Waking Life 2025: Collective Hits And Misses
Well, I guess most of the dust has settled by now, although there are still various objects in my house that bear the traces of those five days in the Alentejo desert. We’re still talking about it though, over beers or at parties or on chance meetings in the street. “How was yours?” we ask each other. I’ve been five times now and Waking Life still retains the capacity to surprise, overwhelm, reveal another of its many colours. And now, with the new stage Mimo, it knows how to spoil you rotten.
I thought this year it was a nice idea to ask a few different people to contribute to some collective Hits and Misses. One thing that WL always shows me is that it’s about 10 festivals wrapped up into one package, and one person’s experience can take place in total parallel with another’s. And even within your own lane, you might plan to take one route and then spend 8 hours getting sucked down another. Unlike other events I could name, it’s genuinely multidimensional, so it felt appropriate to ask the views of a range of people: from first-time punters to lifers to volunteers to senior staff. In the end I didn’t get as broad a range of responses as I hoped for — most of the below responses are from fully signed-up music heads who clearly didn’t spend any time at Apuro lol — but maybe some of you reading this can share your parallel journeys…
So here are some collective hits and misses for Waking Life 2025!
Name: Alex
Waking Life history
First-timer. Unfortunately I’m one of those people who out of fear of the conventional will snub the popular just because it’s too commonly accepted, even though this Bourdieuan habitus has proven me wrong way too many times. Also, as a Belgium-based cis white gay guy, going to a music festival in the summer has always been an opportunity to escape the faces and scenes I know too well and discover new sounds, party cultures and people. I didn’t see the point of travelling all the way to Portugal to party with Belgium. But this year I decided it was finally time to see it for myself. I guess I needed six years to calm my opinions and create mindspace for the new.
Full disclosure : I was was part of the artist care team, but what follows is purely my experience as someone in the crowd, not as a staff member.
HIT: One of the most beautiful festival sites
For this hit and miss I’m going to try not to mention too many of the obvious hits. But this one is just such a central part of the festival experience. The site is beautiful and welcoming, and the balance between open busier areas and more intimate wild parts is really perfect.
HIT: Rhadoo’s redefinition of groove at Floresta
I was expecting a minimal house kind of set. Instead Rhadoo was playing the grooviest techno set I’ve ever danced to. Every new element felt necessary and every transition was so satisfying, constantly inviting you to explore new dance mooves. Very playful but somehow never silly. The Floresta sound system was perfect for it.
HIT: Djrum’s three-hour ambient live set at Mimo made out of the the festival land
There have been a few times in my life where I just knew that I was experiencing something important. Djrum’s live set was definitely one of them. A few weeks before the festival, he was already on site preparing his set and gathering objects from the land: a beautifully shaped log, two or three stones. During his live show, each was mounted on a wooden stand and connected to his gear through sensors, becoming part of the performance. The amphitheatre-like Mimo stage was packed. People were sitting everywhere, listening with such care and focus. It was truly beautiful.
MISS: The ‘Waking Life set’
A not fully proven theory shared by R and confirmed a couple of times on my side: there were some DJ sets that were just more ‘techy’ than expected. DJ Fart In The Club for sure and maybe even Pearson Sound with a more four-to-the-floor kind of rhythm. I was hoping for a little bit more bass and breaks. I wonder if the artists are preparing a more techy set for WL or if the festival simply had that influence on them once they arrived. We’ll never know.
MISS: The Floresta darkness
Someone on Reddit put it the right way: “imo too many lights at Outro Lado and too little at Floresta haha.” Period.
MISS: Outro Lado
I’ve come to realise how hard it is to describe Outro Lado to people who have never been to WL. My description either sounds horrific and way too dramatic or not specific enough. Let’s just say that it’s the Giegling (a German melodic deep house music label) stage and it’s probably the least queer part of the festival… It always feels very crowded and somehow a bit of a festival within the festival. A slightly less caring crowd in an otherwise very caring and loving atmosphere.
HIT: Outro Lado
There’s something oddly comforting about the idea of a parallel world. At least you know where to find them. Or not.
HIT: Cochilo and the live concerts
Probably the most refreshing music programming idea: having a stage almost exclusively dedicated to live sets, and a lot of non-electronic music live sets. It’s something that I wish more electronic music festivals were promoting. After all, DJs wouldn’t DJ without music producers. So giving them the space they deserve was extremely beautiful.
