Fantazia - An inside view

Court battle waged over controversial new 7500 capacity club in Manchester

2013-11-16T18:44:00.000+00:00

Its sounds incredible. A club with 7500 capacity open for 25 dates a year holding dance events for the masses near the city centre. But the battle lines are drawn with some opposition to the plan. It certainly means that Manchester will remain the centre of the club scene outside of London in the country if it gains permission.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mad-for-it-theyre-livid-manchester-at-war-over-new-superclub-mayfield-8943140.html

now this is a raving connect we had never thoughy of

2013-11-05T07:45:00.001+00:00

Nine Ways Raising Babies Is Like Raving, Baby - http://huff.to/1aVFUN2

Smiley face coutre designer rave dresses for ravers

2013-10-20T11:13:00.001+01:00

Would You Wear A Dress Covered In Bleeding Smiley Faces? Showing this week at Tokyo fashion week

DJ names can have some alternate meanings, And rave ones are up there with the best. Whats the weirdest you know?

2013-10-04T16:50:00.001+01:00

DJ Welly

DJs have chosen some strange names for themselves over the years and you have to wonder whether once they hit fame whether they really wished when main stream media came calling that they should have picked something different? Perhaps that was the reason for their notoriety to begin with though, who will ever know. What weird names and meaning can you think off? Rave DJs certainly are at the forefront of non PC terms and just random ones. They all have their own stories for why, but we can speculate whether they are real or the alternate reason. Take for instance the following:

Mickey Finn - In slang a Mickey Finn is a drink laced with a drug given to someone without their knowledge in order to incapacitate them.
Ellis Dee - A clever play on spelling LSD the illegal class 1 hallucinogenic drug from the 60's
Tizer - The hardcore DJ from Northern Ireland named after a crap pop drink
Whizz - Slang for speed which was one of the main stays along with ecstasy of the rave scene
Ratty - Allegedly named due to his early big front teeth, but perhaps just a big fan of Wind in the Willows
Pig Bag - Err we are still not sure why either
Welly - Was it his fav foot wear, very wet when first gigging or a reference to giving it some?
Frankie Knuckles - Maybe big hands helped spin those tunes or to fend of angry party goers
Sticky - Lets not go there
Zammo - Obviously a big Grange Hill fan
Jon the Dentist - Its one way to get over a phobia I guess. Now open wider
Nipper - More of a pets name IMO but it worked for him and he certainly had some bite

No DJ's were hurt in the writing of this story (well we hope not, its just a bit of fun, we love you all)!

How about trying to come up with your own rave DJ name with the Fantazia DJ name generator on our DJ section under the Rave Archive section of the Fantazia website....

Mixmag asks is EDM killing the art of DJing? We ask what about in Rave?

2013-10-01T14:38:00.002+01:00

In an interesting article about the art of the DJing and the impact of technology Mixmag tells some interesting stories including the one below about DJ's not being all that they should be. Shocking but no surprise to those in the industry I am sure... certainly many main stream DJs were media names more than pure talent. But what about todays Rave DJ's? Anyone ever caught one out?

3. “Spectacle has replaced music as the primary FORCE in a DJ’s performance”
When confronted by the accusation that he’d used a pre-mixed CD sans headphones at a major gig recently, one of EDM’s biggest stars not only confessed to being totally guilty, but said that it was necessary as part of his incredibly complex job of playing someone else’s record at the right moment to go with some bangers and glitter. It’s nothing new. A decade ago at Fabric I saw one of clubland’s most revered figures caught red-handed by Fabric’s owner leaping, gurning and fist-pumping like a PG Tips chimp while frantically twisting at the mixer like he was delivering a difficult robot baby with two jelly spanners. Unfortunately, the actual channels being throttled were not, in fact, in use. A mix CD was merrily working away quietly like Rod Hull; meanwhile everyone thought Robo-Emu was brilliant. Rest of the article below...

http://www.mixmag.net/words/features/is-edm-killing-the-art-of-djing

Lol, where did we go wrong?!!! The USA's biggest "rave" promoter floats for $1.1 Billion

2013-10-01T12:38:00.001+01:00

Well its certainly an eye popping figure. SFX Entertainment which owns Beatport, Electric Zoo and many other "rave"/festival brands is floating for a fortune and is claiming to want to spend another $1 billion on buying up other EDM style rave companies. It just shows that where once Britain was at the for front of the dance scene we are now very much in a back water..

