I been to Hungary only once previously as an artist, and to be honest I don’t remember much of that trip, it was a big quite commercial indoor gig, that the only remains of it in my head are some really bizarre Alien stuff (!!) that was in the backstage, apparently from some kind of Alien movie that was shot in Hungary long time ago…
My new and fresh Hungarian experience probably should begin with non party related stuff – every time I go away I take my dog to the doggie hotel, and I owe a lot to the person that runs the place and his wife. Apart of being a really special couple, living a lifestyle that not many would endure ( no electricity, totally in the wild.. ) since they met me, they had to deal with “Yuli time” – which means they had to wait… every time… for me to arrive to our meeting place..:) So I found out that my friends are big fans of the Hungarian brand “PICK” Salami… Of course the first thing on the morning after my arrival to Budapest, was to go to grocery store nearby and get them a decent amount of that stuff..
I didn’t mention however, that Hungary is a place where not that many folks practice English, there fore getting what you look for, is harder than usual. But it’s not hard at all when Andi, the girl that escorted me all the way to the party was there 9AM to take me to do the shopping – I just woke up could hardly think about Salami shopping at that moment, so it was such a nice attention of someone that remembers your wishes from the other evening, when I was picked from Budapest airport.
So we left Budapest straight after, for a ride that lasted little above 2 hours, in quite a perfect weather, that I hoped will last until I leave ( and it did.. ).. The scenery was green with lots of agriculture fields, many of them just finished cropping wheat, and the presence of hay stacks, always makes fields look somehow cooler. Speaking of wheat fields, I have to say that I always wandered why is that in some countries the hay stacks are round, and in some ( like in Israel ) are cubic… I think I prefer the cubic form, then it all looks like a big Lego playground… After cruising through quite a few villages we finally reached a forest that opened into an artificial lake and that was the party location.
The first thing that I have noticed while getting in, was the kind of music that was played on the Chill out stage, that greeted the newcomers.. They played everything there.. from cheesy pop of the 80’s to Jimmy Hendrix you name it – they got it. I haven’t heard Jimmy Hendrix played on a Psy party I think ever in my life, and I must say that when I suddenly realized that it’s him that I hear, I got the shivers. The Chill stage was on the lake, and more inside the forest was hiding the main stage ( gotta love forest parties ), that played proggy orientated stuff during the day and faster Psy during the night. There weren’t that many people in the party and I was really curious to see what will happen there, because from my experience some small parties can be really really good… Right at that time I met the organizer, Bence, that was already under the effect of the local Pálinka – so it seemed to me at least 
And we had a discussion about what gonna be the next day, and our mutual expectations, and then I found out about his wishes to hear my more dated music, and also that I will probably have to play a long live of 2 hours, as I didn’t want to play a 30 minute DJ after a 90 minute live – it’s for totally other discussion, but DJ’s got to have enough time to get into “cruise altitude” and 30 minutes are totally not enough to get there. I must admit that I seldom take requests such as the wish to hear mostly my old tunes, because as an artist, that heard his own old tunes 1000’s of times, I don’t like them that much anymore, and prefer playing newer music.. But something in the atmosphere there at the party, told me it could be a nice journey, so I agreed, and since I had to prepare a super long 2hr live, I was sure I would be able to squeeze all the new stuff I wanted either. After couple more hours with the crowd on site, enjoying the nice nature, the music and the company I was taken to my hotel, to work on my tomorrow’s performance, and it wasn’t an easy task. Long Live acts, normally are not a good idea to make – almost every artist develops what’s called his own “imprint” or “signature” on his music, and too much of that might sound “boring” if compared to DJ set of 2 hours, that is much more versatile being chosen from many various producers. In any case I was happy with what I came up with, and just needed small adjustments to make next morning, and ready to play my noon time set.
The next day, I had a nice breakfast on spot – as this wasn’t a “raw” nature, there was a restaurant selling some basic food on location. That was extremely cool, especially the deep fried fish they served… Romantically I thought it’s a fish previously caught in the lake nearby, but the truth was, it was imported one from far away… It was super tasty however…
From the very first moments of me @ the main stage area, I could feel its going to be a nice ride.. Feuerhake was playing really nice progressive with hints of psy and people gathered and were enjoying his set that ended with a fair amount of crowdpleasers, most renowned of them all would be 1987 by Ticon, what a track that is.. After Stephan, DJ Tsubi took the stand, local talent, that played awesome techy DJ set that managed to go up and down few times in 2 hours, I always liked DJ’s that present their crowd with the up n’ down rollercoaster, and even more, those DJ’s that do it more than once and in a way you can’t feel it coming… By the reaction of the crowd I was almost sure that it will be one for the books for me. I wasn’t wrong a little bit.
From the first moment of my set, I can report that I can count on the fingers of my two hands, the amount of parties I had where the crowd followed every sound in my set so perfectly correct to my own perception, as this party. Even on the special moments between the tracks, the breakdowns that weren’t expected, the crowd went exactly according to plan and more… It was indeed one for the books, and all this time and before, my friend Bence the organizer of the event, was feeding me with shots of the infamous Palinka… It was one happy, dusty and very vibey ride, in which I was as much as a participant as anyone else in that cool crowd I was rocking with.
An hour later, I was packed with Stephan in a back of a car rushing on our way to Wien to get our flights, drinking heaps of water to remove the Palinka after effect and super content about all the weekend.
Day later, the legendary Hungarian Salami was delivered to it’s new and happy owners, who in their turn delivered me my dog what a nice exchange of goods!
That would be the end of my nice Hungarian experience of the last weekend…