Stella and the Longos brought their incredible uplifting energy to Wednesday night. A very emotionally charged moment for me was that her political support of Palestine, Sudan and Congo was welcomed with loud cheers and screams of approval by the crowd. I think this is when I started understanding how special it is to have a festival full of like-minded people. And I think this is something very rare that we should cherish in the fucked up times we are living in.
Then The Space Lady. I was listening to her on loop when I was 22 years old, back when unknown artists could still be winners of the youtube algorithm. Of course it was very emotional. Her presence was sincere and authentic, which made her singing so powerful. I don’t think there are many artists who can end their performance with John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ and still not cringe the f out of me. But it was just so beautiful and also very sad. Sad to realise a song made in the 60s still resonates so much today.
I still cannot believe I saw Ballaké Sissoko live. He’s such a legend for me. It’s when you hear the kora after four days of electronic music that you realise how much actual acoustic music instruments can activate different parts of our brains. It was beautiful.
HIT: Dana Kuehr at Praia
Dana played on Thursday from 3pm to 6pm. It was almost 37 degrees but her set kept us going for three hours straight. Probably the set I danced the most to. There was a perfect balance between groovy house and more minimal-bassy-techno(??) tracks. Dana was in full control and she was having fun. It was the closest that she got to her own sound. And I’m very happy I was there to witness it!
HIT: The Oasis bar’s coconut popsicles
HIT: Pizza Moon with extra tinned spicy-oil octopus brought from Lisbon
MISS: Not running after the four girls who left all their food litter behind while I was literally collecting garbage next to them when they were eating.
MISS: Our failed closing
Waking Life is a lot about planning or letting go. And I was more on the let-go side of things. Which feels very nice. But Sunday night we went to bed around 2am with the plan to wake up early and see Aleksi Perala live at Outro Lado then Jane Fitz and Paquita Gordon, who were supposed to play till 4pm in the Floresta. We woke up late and saw only 20min of Perala. Then by the time we got to Floresta, Jane Fitz and Paquita Gordon had already finished (they ended earlier than announced), leaving us only with Outro Lado… It felt like a miss. At Outro Lado the vibe was… Outro Lado. But Kyle Toole’s set was really good. I don’t think I want to know who played after him and therefore closed the stage. The set felt empty, disconnected, and emotionally flat.
MISS: No queer-mingling
After a few days, my friends and I realised there were actually quite a few other gay men at the festival. It made me think how nice it would be if there were a casual way to connect. Maybe defining the left front corner of each stage as the queer spot could be a nice solution.
MISS: the Waking Life Instagram posts
Maybe it’s because half of my IG friends go to Waking Life but the amount of thankful and appreciation posts about the festival has been quite overwhelming. It got to the point where I started thinking every picture of trees near water was Waking Life. So cutting off socials after Waking Life: definitely a HIT in 2026.
HIT: The Waking Life Cult
Everyone who knows people who’ve been to WL also know how culty their love for the festival sounds like. I always found their preachy tone a bit terrorising. I truly believe that being too admiring of something takes away the possibility of a critical mindset. Not critical as in negative. Critical as in constantly questioning things so we can make the world a slightly better place. Everything is in a constant flux of change and fixing things too much can only damage the original project. At least that’s my opinion. But my view on this went through many stages before landing on my current conclusion. I realised that this kind of intense discourse is basically how I used to speak when I first discovered the clubs, festivals, and parties that changed my life.
I left the festival grounds with a peaceful and happy state of mind. Because I’m actually very happy that younger people are discovering this strong love and admiration for a festival that shows the best of things. Waking Life is what any good festival of this type should be. Unfortunately, that’s rarely the case elsewhere. But it gives me hope knowing that younger generations have a model to look up to and get inspiration from. Maybe nothing else will be as good as Waking Life but people will carry on an important knowledge of what a good party should feel like.
Name: Fitzy
Waking Life history
[Blank - storied]
HIT: RHADOO
Leaving Floresta while Rhadoo played for six hours was not an option. Outstanding mixing, pace and selection throughout. But watching his live set in Outro Lado was even more mesmerising. My festival hero.
HIT: The Space Lady
Inspired booking and absolutely heart-warming from start to finish. Been a while since I’ve seen her and here she took flight.
