Episode 12: In which I review SoulClipse

Location: SoulClipse
Date: 26/03-01/04/2006

Disclaimer: This isn't as thorough a review as I would like to provide, but bullet points help with time constraints and readability.

In general I had a great time at SoulClipse, but this has to be due to the following:

• the fabulous, interesting, tolerant, organised and fun group of people I was with (and also those I met along the way)
• loads of sunshine to offset the storms
• the eclipse itself
• my lack of knowledge of the trance genre, which meant I was never disappointed by scheduling, cancelling etc
• my strangely increased tolerance for camping

I have a lot of gripes about the way that things were organised, communicated and implemented by the organisers, but there were also some disappointing behaviours from fellow festie-goers. The main ones are as follows:

• not providing any notice that daylight savings was to start the day most people would depart for/arrive at the site
• ticket exchange booth:
• having the ticket/wristband exchange ridiculously far away from the site and not telling people they can still drive on after (i.e. we lost our driver and van)
• not having signs up early in the morning so people drove right past and had to go all the way back
• having a very unorganised shuttle system to the site from there
• actual site:
• most of the camping areas within flood plains of an obviously swollen river
• main stage collapse (see Episode 5)
• lack of communication with regards to scheduling of acts etc
• marketplace prices extortionate (also found out that food vendors were banned from offering tea and coffee, a large part of Turkish culture)
• toilets badly planned and revolting
• supposedly composting toilets just large (too shallow) pits with 6 plywood squat cubicles hovering on two-by-fours (built by volunteers!)
• above toilets flooded during heavy rain
• western toilets available, for a ridiculous 1 YTL each time
• drinking water ran out
• supposed recycling stations were not labelled correctly
• further issues, moral and otherwise:
• free eclipse glasses not handed out until the morning of the event, meaning many people had already paid for those for sale on site
• information booth didn't have much information, and shuttle buses were expensive
• volunteers treated badly, left unfed, badly organised - many quit which left less people to do things like clean up rubbish
• festival purported to be environmentally focused, yet most vendors provided plastic or polystyrene containers
• groundrules not enforced until too late (see below)
• problems with the punters (especially considering how hippified most of them looked):
• rubbish everywhere, from the first day onwards, even thrown into the toilet pits
• fires lit in national park grounds, even though forbidden (I admit partial fault, but we were only told off on the 5th day)
• scant clothing and public nudity, despite local custom for people to cover up
• as an alternative to the disgusting squat toilets, people turned the hillside forest into one huge latrine - learn how to go in the wild people: dig a hole and/or take your toilet paper with you!

Even considering all of this though, I have to say the people made it worthwhile. I won't necessarily attend the Indigo Kids' next endeavour, but at least the only way they can go is upwards and forwards ...