its extra towers.The traditional Pumpui, a big half open tent, an ideal meeting point, then the big Chill House with lower rhythms, but far from being quiet! The Dragon’s Nest is the stage for all sorts of music, and the new ArtisanLab and the Chambok House offer additional stages. And for those who love circus there are one or two circus performances every evening.
The Pumpui tent in a pause
Distances
The area is vast, from the entrance to the labyrinth in a corn field it takes about one mile’s walk. My smartphone statistics showed me that I walked between 4 and 12 miles every day. Dancing steps are not included. Sitting, however, can be added as another sort of sports, too. From the yoga position to sitting on the floor on a tiny spot between others during some workshops, often in the hottest time around noon, it was quite challenging and tiring, as well.
Diversity
Now I could talk about the opening ceremony, the food, the fire shows, healing music, the Healion (healing tent). About the medical and psychological support and the so-called Haven, another tent where visitors could find a refugium at any time. About the way to dance, about fun actions, about nationalities… About traditional folklore shown by the Hungarians, about the distributors of the Ozorian Prophet, the Kitchen Grove, the Tea Shack, The Mirador, The Butterfly Gouse, the Blue Prism, the Crystals on the hill over Main Stage… The painters, the art exhibitions, the artisan lab, the market area, the sand carvings, the huge wooden figures, the elf houses in the wood, the Dragon Stair, the new bis stair, the light tunnel leading to Main Stage, the light installations…
So many impressions, words just cannot tell. Even pictures cannot tell.
So many details, I could talk for hours, I can only say: Come, look, enjoy, study this dream world, this parallel world, this vision-come-true, get your own inspirations.
I will get focussed on my inner experience, the insights I got during my second stay and how Ozora will affect my further life. How I felt, what I liked, what I learned, what I took with me from Ozora.
A selfie, taken during a rest at my camping place
My tent and my car – what a luxury both at the same place…
To be continued…
OZORA 2016 – Part II – My Impressions 2016
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Back from somewhere, nowhere, anywhere…
Clarissa Smiles 