HIT: Que Sakamoto in the Floresta
An artist I know well who I know put his heart and soul into this unique set of crazy Japanese music and edits. He spent over 400 EUR on dub plates just for this set too. Tore the Floresta a new rainbow hole. What a vibe.
(Extra HIT: after mine and Paquita’s b2b, getting a buggy tour of the entire festival site because it was fun, including a drive-in section at Outro Lado - what a blast!)
MISS: Having to finish both my morning sets at midday
The heaving dance floor was in a state of shock both times that it was over. Me too.
MISS: The one-hour soundcheck of FUJI|||||||||||TA at Cochilo on Monday evening
Or, man plays one note into absurdly minimalist Chinese water torture. We had to desert our cotch at cosy Cochilo when we realised we were totally hypnotised and slightly abused.
MISS: The walk to the nearest toilet from Floresta while playing is a pain in the ass
Can you put one in the booth please!!!
Name: Andrei
Waking Life history
First time in Crato.
HIT: High quality production
I work in festivals [as a bamboo architect/stage designer], which makes me picky but, even more so, understanding and sympathetic regarding the hard work that goes in. At WL, it is overall very evident that the organisers and attendees care about individual and communal wellbeing. I was very pleased with the experience and production.
Both macro and micro are done well. The layout of the festival ground is quite rational with Outro Lado being the loudest stage on the northern side of the lake. You hear it from the water but the other stages are fairly safe from sound contamination. The ‘flaneur’s stroll’ around the lake is a big highlight.
The scenography is great: architecturally it captures a nice dialogue of vernacular with modern, from Floresta’s Balinese bamboo design to Cochilo’s engineered timber lattice space frame. I, of course, celebrate the choice of material (bamboo + timber). The lighting accents the structures and trees elegantly, which is appreciated. No tacky lasers or strobe lights.
The more permanent infrastructure such as the lighthouse and all the timber pods on the water to hang out on are great and despite 10k + people it is still very manageable to find a nice spot to decompress. I know people who went to earlier editions and I understand how it’s easier for them to complain about lack of intimate space in this edition, but I’d say WL still did a good job at providing that considering the massive attendance.
HIT: The Lunar Ring AI installation at the Kosmicare tent
I had so much fun with the interactive AI generated video that was played at Kosmicare on my ways back to the van at night. Went there with friends who were tripping and it was a giggle and a half to observe the discourse.
HIT: Thank you for shitty phone connection, really.
MISS: Red meat and milk
I respect the vegetarian choice. But I’d maybe do 1 specialty meat stand for every 9 veg stands. I want red meat, smite me. Was dreaming of finding a secret BBQ cook out :D Also I just love my coffee with cow milk. I’m not sorry about it. I get it though. Good on them.
MISS: No showers in van parking
I would have loved it if there was a shower in the van area, but I suppose they expect the vans to have their own showers. Understandable also.
IDEA: After-festival wind-down
Not a MISS, but I would have loved for some music-free wind-down experience after the party is over provided by the Waking Life team. In the same place ideally. When the music is playing you’re less attentive to the cool talks and workshops that take place. 2-3 days of tranquil party aftermath, full of wellbeing on the lake. I loved the first day where there was no music and you enjoy the lake with friends and I wanted more of that.
Name: Stephen
Waking Life history
[Blank - second time]
HIT: Coconaut coconut water
Absolute elixir, I was gutted when they ran out on the Monday.
HIT: djrum live set at Mimo
Just incredible; the best, most intense psychedelic experience of my life to date. Especially the last vocoder piece followed by spinning Luther Vandross ‘Never Too Much’ in a loop around the surround sound system to finish. Minutes-long standing ovation.
HIT: Hearing Aphex Twin ‘Digeridoo’ twice within about 15 hours on two different stages…
…having never heard it out on a system before, and imagining what it must have been like to hear that on a Cornish beach in 91.
HIT: WL generally fixing all the issues from last year (food, shower, water availability)
MISS: Bochum Welt's ‘live’ set at Outro Lado
Something I was quite excited for, being a big fan of his stuff on Rephlex, but he seemed to just play one track after another, mainly of other people's music. Not sure what happened here, surely some technical difficulty?