Oh and the phone hasn't rang yet....

http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/5740504/sfx-sets-terms-for-ipo-proposed-market-value-puts-company-at-11-billion

Interesting interview with the legendary producer Moby & a Fantazia exclusive available

2013-09-27T10:30:00.004+01:00

Moby the legendary dance music producer that made Play, one of my personal fav electronic music albums has just done and interview where he confesses his tea total clean living image was not reality. Once he found fame he hit the drugs and bottle big time. You can read the candid interview below.... for Fantazia trainspotters Moby played for us at our New Year 1993 gig in Sydney Australia and we have the live recordings of this set with him MCing on it. Anyone interested in getting a copy of it should get in touch via our website. Very rare and very collectable

Hey, Moby, how and where are you?

I'm great. I'm at home in Los Angeles. I thought I'd spend my whole life in New York, but a few things happened. One, I stopped drinking. And two, I realised New York is the greatest place in the world to be a drunk, but not such a great place to be sober.

How much were you drinking?

It's funny. I was part of a study at Columbia University on panic attack sufferers, because, unfortunately, I've had anxiety since I was a little kid, and before doing the study I was given a questionnaire, and one of the questions was: how many units of alcohol do you consume in a month? And I realised I was drinking about 60 units a week. I remember lying to my doctor, saying it was somewhere between 30 to 40 and he was even concerned at that. I was having about 300 drinks a month. That made me realise it was maybe time to stop.

When was this?

Five years ago. Up until then I was a sad, passed-out drunk at the bar.

Any embarrassing moments?

I had probably a few thousand moments. And I don't fully remember most of them.

Did any of them make the papers?

Not that I remember, because nothing was too dramatic, just me humiliating myself. Nothing amazing like driving a limousine through a shop window. Usually just being sad and depressing in public.

You'd think people would have paid attention because it's so far from your reputation as the abstemious techno monk.

I guess some people were surprised. I remember back when I still read my own press being referred to constantly as a "teetotaller". And it was so ironic because I was out getting drunk six or seven times a week.

How did we get it so wrong?

When I first started making records, I was a sober teetotaller and that reputation stuck with me. Luckily, even after decades of being a falling-down drunk, healthwise, I emerged relatively unscathed, which is baffling to me. I will pass homeless people on the street and think: "Wow, if things had gone a little differently, that would have been me."

Did you drink all your money away?

No. I love drugs as well, but the good thing about alcohol is, it's not very expensive. If you're going to have a crazy night on cocaine, it's going to cost a lot of money. But a crazy night drinking lager costs, like, $30.

Were you just drinking lager?

My two favourite drinks were vodka and beer. I remember being in Serbia with these soldiers and they introduced me to what became my favourite cocktail: a pint glass, half filled with beer and half with vodka. Their name for it was Concrete. I would go out to old-man bars in New York and order them, and even the crazy bitter alcoholics would look at me with this newfound respect.

How many could you down in a night?

A few. It's pretty easy to become psychotically drunk on vodka because it doesn't taste of anything.

Were you in AA?

Of course. I have become a fully fledged southern California cliche. The good thing about it is, going to AA is the only chance in LA you get to see fellow musicians. I run into legends from the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Do you only hang out with musicians?

No, most of my friends are directors: Paul Haggis, Marc Forster, David Lynch. If you're a movie star in Milton Keynes, it's pretty big news, but if you're a movie star in LA, no one pays that much attention. The same with rock stars and directors.

The S&M gimp gymnasts and the obese bearded bikers in red Speedos in your video for the Perfect Life: what was that all about?

To me it sounded like a Flaming Lips song. So I thought, why not see if Wayne [Coyne] will sing on it? My idea for the video was to be absurd nonsense, so we thought, why not gather up a whole bunch of random absurd people and see what happens? We put on authentic mariachi costumes and spent the day downtown [in LA].

Did the police intervene?

No.

