It all started in the first week of December. The creative posters of psychedelic trance parties with DJs bearing exotic names far removed from their real names started getting uploaded on select face book groups and other forms of Social media. Through December some of these parties have already been held, some in venues hitherto not announced. When specifically questioned, the Anjuna and Pernem police stations confirmed to our reporter that barring a couple of them no permissions were given to other parties which were announced, including some of them which avoided mentioning precise locations by simply saying South Anjuna or Vagator.
A random google check of even some of the DJ’s who have or will be playing, leaves no one in any sort of a doubt that these are psychedelic trance parties, the kind which involves non-stop dancing to techo beats, the kind of dancing, as rightly pointed out by the Chief Minister, cannot normally take place without the consumption of drugs.
We look at three 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 DJ’s announced for several of the parties announced on Social media in December.
The first is Kindzadza, (real name Lev Greshilov (Russian) according to a Google search “is a dark psytrance music producer based in Moscow, Russia” And what is psychedelic trance or Psytrance or psy as it is called? Again a search tells us that it “is a subgenre of trance music characterized by arrangements of synthetic rhythms and layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. Psytrance lies at the hardcore, underground end of the diverse trance spectrum.”
Another DJ who performed/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 psychdelic trance
And then there is the biggie, XP Voodoo, clearly not his real name. He 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. Mastermind of Goa- Freaks.com. He has been playing from 1994 and plays in the biggest parties in Goa. His impressive CV also states that he is the founder and producer of the first Moscow trance club Aerodance and underground party venues
These guys are gurus of trance and electronic music, also generically called raves.
The disclaimer there is that there is no evidence that any or all of the parties whose posters and announcements have been noticed, had drugs consumed at the venues. But there is no evidence that they weren’t either. And who is responsible for doing a check to either rule out or confirm credible suspicions that parties of this nature are almost impossible to enjoy and be a part of without some form of substance help? Quit obviously the local police and the Deputy Collector who gives all the permissions.
Our own inquiries have revealed that there were hardly any checks on these trance parties, most of which were announced without sound and excise permissions. Even if sound permissions were given-for arguments sake- we need to ask if the permissions for all night events, or till 10 pm only? And anyone remotely associated with these events will know that these parties just about start at 10 pm when they should finish by then.
And the same time, both the sales tax and the excise department should want to know how much revenue from those parties were paid as taxes to them since there were no free lunches, drinks or dinners and anything else in between for these parties.
There is yet another issue that needs to be addressed. All the DJ’s who actually make these parties are not fly by night operators. They are some of the biggest names world-wide on the international trance circuit and don’t come cheap. And since there are here strictly for professional reasons, they should have been issued entertainment/performing arts/ business visas. So are the organisers paying for the cost of the Dj’s from their event funding? And if so, the government needs to be sure that all the paper work is complete and the state does not lose out. Can the local police confirm whether each of the foreign DJ’s have visas which authorize them to perform as DJs in the parties?
But shouldn’t all this been a part of a drill especially in this season when such events are not just taking place but showering upon the northern coastal belt, with most of them out of the official radar of the local authorities. These venues, as a blanket precautionary exercise should be checked for drugs, even if the party goers are in possession of them. The work papers of the DJ’s and the all necessary permissions, as well as the financials of these parties, need to be scrutinised The call is not to single out these parties. The call is to treat these parties on an equal footing with all other party venues and nightclubs which are permanent, regular and subjected to all state taxes and other scrutiny. And at the same time and let’s not mince words, the drug scene in Goa cannot be delinked with such trance parties.