Name: TT
Waking Life history
[Blank - first-timer]
HIT: One of the best festivals I have ever been to
The team has clearly put a lot of time and effort into covering so many bases. The site is beautiful and the stages felt sympathetic to that, all the acts and DJs I saw were as good as I hoped, the food was excellent everywhere. All of which leads me to wonder why the first miss was a thing given that so much was carefully curated…
MISS: My gosh but it was very, very white
I know the people that run the festival don’t have a lot of control over who actually buys tickets but there was a distinctly noticeable lack of Black people. This was well-evidenced at Club CCC at Praia stage when Chima Isaaro got on the mic and asked for all the Black people to come to the front and our friend replied quietly “I think we’re all already here.” That made a total of 8 or 9 including two of the three Club CCC DJs. I honestly think I saw more Black people cleaning the toilets than on the whole site across the whole festival.
The same thing applies to the Portuguese presence at the festival. Obviously I didn’t speak to every person, nor do I know every person in the country, but it’s telling that you would notice when someone was speaking Portuguese that wasn’t cleaning, or working security.
HIT: CURVS was super joyful and filled my heart
There was a very strong sense of belonging and community, something that’s talked about a lot in dance music but I rarely actually feel. Given all the shit they had to go through over the last year with the police raids and the closure of Planeta Manas, it felt very cathartic.
HIT: James K at Cochilo
Something that wasn’t on my list but I was dragged along to was James K, which was probably my favourite performance of the weekend. That stage is the most beautiful with a wooden construction that circles the crowd, inset with a ring of lights that make it feel like a halo, and as the sun set the stage was backlit silhouetting a tree. It all combined with the shoegaze-y, 100th Window-era Massive Attack music to feel very Lynchian. James K would certainly not have been out of place on an episode of Twin Peaks: The Return.
HIT: Distance
Very nice of the organisers to put the Outro Lado stage as physically far away as possible from anything that I wanted to see so that I could avoid what sounds like my least ideal scenario at a festival (i.e. Giegling parties on a large scale).
HIT: Maquina at Cochilo
Maquina are this three-piece from Portugal that remind me of lots of 2003-era punk funk bands but they also sit in the groove of their riffs for long times, which adds a bit of Can/Neu! to it. It’s not perfect as they sound a little one-trick at times, and a little too close to DFA1979 and not enough like DFA, but the energy off them was amazing, creating the first of two mosh pits I saw over the weekend (the second being when Verraco dropped this AND did a pull up after the drop).
HIT: Verraco at Floresta
So good that several of our friends decided to call it a night after he finished, despite having just topped up 15 mins before the end. Says a lot about how intense it was.
HIT: Club CCC at Praia
In particular all of our friends coming up on an E at the same time as DJ Caring debuted ‘Belong’, a track we’d all written together. The fact it got a big cheer from people who’d never heard it, before we realised what was coming in, was a special feeling.
Name: Snad & Emma
Waking Life history
I’ve been twice.
HIT: Hearing Dana Kuehr play a tune off of my Intergalactic Gambler record…
…in the middle of taking a shit and running onto the dance floor like an airplane.
HIT: Richard Akingbehin full stop
HIT: The audiovisual installation between Outro Lado and Praia
We must have watched that at least three times and brought numerous people there. It was wild. I didn’t know light could do that
HIT: The smoothies behind Outro Lado. Wow.
MISS: A choo-choo train breaking a day into the festival
[Context: The general tipi area is linked to the main site by a road train that is meant to run every ten minutes.]
MISS: People not closing the toilet lids leading to a foul smell and being swarmed by flies when duty called
MISS: The shade (or lack thereof) at Cochilo during Laraaji’s set
MISS: Leaving your stuff in the tipi and physically missing the dopest shit
Name: dana kuehr
Waking Life history
Volunteer/Crew since 2019… Played at Praia this year aka I will henceforth be identifying as a Praian.
HIT: The soundsystems… The Jurassic (perhaps Cretaceous?)-era rocks to climb on… The nature path being wild and dark and alive with frog song… The cold brew tea… The Brazilian cheese balls…
HIT: claire rousay at Mimo
Laying on the ground taking bumplets with my friend ‘G String’. Some much needed drone + melodies and lyrics breaking my brain… So good. Much the same can be said about James K, Space Lady, Laraaji performances.
MISS: MISSing everything at night
I couldn’t stay awake! The days were so stacked and wonderful that my eyes, ears, and brain were simply overserved and saturated (literally by music and art, nothing else) by 2am. 2am to 8am was just not possible for me. Should there be two festivals??
MISS: The gynaecological exam chair deployed as scenography in Suna (the sensual/play area) during FLINTA night…
Were any women consulted in that choice? One woman’s miss, another woman’s hit, maybe? Idk.