Even with the random nudity?

To be honest, there was a lot less nudity than I was anticipating. We had about 70 extras and only about four of them took off their clothes.

Were you one of them?

In this case, I was not. I have been naked in public and I've always deeply regretted it. The last time was a political fundraiser at my house. It was a warm night and, once all the politicians had left, someone had the idea of going skinny-dipping. Nothing too debauched, but someone took a picture of me about to jump into the pool and I just looked so sad and middle-aged it made me vow never to take my clothes off in public again.

Did the picture get tweeted?

Thankfully, no. There isn't much interest in seeing a blurry, naked middle-aged guy standing by a pool at one in the morning.

Your new album features a lot of guests. How did that happen?

I came up with a list of people whose voices I really liked. Of the 10, the only two I wanted but who didn't get back to me were James Blake and Emeli Sandé. I guess she was too busy, and I'm working under the assumption that I'm not cool enough to have James Blake sing on my record.

Shame. But then you have worked with virtually everyone else: David Bowie, Lou Reed, Michael Stipe, Public Enemy, New Order … Is Bowie still the highest of the high in your personal hierarchy of heroes?

Yeah. About 10 years ago, I was over at his house and he gave me a present, the greatest present anyone has ever given me: the fedora that he wore in The Man Who Fell to Earth. And on the inside of the brim it said: "To Moby, Love David." I felt like I'd been given the holy grail, because Bowie is my favourite artist of all time. A few weeks later, I'd been in this terrible bar and it closed and I invited three people back to my apartment. Anyway, people were smoking crack in the bathroom, and at six in the morning I took out this hat and I was showing it off, and in the morning it was gone. I have two big regrets from drinking: that, and Joan Rivers once invited me to a seder and, even though I'm not Jewish, I love Joan Rivers and I was too hungover to go. I was so incapacitated I couldn't get out of bed. I remember thinking: "Boy, I need to stop drinking."

Did you just not turn up?

No, I emailed and told her the reason I always give – that I was sick. And it was the truth. I was sick – because I'd had 15 drinks and a whole bunch of cocaine. I'm a Wasp, but half my family are Jewish – one of my aunts married an orthodox rabbi from Argentina – and when I told the Jewish half of my family, they were on the verge of disowning me.

You've been called "the Woody Allen of technopop".

Which, to me, is the highest compliment anyone can pay you. It makes me feel a little inadequate because I think of Annie Hall and Manhattan and Stardust Memories, and I will never in a million years make anything remotely as good.

Allen thinks the same – that he'll never do anything as good as Bergman.

He is actually the one who got me to stop reading my own press. Because, about 10 years ago, on one of the social sites I was reading some comments about me that were so scathing and upsetting. And the same day I read an interview with Woody where he said he never reads any of his reviews so, at that moment, I vowed I wouldn't either. Now, I'm blissfully unaware if people hate me.

You polarised people around the time of your album Play. Why?

If you sell a bunch of records it irritates people. And, also, I have a unique form of Tourette's syndrome that compels me to be opinionated about everything. Plus there was a huge thing about me licensing my music to advertisements. And that seemed to bother people, which I always found ironic. Taking money from a car company was seen as evil; buying a car and giving the money to the car company was seen as benign. That seemed a little inconsistent.

Is Kanye the new you, the pop-culture pariah?

He certainly does seem polarising. I get kind of irritated by musicians like myself who seem relatively well-balanced and healthy. It's far more interesting when musicians go off the rails, like Kanye.

Will people now warm to you knowing you're not a teetotal vegan?

Perhaps. Except that when I was a falling-down drunk, I wasn't a very interesting falling-down drunk. I went to a lot of fun parties, but I usually just hit on people's girlfriends without knowing that they were someone's girlfriend and ended up causing banal trouble.

Did you ever get punched?

No, but I almost got shot by a drug dealer in Ibiza because I was hitting on his girlfriend. There was this very attractive German woman and I was chatting her up, and it turns out she was the girlfriend of the island's biggest drug dealer who was there with about 20 of the toughest people I've ever seen. I've learned a few lessons. Like, when I had my contretemps with Eminem a few years ago, I learned that if I'm going to have a public feud with someone, I should rather pick the bass player from some obscure indie rock band, and not the most successful musician on the planet who is always surrounded by people carrying guns.

