Masters of Puppets Festival – Interview
Masters of Puppets Festival – Interview
Masters of Puppets Festival is an underground psytrance festival happening for the third year in a row in 2017, this time in a secret location close to Brno in the Czech Republic. The Festival centers around the faster end of the Psytrance scale (though it also offers a lot more experiences). Since we like to stay updated with what happens in the less commercial corners of the psytrance scene we hooked up via email with Florian from Masters of Puppets Festival for an interview.
Get all the info on Masters of Puppets Festival: https://trancentral.tv/2017/05/masters-of-puppets-festival
Q: What motivated you to start Masters of Puppets Festival, and what does the name stands for?
A: We are basically in love with high bpm psychedelic music in particular and with music in general, also we like to contribute to a great experience for everyone and want to collect additional, other and more advanced experiences in event production every year. The name refers to how music physically affects your body and how the performers use it to make us dance, and even play and move us like puppeteers somehow.
“On Masters of Puppets people can go crazy to 200 bpm and have a healing massage at the same time, they can enjoy the exposed art and witness live painting sessions, discuss interesting topics like nuclear and quantum physics with interesting guests like the Nobel Prize nominated Professor for Nuclear Science”
Q: What is your vision for Masters of Puppets Festival? What kind of people do you expect to come to the festival?
A: Our vision is to create a free space for personal and psychedelic expression, experience and development, to expose multiple types of art and just have a great time. In general we are looking forward to meet anyone that is open minded, non-violent and tolerant towards others.
Q: Tell us a bit about the festival’s history – how did it start and how were the previous editions?
A: The festival started very small as a 3 day open air birthday party with about seven live acts and 200 guests, mainly from Austria, in a corner of a nut plantation in Hungary, that had hosted Spirit Base Festival for a while.
Everything went kinda smooth but it was very basic and we decided to repeat it on a slightly bigger scale and a longer duration in the following year. We meant to use the same location, however it wasn’t possible. But our friends from Inner Sanctum Festival helped out and we shared a location in 2015. We had like 500 people and a bit more international crowd on that edition and it also went pretty smooth and was a lot of fun, but it was still very basic and the last day didn’t go as expected volume-wise, as the right wing party of Hungarian Leader Victor Orban had rented the field next door and held a Church with about 500 Neo Nazis, Bikers and other friendly people.
This was when we decided to finally find our own location in a more liberal country and decided to see what we can find in the Czech Republic. We were lucky and found a very good friend and a very valuable addition to our team in a Czech psychedelic promoter of the old school and his team, that helped and still help us establish the Festival in the Czech Republic and is just in general very very helpful and reliable.
So 2016 was the first year on the fresh and untouched location, it was the first year that Masters of Puppets got real international attention. We sold tickets to people from over 20 nationalities, what made it very interesting because there was more room for cultural exchange.
This year we significantly expanded the size, soundsystem and booking budget for the Kodama Stage as we are planning to have it grow over the years until there is no main and second stage, but two evenly big stages with an evenly massive musical offer at each.
Q: The festival offers a more hardcore line up than most festivals – why?
A: We are just impressed by state of the art psychedelic productions and additionally try to support the newcomers that seem promising because we love to see the scene prosper and grow. I want to be honest, we are receiving way more links and booking requests than we could possibly listen to or answer, so we probably just know the tip of the iceberg for now.
Basically we just book what we love and what we think everyone wants to hear, even though to some it may seem to be hardcore. Maybe that’s just how we are 😀
“…it was funny in a creepy way, but lets say it was interesting for sure to order 8 security guards… and be confronted with 8 Hell’s Angels in full cut appearing for their shift.
Q: What differentiates Masters of Puppets Festival from other festivals?
A: Well, this is a hard one. I guess all festival organizers try to make their festival a great, unforgettable and unique experience, but even though our musical focus is on deeply psychedelic high bpm music that is not the only way we try to make our festival special and unique. Variety is very important to us, so we do our best to offer as many different activities as possible. On Masters of Puppets people can go crazy to 200 bpm and have a healing massage at the same time, they can enjoy the exposed art and witness live painting sessions, discuss interesting topics like nuclear and quantum physics with interesting guests like the Nobel Prize nominated Professor for Nuclear Science from Luisiana State University (yes, seriously!), learn how to do acrobatics and art, do Acro Yoga, make dreamcatchers, see movies in the open air cinema, listen to downtempo ambient and chillout music, make their own juice riding a bicycle, enjoy a campfire and a sky full of stars and many other interesting stuff.
Q: Funniest incident you had in the previous editions?
A: Well maybe it was funny in a creepy way, but lets say it was interesting for sure to order 8 security guards from a semi-professional provider and be confronted with 8 Hell’s Angels in full cut appearing for their shift. Kind of reminded us of the Psychedelic Rock concerts in the 60s 70s and 80s where it was totally normal to have Hell’s Angels watch over the safety of tripping hippies. Well, what to do, they were there and no alternative was in sight, and in the end they also did an okay job too. But it led us to find a new and great security team for the coming editions and those of our other productions. So happy ending there 😀
“We are basically in love with high bpm psychedelic music in particular and with music in general”
Q: Should people coming to the festival spend some time in the Czech Republic? Any recommendations?
A: Prague is definitely worth a visit with its great architecture and huge parks. There are many great alternative bars and clubs with a multinational audience in Prague. Anyone who comes in a 300 km radius from Cross Club in Prague (yes, the Festival is in that radius) and does not go and see its steampunk flavour mechanic moving steelart design, smell its weed smell, drink the cheap but good beer, listens to the loud and mostly distorted electronic music and tries the gingerbread is a criminal!
Besides that there will be a tourist info sheet produced for us by the Mayor of our Hosttown, informing everyone of the great sites and outdoor activities around the location of Masters of Puppets 2017.
Q: Last message to the readers?
A: We are all really looking forward to have this festival with you, we are in the middle of preparations, everyone worked all day and as I write this everyone already has gone to sleep, as we are focused to give our best for this!