Name: ailsa
Waking Life history
3rd year (1st time in 2019).
HIT: The invention of consensual (British) ghetto tech
« do you like that ? » « are you ok with that » « do you want to dance ? » « how about a dance? » over a pounding Dance Mania beat — needs to be brought to a wider market.
HIT: Laaraji laughing workshop
Though it could also be classed as a miss as I actually left it bawling my eyes out to his closing words « goodbye for now, hello forever ».
HIT 3: Crocs
First year i didn’t have any major foot dysfunction and stomped a lot !!!!
MISS: Picking up people’s trash in the showers
Wet used tissues and plasters, wretch.
MISS: SUNA
When visiting on FLINTA night it was sadly very empty (despite a lovely kiss shared there IYKYK). However it’s an alphabetical permutational HIT for actually being ANUS backwards.
MISS 3: The piles of people’s stuff on the middle of the dancefloor at Outro Lado
I just don’t get itttt.
Name: KD
Waking Life history
Third time’s a charm.
HIT: Poppers
In the lake, at the Praia, the floor varnish hit different this year. S/O to the person who mimed a popper hit with me from across the water only to swim over for the real thing, and to the always fabulous-gorgeous Club CCC for laying up the dance floor of my nitrous dreams. “May I popper?”
HIT: Eye drops
Have you ever shared eye drops while losing your mind front-right Floresta listening to Verraco play this song? Tip!!
HIT: Soup
Soluble food — good for the festival digestive tract and diluting LSD at Jane Fitz sunrise sessions.
HIT: Group naps
Seeing as sleeping in a tent was hardly possible in the heat this year, group naps by the lake were the one. Listening to blissed out ambient at Outro Lado, drifting off to Kia’s early morning trance stylings at Floresta, or crashing out to FUJI|||||||||||TA at the Cochilo closing, our handmade spiral-shaped pillow always had our back.
HIT: Dance floors where you least expected them
CURVS at Apuro! Gigi FM at Cochilo! Just when I thought I was getting the hang of things…
MISS: Being in the tent while the sun was up
It was so hot.
MISS: LIDL merch symposium
Likely due to an influx of Brits at the festival this year, Thursday turned into an impromptu LIDL merchandise meet-up. I saw several variations of the supermarket’s house brand t-shirts, towels, bum bags, water bottles, sliders, trainers… maybe even sunglasses? Did y’all plan this?
MISS: Potato potato
A fallen favourite! Bring back the little potatoes!
MISS: No solstice laser portal at Praia :(
To say a group of friends and I have made last year’s laser portal at Praia into our whole personalities would be an understatement. Where did she go??
Name: Gwenan
Waking Life history
Lifer.
HIT: Mimo. A Thousand times Mimo.
Hard to believe this stage is new. It looks like it's always been there, spreading itself creeper-like over the ground. Yentl‘s morning set early on was beautiful. Sunday's small hours went to Gyorgy Ono: nobody inspires me with their palpable love of all things music quite like Gyorgy. Later, I dragged myself there for claire rousay's closing set and I'm so happy I did. Falling apart to her slipping sliding shards of guitar and voice released things I didn't know needed to be released. Big ups to the WL team for this wonderful new addition. The circle is complete.
MISS: Losing my towel on Day 1
Every Wakinglifer worth their salt knows where their towel is. (Luckily I am well trained and brought two.
HIT: The new cinema: PROPER.
MISS: Forgetting to pack socks for my slot at the cinema with Danimation
It was nippy on the toes, but made up for by all the fuzzy feelings of creating something together.
MISS: Super Bock
If Waking Life could just switch from Super Bock to Sagres, it would be a perfect festival.
MISS: Drinking natural wine from plastic tumblers
Are standards slipping?
HIT: The changing topography of Floresta dancefloor
For Nathalie Seres & Introspekt it was a tilted plane. For djrum a rolling hilltop. About half an hour into Rhadoo's solstice sunset set it became a gravitational well with steep sides, pulling me down into the centre of the dancefloor, where I remained, gently unravelling, for much of the next six hours of loosey goosey grooves.
HIT: Almost completely swerving the circus at Outro Lado in favour of all the other wonders that Waking Life has to offer
HIT: Scoring a sofa at Cochilo 5am Monday morning and riding it for the next nine hours, with the best company, into the sunset of my Waking Life
Name: Nick Kagame
Waking Life history
Year 2!