Did you and Skylar Grey discuss Eminem when she came to work on your album?

I asked her about him and she said he's a really nice guy and a really good dad. I thought that was endearing. I assumed, based on his album titles [2009's Relapse and 2010's Recovery], that he, too, is in the sober club.

So you could be best friends?

We had very similar upbringings, both being the only child of a single mom and growing up very poor in a depressing suburban environment. So if we were to meet up, we would have that to talk about.

Maybe that was the cause of the hostility: that he saw too much of himself in you?

Possibly that. Also, over time I've just had to accept that maybe there's something about me that's really easy to dislike.

Innocents is released by Mute on 30 September.

Footnotes

He owns a castle in the Hollywood Hills.

S&M gimp gymnasts and obese bearded bikers in red Speedos appear in the video for Moby's new single the Perfect Life.

Innocents includes cameos from Wayne Coyne, Cold Specks, Mark Lanegan, Damien Jurado and Skylar Grey.

An annual Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of Passover.

Play sold 10m copies – making it arguably the highest-selling electronica album ever – and helped Moby achieve a net worth of $30m.

Every track on Play was licensed for advertising.

On 2002's Without Me, Eminem ranted: "Moby / You can get stomped by Obie, / You 36-year-old bald-headed fag, blow me / You don't know me, you're too old, / Let go, it's over, nobody listens to techno."

Moby told the New York Times in 2011: "We were dirt-poor white trash in arguably the wealthiest white town in the country," and admitted to using food stamps for most of his teens.

The Fantazia lanyards have arrived

2013-09-19T19:13:00.001+01:00

Its getting exciting the build up to Fantazia Big Bang 2 has begun and two big boxes of cool new Fantazia Crew lanyards have arrived for the VIP ticket holders and also available to buy on the night.

Interesting article on current rave/dance scene in the UK

2013-09-14T07:20:00.002+01:00

Today's Guardian has an interesting article on the current state of the #rave and #dance scene in the UK. No surprise to anyone still actively going #raving, but good to see the scene and dance music getting general mass market overage tats positive. well done. Extact below....

Over the last year or so, I've found myself at a lot of nightclubs for Vice and Noisey's Big Night Out series. I've trodden the same sticky floors as creatine-riddled uni lads, hemp-clad crusties, suburban emo kids, south-of-Sloane-Square debutantes and Arg from Towie. I've seen fisticuffs, break-ups, make-outs, running mascara and spilt vodka cocktails congealing on the basement floor of club culture. I once saw a man masturbate into his own flip-flops, then get stabbed with an EpiPen at a student union bar in Newcastle.

What I've been looking for is the heart of the UK club scene, the uniting factor that brings such disparate groups of people together to essentially do the same thing in different places with different music and different clothes. I'm interested in both the similarities and separations in our drinking and dancing culture, and why we all feel compelled to do things we regret on the weekend in order make the rest of the week bearable. Clearly, drugs, alcohol and the chance of getting laid play a massive part in the reasons why people put themselves through it all. But I think there's something much more ephemeral and harder to explain – something purer, even – holding it all together.

The rest of the artiles below...

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/sep/13/nightclubs-clive-martin-vice-dance-music

Death of the man who made rave tapes possible...well sound great. Ray Dolby announced today

2013-09-13T18:30:00.001+01:00

What would rave tapes have sounded like if Dolby sound had not been created? Well with a hell of a lot more hissing. Image what a copy of a copy of your mates favourite Top Buzz set would have sounded like if the hissing was already on the tape at the start. Oh dear. Thank you Mr Dolby. Read about the man who created the technology from his obituary below. Oh and he was British so well done once again to our little island nation...

His system of using multiple loudspeakers and multichannel technology — first through his Dolby Stereo, introduced in 1975, and later through Dolby digital surround sound — set new acoustic standards in big screen entertainment. It also made him a fortune, estimated last year at $2.4 billion.

