WHAT IS ECLIPSE: RESONANCE FESTIVAL?
Eclipse: Resonance is an annual (sometimes biannual) five-day electronic music and art festival which takes place during the first weekend in August. It’s main musical draw is psytrance, with accompanying stages playing chillout music and house/techno.
WHO | Travelers from all over North America are expected for this mystical and out of the ordinary experience. All ages. |
WHAT | The TechSafari team invites you to five days of music and fantasy, under the theme of resonance. Vibrate to the sound of talented local and international DJs and artists, let yourself be carried away by enchanting sonorities and rhythms, by the sweet smells of the forest, and by the gentle breeze of the Gatineau River. |
WHY | An adult playground or grown-up summer camp, allowing us to reconnect to the blissful days of our youth together. |
WHEN | August 3rd to 7th 2017- $215 Tickets are still available at http://www.eclipsefestival.com/tickets |
WHERE | Campground Site of Bonnet Rouge, on the shores of the Gatineau River- 215 Ch de la Rivière-Gatineau, Sainte-Thérèse-de-la-Gatineau QC J0X 2X0 |
Psytrance festivals are not exactly the rage in Canada, but in other parts of the world, they certainly are! Boom festival in Portugal is likely one of the largest and most well-known. So, if you are adventurous and curious, you should attend one that happens in the woods of Quebec, on a camp ground by the name of Bonnet Rouge in Sainte-Thérèse-de-la-Gatineau.
One of our most favorite festivals, Symbiosis Gathering (California), models part of its electronic music programming to include Psytrance. They’ve seen the popularity of it in Europe and feel that it’s just a matter of time before it catches on here. And Symbiosis is huge, over 20,000 attendees.
Psytrance lies at the underground end of the diverse trance spectrum and offers up a bonafide variety of moods, tempo, and styles. Some examples include Full On, Darkpsy, Hi-Tech, Progressive, Suomi, Psy-chill, Psycore, Psybient, and Psybreaks (or “adapted” tracks from other music genres). Psychedelic trance has a distinctive, energetic sound (generally between 135 and 150 BPM) that tends to be faster than other forms of trance or techno music and using a very distinctive resonated bass beat that pounds constantly throughout the song, then overlaid with varying rhythms drawn from funk, techno, dance, acid house, eurodance and trance by using drums and other instruments. But that’s nothing until you actually hear it! It’s highly energetic and can sweep you up into a meditative dancing trance for hours on end.
Of course, there was more than Psytrance on offer at the festival. 3 stages in total bring us the sounds for the weekend: one for house/techno (Lunar), one for downtempo (Stellar, by the river) and the main stage for Psytrance (Solar).
The festival offers a festive, vibrant and unique experience by including spontaneous fire dance performances, costumed characters wandering the grounds, technological and visionary arts, alternative philosophies, yoga, safe spaces, spirituality, and an abundant area of nature to graze in. It’s the mix of all of that really creates such well-rounded enjoyment.
You are welcome to bring your own food but if you do not there will a variety of food vendors to keep you well nourished, our favorite being Amour Toniques. They serve warm soups, organic power balls, multiple cold and hot elixirs and the best organic hot chocolate ever! We really love when festivals choose vendors that provide healthy and organic products, it makes all the difference to the energy levels over the weekend. Last year they had a wood fired oven pizza, so cross your fingers for that to come back!
Eclipse has come a long way since it’s indoor parties in Montreal started in 1999. After several successful city based installments, the first outdoor edition happened in near Mont-Tremblant, Quebec in 2003. People were invited to bring their tents and to camp, and since then, the festival officially became an outdoor festival. The 2004 edition was held in Ste-Agathe, Quebec; and a year later, they moved the location to their current spot in Ste-Therese-de-la-Gatineau. Though further away from the major cities, it has the added value of tremendous natural beauty, a riverside beach and a lot of space to sprawl out in and enjoy.
Even if you never gained a love of psytrance over the weekend you could spend all your time on the river’s beach head, just below the Stellar stage, and swim to the down tempo beats or tan in the chilled-out environment. The Stellar Stage is the not-so-well-hidden gem of the festival. The perfect counterbalance of relaxation and pause to the otherwise driving beats of the other two stages.
The merchant square will cover all your shopping needs with merchants offering handmade goods from all over Canada. You could buy stylishly useful leather utility belts, dresses of organic cotton, sun hats, knitted yoga socks, crystals, ethically made shoes/boots, and accessories made out of repurposed innertube.
Eclipse Festival promises a spectacular immersive visual and musical experience with high-quality sound and outstanding decor and art installations. Immersive set designers with unbridled imagination will create unique spaces as well as captivating laser shows. With more than 3,000 participants, the festival is still a well-kept secret, but every edition provides more than the last for its public’s pleasure and well-being: circus acts, creative workshops and conferences are on the menu. Various professionals and therapists will also be on site to offer a quality therapeutic program in the specially designed well-being zone.
So come enjoy Eclipse in August 2017: experience new connection, meet new people and share conscious experiences that you will not soon forget. And who knows, we may even spot you grooving out to your favorite genre of psytrance!
To stay up to date on all Eclipse news, please visit Eclipse Website here and their official Facebook page.
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