HIT: Another warm Dana Kuehr welcome
For the second time in as many months, Dana was my festival opener. Both times she killed it (obviously). At Horst back in May, Dana delivered 2.5 slick, groovy hours on an indoor stage — a welcome retreat from the madness and heat of the opening day. This time, after power-walking across the entire WL site in 38°C heat, we found the loveliest Brussels crew going wild at the front, and Dana exploring a sweet spot between locking us into a groove and delivering the occasional breaksy slap around the face. Far from the gradual transition into festival mode that I’d needed at Horst, Dana and the atmosphere she’d built yanked me into Waking Life mode pretty much immediately. Big up DK!
MISS: I tried to make peace with the Harvestman spiders that had taken up residence in our tipi…
…but then about 20 of them clustered in one corner and joined their legs together — apparently, they do this to preserve moisture. This was a bit much for me. When my friend woke up to find the spider cluster right by his bed (after somehow sleeping through the morning heat), a massacre ensued. I’m not sure what the bigger MISS is: that I failed to be cool with the spiders, the massacre itself, or that I was quietly thankful someone else did the dirty work of killing them all :( Disappointed in myself!
HIT: Beverages
There are so many carefully considered details and so much effort that clearly goes into making Waking Life’s dry, naturally hostile environment as comfortable and welcoming as possible. I’ve picked one of the most banal examples of this: the soft drinks slapped. Mango/ginger mama and the coconut water specifically — 10/10. Big thank you Waking Life crew for helping me to drink less booze.
HIT: The Space Lady making me sing John Lennon
I don’t care that much about the Beatles, and yet I still have a strong opinion about John being the worst one. I also do not like ‘Imagine’, or at least I didn’t think I did. The Space Lady doing a cover version on the last day of the festival would’ve been something that, on paper, should’ve been too sickly sweet for my tastes. But her performance of her cover version had me softly singing along and getting all emotional. Even the most cynical mind will drop its defences when confronted with the motherly warmth of The Space Lady. When the lights swelled as she sang the last line (“& the weerrrroerrld will live as one”) I was, surprisingly, in bits.
HIT: Luke Vibert playing the hits
You will cover this better than I can Joe! [See below]
HIT: Tech house Paquita and Jane
A nice send off.
MISS: Too much tech house?
While what’s on the Praia and Floresta changes up a bit, Outro Lado stayed pretty much on a conventional house tip for the whole week, save for a few late morning/early afternoon ambient bits. Would mixing this up enhance things, or ruin the balance by leaving the lantern-holding crew, who just want a good waft, homeless for long stretches? I dunno. Maybe if it’s not fully broken, don’t try and fix it.
MISS: Not rolling through to sunrise at least once
From my experiences last year, I feel that Waking Life’s early morning moments can offer something pretty special, both music-wise and for getting fully swept away by the collective hedonism. I was generally quite shit at getting out of bed early and rejoining the final hours of the Floresta closing — only catching at best the final 90 minutes of some great sets. It’s definitely daft, but come Monday I couldn’t shake the feeling of regret that I didn’t let go and get swept along by it all. Best never to force anything, but maybe on a couple of occasions I could’ve kept the ‘roll-through’ door open for just a little longer.
Name: Joe Delon
Waking Life history
2019, 2022 (here), 2023 (here), 2024, 2025.
MISS: Taking it easy this year
After a hardcore year last year, I wanted to take it easy this year, which meant only going to the festival on Thursday, leaving on Monday, and sleeping every night in between. I came out fresher, healthier and more coherent than in previous years, but, much like Nick K above, I regret not going down the rabbithole.
MISS: Not going on Wednesday
I especially regret skipping Wednesday night, as that meant I missed several of the top things I wanted to see: Lino Capra Vaccina, Stella And The Longos, Theo Parrish, Om Unit, DJ Marcelle. I’ve been wanting to see Stella and her band for years, so when I heard that her show in particular had been a festival highlight I had a big feeling of disappointment. Reports from Theo’s eight hour set were a lot more mixed, as you’d expect. I still regret missing him, but them’s the breaks.