Film makers had striven since the 1950s to improve the clarity and realism of cinema sound, notably by introducing stereophonic soundtracks to replace the old mono or single-source technology. But it was Dolby, who set up his company in Britain in 1965 before returning to his native America, who made the breakthrough.

Beginning in the 1960s with Dolby noise reduction, a form of audio compression and expansion that reduces tape hiss, his company Dolby Laboratories went on to develop a host of groundbreaking technologies, including Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, Dolby Surround, Dolby 3D Digital Cinema and others. Soon the distinctive Dolby logo — two block-letter Ds back-to-back — had become synonymous with audio quality .

By the late 1970s Dolby was delivering surround-sound systems that amazed cinemagoers with their sheer volume, scale, and all-enfolding sensation; at the same time directors could locate individual sounds within the audio spectrum with pinpoint accuracy.

A particular triumph came in 1977, when the young director George Lucas used Dolby’s latest sound system in Star Wars, achieving a louder, more layered, more directional concept of sound.

With its clash of intergalactic forces and stirring, brass-heavy orchestral score, the film was a perfect showcase for the new technology. “Star Wars changed sound forever,” declared Michael Minkler, who helped to mix the film’s soundtrack. At times, he explained, hundreds of tracks were playing in the mix, but without hundreds of tracks’ worth of hiss and rumble, of the sort that had blighted recording media before Dolby arrived on the scene.

By eliminating such problems, and introducing other enhancements, Dolby allowed film makers to use more sophisticated multi-track, surround-sound audio to transport audiences into fantasy worlds. In another 1977 blockbuster, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the director Steven Spielberg also turned to Dolby Stereo technology, investing the sound of the extraterrestrial spaceship with the same emotional intensity as the pictures.

The son of a salesman, Ray Milton Dolby was born on January 18 1933 in Portland, Oregon. His parents moved to California when he was still a boy and he attended high school in San Francisco. Musical and insatiably curious as a child, he later attributed his success to an appetite for learning that was fostered by his parents. He was still at school when he started working part-time for the Ampex tape recorder company.

After military service in the US Army, he graduated in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1957 and moved to Britain, becoming in 1960 the first American to be elected a Fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Having been awarded a doctorate in Physics there the following year, he returned to Ampex as chief electronics designer for the first practical videotape recording system.

Phillips introduced pre-recorded cassette tapes in 1964, but the sound was of comparatively poor quality, mainly on account of persistent background hiss. That year, Dolby was on detachment from Cambridge as a Unesco science adviser in India, and it was while working on noise-reduction systems there that he worked out how to eliminate tape hiss.

This involved separating high and low frequencies in order to flush out the unwanted noise. In an interview with Fortune magazine in 1979 he explained that the system “increases the desired tones, suppresses hiss and recombines the cleaned frequencies into very high-fidelity sound”.

Returning to Britain in 1965, Dolby founded his own audio company in London and established Dolby Laboratories. In 1966 Decca equipped their London recording studios with Dolby’s noise-reduction system, which quickly became the industry standard for commercial tapes and tape machines.

The quality of cassettes improved rapidly during the 1970s, but by then Dolby had turned his attention to the cinema. Not only did his noise reduction technology give film sound much greater clarity, it was also comparatively cheap, allowing Dolby systems to be installed in cinemas at minimal cost. Again it became an industry standard.

Dolby chaired his company (which he moved to San Francisco in 1976) from 1965 until his retirement in 2009. He held honorary doctorates from Cambridge (1997) and York (1999), and was a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame and, from 2004, of the Royal Academy of Engineers.

He received an Academy Award in 1989 for his “contribution to motion picture sound”, and an Emmy for lifetime achievement in 2003.

He was appointed OBE in 1987.

Dolby held more than 50 American patents, most recently one for his Atmos system, which sends commands to individual speakers, so that sounds — be they raindrops, footsteps or explosions — appear to come from specific places in a cinema.

With his wife, Dolby was an active philanthropist, particularly in the fields of scientific research and health care. The couple donated $36 million to the University of California, San Francisco, to fund stem cell research.

Ray Dolby is survived by his wife, Dagmar Bäumert, whom he met at Cambridge in 1962, and their two sons.

