There is so much on offer at Synergy. May be there is too much? But that is the Horn of Plenty nature of this event…well this festival. A time to reconnect with people from all over the shop. One after another familiar face passing by as you hustle through the crowd. The vibe was electric especially in the psytrance room where every one gave it all they had and more…

The rest is a blur of sensations for me, coupled with interesting encounters with people I didn’t expect to see. I was missing my girlfriend there but reconnecting with her best mate. That’s what is typical of this massive social gathering. Full of surprises!
I’ve said this before and it is self-evident that this the closest you are going to get to a festival now as the miseries of cold and rainy nights take over those 6am mornings of clubland.

Synergy is an active people forum. People are coming from all over the country and not just London. It is a chance to compare notes about future festies between escapades to the various areas. Or just to reminisce about this year’s happenings. With all that’s on offer it is frankly physically impossible to take it all in over one night. You have the shops, the acoustic rooms showcasing new bands alongside more established outfits.

You have also speakers, poets and acrobats and so on and so on in five sprawling rooms. But the most vivacious of them all is the psytrance room with transcendental beats
The impression I got this time at Synergy was that the “hippy” ethos or style had been dampened down somehow for a formula best suited to a more mainstream crowd.

There was a more basic feel to the rooms and the décor wasn’t as overpoweringly fluffy as it sometimes is. The healing area, usually one of the most beautiful spaces, had been reduced in size to a platform in the last of the Blue rooms with some bleak looking drapes for decor as if an after thought. Pity…

So you have to go back every month, innit! - groan! Too much for my old bones? Well, people don’t need prompting, do they? They’ve already checked the dates for the next Synergy and the merry go round continues to turn…

© Le Mufti
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