MISS: Being late for Dana
I won’t go into the long drawn-out story but the fact is we were two hours late for Dana’s set on Thursday afternoon. As we walked through the site, dripping with sweat from our many exertions, we heard fine minimal house coming over the lake from Outro Lado, and fine minimal house in the Floresta. “Dana better not be playing minimal house” said a friend. “She’ll be playing booty poppers” I replied confidently…
HIT: Hearing Dana’s final hour
…and sure enough when we got to Praia the booties were indeed popping. The vibe was LIT and Dana was there in the booth decked out in flamingos just smiling to herself and flipping pancake after pancake. I witnessed the Snad aeroplane moment (see above). I sang along to Idris Muhammad. It was only an hour but I got DOWN. Can’t wait to hear the recording.
MISS: The heat and dust
I think it’s partly age, but this year the heat and dust over the first few days were incredibly challenging. Arriving at Dana’s set on the Thursday afternoon I couldn’t get my head around the amount of dust on the equipment — every time she touched the CDJ screen it was like she was Indiana Jones unearthing some ancient artefact. And all that dust was in the air, of course. I find dancing with a mask or bandana super uncomfortable, but I also find hacking black mucus out of my sinuses for a week uncomfortable. I feel like in years past there’s been regular (potentially legally enforced) dousings of the main thoroughfares; didn’t see any of that this year.
HIT: James K (see above)
HIT: The new wooden canopy at Cochilo
Which gives closed-eye acid visuals with your eyes open not on acid.
HIT: Nathalie Seres & Introspekt at Floresta
This set on Thursday night divided people. Perhaps that’s why I liked it? There were moments of depth, silliness, introspection, exhilaration, chaos. You could say it was all over the place — but that’s what I wanted to hear at that particular moment.
MISS: Pearson Sound at Floresta
That’s also why I thought Pearson Sound was super predictable and boring afterwards. It was just a club set, nothing out of the ordinary. I was happy to take the decision to leave Floresta and head to Praia, where Richard Akingbehin was playing uncompromising dub techno — decidedly not my style, but very cool to hear and see an entire stage pumping to it.
MISS: The insane noise on Thursday night
This was the first year I’d camped in the general tipi area and our tipi was about as far from the main site as you can possibly get. Yet, when I arrived back on Thursday night to get some sleep, it was as if Outro Lado was inside my tipi. I even IDed someone playing The Persuader. What was going on? It couldn’t just be wind, because the volume was too consistent for that. Later during the festival it was posited that the high humidity also contributes to sound travelling further…but I still feel like some sonic Bermuda Triangle shit was going on.
MISS: DJ Fart In The Club not giving me a slap
Soyoon played an immaculate three hours of “fine minimal house” (as Hardwax puts it) that kept us bopping gently in the Floresta on Saturday afternoon, but as time wore on my expectation grew ever higher for The Slap that simply never came. I know she can slap as good as the best of them, I’ve heard her do it many times before, so why the restraint? Occasionally a big bassline would appear but she’d swiftly whip it away again. DJ Tease In The Club, more like.
MISS: The Floresta churn
Was it me or was the Floresta dancefloor way more restless this year? Everyone had somewhere to go, but no one seemed able to decide exactly where that was. They’d push past in one direction, and 15 seconds later they’d be coming back the other way. ENOUGH.
HIT: Luke Vibert’s wedding set on Praia
I realised yesterday when thinking about Luke Vibert’s set on Praia on the Saturday evening that he probably plays pretty much the same thing every weekend, like a wedding DJ. He’s been at this a few decades, done all there is to be done, so at this point he’s probably more in jukebox mode than anything else. I decided to look back at some tracklists of his sets over the past few years and I was right.
So, from my patchy RMTO memory plus the help of previous tracklists found online, here are the tunes I remember him playing:
Luke Vibert - ‘I Love Acid’
Mark Imperial - ‘She Ain’t Nuthin But A Hoe (Acid Dub)
Dynamix II - ‘1,000,000 Mhz’
LFO - ‘LFO’
In Sync - ‘Storm’
Mr Oizo - ‘Flat Beat’
Scott Garcia - ‘A London Thing’
Roy Davis Jr. feat. Peven Everett - ‘Gabriel (Live Garage Version)’
Butler Kiev - ‘Rewind Selecta’
Squarepusher - ‘My Red Hot Car’
Aphex Twin - ‘Digeridoo’
You’d think it would get a bit much hearing all these anthems one after another, and you’d be right, but also wrong. It was perfectly on the brink of too much, but never over the line.