Ray Dolby, born January 18 1933, died September 12 2013

Fancied monkeying around in a wood with an Ibiza rave feel & other animals this summer? Georgie Fantazia managed it

2013-09-11T21:00:00.001+01:00

Festivals were plentiful this summer once again but the Fantazia Crew were drawn to try some UK style Ibiza action with added animals and at a place near a lot of raver memories. Read on for Georgie Fantazia's review...

As the return of September hits us hard it signals the end of summer for many of us. However, not for the Fantazia team, who brushed the cobwebs off our tents once again and braved the English weather for the second year of The Zoo Project Festival, which was held in the not so unfamiliar Castle Donnington, on 30/08/2013!

I was desperate to see how the UK festival would compete with the epic location the Ibiza based brand has to offer an abandoned zoo. Nevertheless it was clear to see the production team had pulled out all the stops.

Thus turning the site into an out of this world, ‘Safari’ experience. Their slogan ‘Expect the unexpected’ proved to be true! Everywhere you looked there was something to blow your mind. Acrobats, gorillas, stilt walkers and not to mention monkeys who looked as if they’d stepped off Savile Row, suited and booted!

After seeing how mental The Zoo Project is over in Ibiza, the British crowd really got into the festival spirit. Hordes of people kitted out in animal onesies; everywhere you looked!

On the left on the right there were zebras, lions, crocodiles you name it, there was someone who’d thought of it and this made for a great atmosphere. I can’t think of anything better than raving in a comfy Onesie especially at night when it got quite chilly! If you were one of the ravers not quite prepared for the dress-up side of things, you needn't worry, Zoo Project had that under control! They’d brought over their amazingly talented body art artists, ready to paint you up and make you look the part!

The actual size of the festival was quite small, it meant the camp site was about a comfortable three minuet walk. There were two stages and one arena but that meant everything was so close; no trekking in between arenas, or missing the DJ’s you paid to see. So a tight crowd, with a mood that was was contagious, meant ‘Zoo’ families sprung up all over the bush.

Not a lot of difference between VIP camping and standard as you would hope. However paying for VIP tickets gained you entry to the private chill out lounge in the festival, with its own bar. The music was epic, best underground sounds I've heard all summer.

If you can’t afford Ibiza, Zoo UK will bring the island to you. The festival was full of carnival beats, deep house and electronic sounds. Grandmaster Flash, James Zabiela, George FitzGerald and Dusky were just a fraction of the insane musical bliss that Zoo Project had to offer. It would be great to see a little more variety though, maybe some Old Skool!?

Fantazia's willing if asked! Mix it up a bit guys.

Overall, Zoo Project killed it! They know how to get the crowd hyped with their lavish props, decor and holiday sound, this had real Ibiza party vibes!

Fantazia will deﬁnitely be back in 2014! See you there.

Rave yourself fit. An hours dancing is worth 600 calories

2013-08-27T20:52:00.001+01:00

We all already must know raving is good for your fitness, ok we may have got a little slower with age but at over 600 calories burnt per hour rave dancing really is good for you. Now raving has been turned into tell latest fad exercise class in trendy gyms along with add on DJS and glow sticks! Coming to a gym near you soon?

No need for a gym membership or joining fee at Fantazia so just come to one of our events instead!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2402157/Rave-fit-The-aerobics-class-Fitness-Freak-Kings-Cross-London-live-DJ-plenty-glo-sticks.html

Paper VIP Tickets have SOLD OUT for BIG BANG 2 direct from Fantazia

2013-08-19T13:47:00.000+01:00

We have now sold out of paper VIP tickets for #Fantazia #Big Bang 2 @ Bowlers arena. We have a limited number of eticket versions left so be quick if you are looking to buy for the additional arena and access.

Algorave the next big thing?

2013-08-17T09:50:00.001+01:00

Well maybe for the geeks... But I can't see it taking off nationwide or at a Fantazia. Fancy going to a gig where people are programming and dancing want to know more? Then read on...

http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/12/algoraves-are-algorithm-based-dance-parties-featuring-live-coding-video/

Global Gathering 2013 Review from Fantazia's Georgie

2013-08-01T16:55:00.000+01:00

Some of the Fantazia crew hit Global this year and below you can hear some of George's thoughts and I think she was impressed. It was only a couple of years ago that Fantazia hosted 1 of the outdoors stages at the event and we would love to be back again...just waiting for that call...

