Eclipse Festival 2007 Post-Meta

Eclipse 2007 was a blast! Now established as Eastern Canada’s largest psytrance festival, Eclipse seems to get better and better with every passing year. The world-class line-up included Koxbox, Tegma, Protoculture, and James Monro, all of whom performed excellent sets over the course of the weekend. As expected, the sound system was extremely powerful, but not at the expense of clarity; every sound was pure and pristine! This was brought home on Saturday night, when one of the DJs slipped in a classic tune from Tim Schuldt–it sounded so strong that no one would have known it was nearly a decade old.

Main Stage, Friday Night: DJ Mini

SumKidz Stage, Friday Night

Initially I was not entirely convinced that the new location at Mont Radar was as appealing as the luscious slopes of the Bonnet Rouge–home to the last two festivals–but I changed my mind after finding an ideal camping spot in the labyrinthine forest directly opposite the main stage. On-site amenities included showers and a small lake for swimming, innumerable kiosks offering everything from black-light fashion to cosmic tea, several eateries, and a bar. Once again, Eclipse was very well organized–the entry process was streamlined, security was low-key, and the extra charge for parking wasn’t all that much of a hassle.

Main Stage Visual Control Centre

Main Stage, Friday Night: DJ Horizon

The flow of the music over the course of the weekend was particularly well-planned this year. DJ Mini dropped some excellent electro house to kick things off on Friday night (on vinyl, no less), followed by some killer techtrance from DJ Solar. Horizon ripped into the harder side of full-on, building the night properly. As dawn was breaking, Tegma took the stage to perform an invigorating blend of worldly progressive trance and brash electro. The live element was expressed through the use of a small controller box; snare rolls and other percussive effects were thrown in to accentuate breakdowns and spice up their irresistible rhythms. Stefan later raised the energy levels with his trademark style of melodic morning-time full-on, and the dance floor kept on jumping straight into the afternoon.

Saturday Morning: Tegma Live Set

As with any outdoor festival, the weather can make or break the experience. Friday night was a close call; we were treated to a stunning lightning show under the rising moon as an immense thunderstorm passed perpendicular to the festival grounds. Cloud cover persisted into the next day, shielding us all from the sun–a welcome reprieve. As darkness fell on Saturday evening the sky finally opened up, drenching Mont Radar with a monumental downpour that continued into the deep hours of the night. Luckily, the sound quality was unaffected, and many festival-goers enjoyed FM Radio Gods, Yann, and Koxbox from the confines of their tents. I ventured out for a short while to witness the hellacious deluge pummel all the freaks down at the main stage, but it was too much after a while, and I returned to the dark forest for some rest before Sunday morning.

Sunday Morning: Dancing In The Mud

Muddy Speakers

Once the rain let up, everyone came out to enjoy the vast rivers of mud that remained. The dance floor at the main stage was especially filthy; even with my rubber boots on, I was sinking at least a foot into the muck at some points. While I did not care for Pixel’s live set (it was terribly cheesy, especially with that hit sample mega-mix near the end), Protoculture delivered an excellent set perfectly suited for the morning hours. I am not certain how live it was, but ending with that unreleased remix of Binary Finary’s 1998 was a nice touch. Afterwards, James Monro’s extended DJ set was a delight to my ears; it is very rare for me to hear such skillful DJing! Monro smoothly transitioned from pumping progressive to electro breaks and back, blending beats and making proper use of the crossfader. I would not hesitate to dub Monro’s set the best of the festival.

I missed the final night of the festival, but heard good things from all those who stayed. The rest of my photos are available in the gallery. More reviews, photos, and videos can be found at Psyfreaks, Rave.ca, Ravezone (en français), Froggystyle.ca (photos), Tribe Magazine, and Youtube.