ANJUNA/ VAGATOR: With the tourist season at its peak, night music party operators and dozens of foreign DJs playing at trance parties attended by thousands of tourists along the coast are going unchecked. Some of these parties are being held by giving law enforcement agencies the slip and many of the parties are listed on the old as well as new calendar.
Advertisements announcing the parties are rampant
on social media, with a few organisers giving full details of the venue, but many others not disclosing the location of the party venue. Some of the parties are, however, taking place at well known places in Anjuna, Vagator, Morjim and Ashwem. Advertisements have been announcing the dates of night music parties ranging from December 10 till January 30 of the next year.
Police officers in Anjuna and Pernem and other district authorities are in the dark over the planned night parties which are likely to take place without permission and to monitor the parties which are with permission. Residents believe that such parties are actually rave parties and are organised with the help of drug dealers and foreign DJs in connivance with law enforcement agencies.
Sandesh Chodankar, Police Inspector of Pernem Police Station, said that the he hasn’t received any notice of permission granted by the deputy collector for music parties in Pernem jurisdiction. He said that a couple of music parties were held but they had due permission.
When brought to the notice of Chodankar about the advertisements and promotion on web about the music parties, he said the illegal organisers will be penalised as per law if found guilty.
Deputy Collector of Bardez Gaurish Sankhwalkar said they have issued permission for sound under the Sound Act based on applications of the operator and reports from the police. As of December 23, office of the deputy collector of Bardez has granted permission for hardly 11 music parties that ranges from December 23-31.
He said they are not in receipt of any information about night parties. “We give permission to any party till 10 pm and if anyone is found violating permission enforcement powers are with the police. If we get any complaint regarding an illegal night party, where music is being played illegally, we will inform the police to act,” Sankhwalkar said.
Karthik Kashyap (IPS) North Goa Superintendent of Police (holding charge) informed Herald that the police are already looking into the matter of rave parties if any. He said that all the police officers have been directed to book cases against those DJs who are violating visa rules under the Foreigners Act.
Although Director General of Police Muktesh Chander has directed his officers to initiate action against foreign DJs (Disc Jockey) performing at various night music parties without valid work visas, parties are overcrowded with foreign DJs rocking the crowd, and even party organisers are not aware if the DJs have valid work visas to work in India.
Advertisements on social media and flyers distributed along the coastal belt inviting tourists to the night parties feature dozens of foreign DJs, giving their nicknames but not their nationality.
Inquiries with the Police Headquarters reveal that the stage names of the performers create the hassle in curbing illegal operations of foreign DJs, though the local cops are capable of checking the visas of the DJ performing at the music parties that is attended by hundreds of tourists, an officer said.
Another Police officer, who has served in a coastal police station, said the DJs don’t move with documents and when questioned say they will come to the police station on the next day and hence the party goes on without interruption.
We look at some of them, all absolutely random picks (with a clear disclaimer that we are not pointing to any wrong doing or illegality of any of them but simply pointing out the kind of music they play for the reader to form his own opinion). They have been picked from a list of DJs announced for several of the parties announced on social media in December.
Look at, Kindzadza, real name Lev Greshilov (Russian), according to web information “is a dark psytrance music producer based in Moscow, Russia”.
Another DJ who performed and will be performing is Egova whose real name is Egor Shutotov. He has been described as “a brand new talent in the psychedelic trance scene” whose “style of music is hypnotic and cosmic full power psychedelic trance as per web search”.
XP Voodoo, is playing in one of the parties at a club which is on government land. He is described in the website Goafreaks.com as “The pioneer, founder and the legend of trance culture in Russia, party organizer and promoter, the most recognized worldwide Russian DJ”.
DJ Martos aka Mono.Tone will be performing in a night party on December 27-30. He is based in Russia and real name is not known.
Art Alien is a young and perspective music producer (art, DJ,) project, as per the web search. Till 2015 he had been playing as a DJ around Ukraine. Since 2016 Art Alien stared to produce Forrest Psy Trace, Goa Trance, Psy Trance, Dork Psy Trance.
DJ Mandala Raga will be also performing in the night party soon in Vagator. Born in Saint-Petersburg, graduated from SPb State University she turned to be a tour guide and freelance interpreter for electronic artists and bands. According to Google search, juggling with freelance jobs and best techno events of those times brought her to playing her first vinil techno sets at the famous underground places of Saint-Petersburg.
“Having listened to the first sounds of trance tape brought by her friends from India at the time of perestroika made drastic change in the perception of music leaving techno behind and falling in love with psytrance once and forever”.
A further search revealed that in the late 90s Mandala Raga came to discover India. She has been an observer of psychedelic music for over 15 years that finally brought her to becoming a DJ mostly focused on psychedelic twilight, forest & psygressive tunes.
These are not the only, but there will be dozens of DJs playing in most of the clubs and night parties across State in the next few days.
A thorough inquiry revealed that most DJs come from Moscow and St Petersburg on a tourist visa and work for the entire tourist season in Goa. A lady who is in Goa on a valid employment visa informed Herald that these DJs work here without entertainment license in clubs and organised beach parties.
Inquiries revealed that the DJs usually reside in Arambol and Anjuna and that they play different types of music which make them unique when compared to other DJs in the State.
The foreign DJs are male and female. Police suspect that these DJs have links with the narcotics trade but have been unable to establish any links so far.
A night music party operator from Arambol said that the foreign DJs are preferred because they attract a better crowd to the party.
A couple of parties are scheduled ahead of the New Year celebration in the coast in which these foreign DJs would be performing violating visa rules.
Except the well know establishments and night markets, no other permissions are in the list of deputy collector. He said that more applications may come for New Year parties, but the permission is issued based purely on the report of the police.
Anjuna Police Inspector C L Patil said police will keep close tab on such night music parties if held in violation of law. “We will take action as per law if any party operator violates the law in our jurisdiction. I have already instructed my staff to monitor each and every activity where music is being played in the night,” he said.
Anjuna and Ashwem are famous for trance parties on the beach during the New Year. Of late, nightlife in North Goa has steadily picked up momentum. It had been hit by a series of incidents of drug overdose over the past months. Despite this, the stage is once again set to host rave parties with loud music on the beach at night.