Come rain or shine, Global Gathering never fails to deliver one of the best electronic dance music festivals in the UK. The immense line up meant there was a genre for every dance hedonistic to jump up to.

Dance music has made a serious come back in the recent years, and Global Gathering has given us a place to celebrate in true old skool style, at Long Marston Airfield since 2001. Now we’re here in 2013 ready to go again!

On arrival seeing the towering stages and dizzying tents, you couldn't help but feel an overpowering buzz of excitement as you entered this crazy parallel universe, where time seems to be be set to fast forward. The scorching weather topped off with that amazing Friday feeling got everyone in a great mood for an awesome festival.

Friday at The Main Stage started off with Rudimental, Disclosure and Plan B blowing it up and packing out the arena, setting the bar high for the other tents! The launch of the Godskitchen Fusion Cube was out of this world. The 460 meters of LED light strips hypnotized the festival goers into a state of euphoria. Complete with dancers, lasers and incredible, pumping music, this arena was by far, the best i’ve seen to date; DJ Fresh, Andy C and Shy FX smashed up the stage in the UKF Bass Culture arena.

Despite not finding the secret bunker; which sounded insane with lasers and underground sound, the atmosphere of the whole was fantastic and that was enough! One night was definitely not enough! This weekend is not one to be missed. The Fantazia crew had yet another amazing experience at Global Gathering; bring on 2014, we will find this secret bunker! Georgie x

2013-07-26T20:01:00.001+01:00

Indie record shops were the corner stone of support for the underground dance scene and therefore DJs and therefore raves. With numbers down to 300 left thing ave looked bleak for there future but reports today that things could be turning around which will be great news... Guardian story below....

For decades they have been thought of as a dying breed, but thanks to the continuing popularity of vinyl, independent record stores are enjoying a modest revival.

Britain's remaining 300 independent record stores saw album sales increase by 44% in the first six months of 2013 compared with the same period of 2012, according to analysis of Official Charts Company data by the Entertainment Retailers Association. This against a backdrop of a falling album sales market, which contracted by 1.5% in the same period.

While independents sold only 3.2% of all albums in the UK in that period, they accounted for more than 50% of total vinyl album sales.

According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, vinyl continues to see a resurgence – 12m vinyl records were sold last year, four times as many as in 2006. While the general music market sells only one in 250 albums on vinyl, one in seven albums sold in independent shops are on the 12" format.

"These first-half sales figures reveal a stunning result for indie record shops," said the Entertainment Retailers Association chairman Paul Quirk. "Although the odds are stacked against them, indies have fought back."

He praised Record Store Day, which yearly involves specialist independents releasing hard-to-find limited-edition albums to please the most exacting of music fans, while encouraging people to cherish their independent music shops.

"With Record Store Day [indies] have created the first major new UK sales promotion for music in 20 years and as consumers re-waken to the joys of analogue, they have driven the growth of vinyl sales. Although only a tiny part of the music market overall, indie stores are driving some of the most exciting new initiatives in music, as well as continuing to support and help break new talent."

Independent record stores are also credited with providing a showcase for more avant-garde, non-mainstream releases often released on independent labels.

David Bowie's The Next Day, sitting at 15 in the charts, is currently the biggest-selling album for independent shops while Tomorrow's Harvest by Boards of Canada is in second place in the independent shop chart, compared to 218th across the whole market.

Independent labels also accounted for 14 of the top 20 biggest-selling albums through independent stores, while only one independent label album – Graffiti on the Train, released by Stereophonics on their own Stylus label – featured in the top 20 albums across the whole market.

"These figures demonstrate that the time-honoured role of indie stores in highlighting music which might otherwise fall through the cracks is as relevant today as it has ever been," said Quirk.

20% of everything on the Fantazia website until the end of August

2013-07-26T13:04:00.002+01:00

You can get 20% of everything on the Fantazia website (excluding ticket and Spreadshirt clothing) until the 31st August if you enter the code Aug13 into the promotion box in the shopping cart. Great for a last minute outfit, rave accessories or some music or DVDs. Any questions do email us via the website Fantazia .org.uk

Fantazia Superheroes 2 CDs are out now

2013-07-11T11:11:00.001+01:00

You can now buy sets from the Fantazia Superheroes 2 event from last month at Motion on the Fantazia website. Sets are from the Main Arena, DNB Arena and Hardcore Arena. Enjoy. Any questions please send us an email via the main website.

Check out the full flyer for Fantazia Big Bang 2

2013-06-25T18:37:00.000+01:00

The full flyer for our next great big event Fantazia Big Bang 2 is out now. Check it out on the Fantazia website. Go to the website

A last goodbye to the Ark? Clothes shop come past rave promoters goes bust.

2013-06-25T18:34:00.002+01:00

Starting in Leeds in the 90's the Ark Clothing shops was certainly were fashionable, from ticket outlet it branched out into hosting House music nights in the Yorkshire area including co promoting several big nights with Fantazia, one in Leeds and the other in Blackpool.

Music was a temporary thing for the company and it continued on to become a successful multi chain clothing retailer with at last count 17 outlets. Sad news for our old friends is that they called in the administrators today and all 400 staff's jobs are on the line. Bad news but its just a sign of the times these days.
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See you at Fantazia Superheroes 2 today in Bristol

2013-06-22T08:57:00.002+01:00

The sun is shinning so it looks good for a nice bit of weather for the mini festival that is Fantazia Superheroes 2 @ Motion. If you still want to go there will be tickets available on the door. If you are there come and say hello to the Fantazia Crew at the merchandise stall. We will be accepting credit cards tonight for the first time for all your shopping needs. And don't forget to grab a copy of the Big Bang 2 flyer as you leave. Stay safe and have fun

Glastonbudget update: Loving Jonezy

2013-05-25T21:09:00.001+01:00

In one of the smaller arenas at Glastonbudget and no tribute act this time but a young Eminem stye act called Jonezy and it rocking the under 25 audience. Recommended lots of passion on show. Keep it up

Fancy a change from rave but want retro?

2013-05-25T16:19:00.001+01:00

The we recommend the ultimate tribute band #festival #Glastonbudget featuring the top bands from the past 3 decades. On a sunny bank holiday weekend afternoon surrounded with people in fancy dress it is such a good a good time and a mixed age crowd just like a rave. Next year worth a look if theres no #Fantazia.
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Love Saves The Day Sunday

2013-05-21T10:26:00.000+01:00

Stuck for something to do this weekend?! One of the Fantazia crew have got a birthday coming up and we are all going down to Bristol for **Love Saves The Day Sunday** to celebrate! As Saturday is sold out, Sunday is the one for us and with a bank holiday the next day nothing (not even the weather) is going to stop us enjoying ourselves.

For all you Bristol ravers who love House, Techno, Hip Hop, Dubstep, Electro and Bass this festival is perfect for you with headline acts including -
Julio Bashmore
Ms Dynamite
Soul II Soul
Clean Bandit
and Sam Smith (the vocals on Latch - Disclosure. And La La La - Naughty Boy)

Unfamiliar with these DJ's? Yes we love our old skool but its good to get out and hear the latest stuff as well. Give something new ago this bank holiday weekend.

Hopefully were going to meet lots of new ravers and get the Bristol massive on board for FANTAZIA SUPERHEROES 2 @ Motion 22/06/2013 too!
Lets pray for the weather!

http://www.lovesavestheday.org
See you there!

Sad news for ravers today with the death of Universe Legend Paul Shurey

2013-04-26T11:59:00.000+01:00

We are very sad to hear the news of our old friend and one time rave competitor #Paul #Shurey who founded and ran the highly successful #Universe back in the early 90's. Starting his parties from similar roots to Fantazia. Universe's high point was the #Tribal Gathering event in 1993, with its massive flyer and multi arenas it was certainly ground breaking and considered by many as one of the best ever rave parties.

Paul sadly died following serious injuries sustain in an accident in #Goa.

You can read more about Paul and the Universe parties in the Rave Archive section of the #Fantazia website.
Our thoughts are with his family.