And often I felt like Luke had done his own tweaks to the tunes: I remember ‘Gabriel’ having a long beatless intro, and the Mark Imperial tune sounded more dubbed out than even the Acid Dub. ‘My Red Hot Car’ mutated seamlessly into another track (‘Square Rave’, also by Squarepusher, going by previous tracklists) but to me it sounded like Luke had just decided to do his own edit taking ‘MRHC’ in his own direction. I had never heard his version of ‘Re-Rewind’ before, so that truly melted my brain.
The Praia stage has always delivered a moment like this, be it Mala, ADAB, Kode9 or, now, Luke Vibert. Listening to the open chords of ‘My Red Hot Car’, sitting here in my pants on a Saturday morning remembering this set, I have shivers running down my spine.
HIT: The post-Vibert craic
As soon as Luke finished we squirrelled ourselves off into one of the many convenient sitting spots by the beach and had a mini sesh. I got deep into quizzing Stephen on the subject of his master’s thesis, which as far as I can remember now had something to do with lasers, toxic gasses, explosions and graphs. The CK was truly CK-ing.
MISS: Not going to Lipsync for your Waking Life
At this juncture I made a tactical error. Instead of going to see Djrum’s live set, which was tailor made for people tripping (I was not), I should have gone to see the Lipsync show at Cochilo, which, I assume, was tailor made for people on CK. Apparently it was a total blast. I’ll be there next year.
HIT: Jane’s final record in the morning
We only got up and out in time for Jane’s final hour but it was great, especially her final tune, which sounded like an old production but had various elements that gave it away as more recent. Was it Italian? American? Turns out it was a Paul Woolford remix from 2005. Choons, eh.
HIT: The Italian gentlemen serving fresh pasta
The wait varied depending on your choice of two options — sometimes it’d be instant, sometimes you’d have to hover for ten minutes. The pasta gods are fickle masters. But I fell in love with them.
HIT: My friend R doing the whole festival 6 months pregnant and coming out of it looking as radiant as when she went in
HIT: Only going to Outro Lado for ambient sets
From the responses above, I’m clearly not the only one who doesn’t like this stage. I feel like an affinity for OL has become a bit of a shibboleth within the WL community. Regardless, it does come into its own for me during the late morning, when they programme (mainly) ambient and experimental stuff. Fennesz live on Saturday morning was fantastic as expected, and then Bochum Welt’s set on Sunday lunchtime provided a good, if unintentional, laugh (see Stephen’s comment above).
HIT: Que Sakamoto plays Depeche Mode in the Floresta
MISS: Not hearing Que Sakamoto’s whole set
From the many descriptions I’ve heard — some full of praise, others saying it was one of the worst things they heard — I know I would have appreciated Que Sakamoto’s set a lot. Sadly I only really caught the Depeche Mode moment before I had to go and fetch my records.
HIT: My tribute to Patrick Cowley on Saturday
Last year’s Slutty Slush was an area at the back of the nature trail between Praia and Outro Lado with a bar serving frozen drinks and a DJ playing jukebox style off one turntable. This year it expanded into the new Mimo stage, with live ambient/experimental music at night and in the morning, and then the unannounced Slutty Slush programming during the afternoon. I did two hours on Saturday evening dedicated entirely to Patrick Cowley’s reissues on Dark Entries, including his gay porn soundtracks, funky synth covers and, as a closing bonus, ‘Tech-No-Logical World’ off his final album Mind Warp. The people at the stage loved it and I loved it. And I drank half a bottle of mezcal in the process.
MISS: Choosing XDB & PLO over CCC
The only exception I made to my Outro Lado ambient rule was to try out XDB & PLO Man on Saturday evening after my Mimo set. On paper it should have been brilliant, but the dancefloor was so busy and the turntables were skipping, so I didn’t last longer than 30 minutes. All the while I was also conscious that Club CCC was in full swing over at Praia, so I beat a retreat back in that direction.
HIT: Club CCC at Praia
I’m very glad I did. This was FUN! I can’t remember all the tunes through the haze of poppers and mezcal, but one particular standout was ‘Eisbär’, during which I delightedly shouted at my dancing partners (who I’d literally just met) “IT’S ABOUT A POLAR BEAR IN GERMAN!!”
MISS: Going to bed early and missing Loidis
Everyone afterwards said he was incredible.
MISS: Also missing Gwenan and Danimation’s film
Part of the reason I went to bed early was to have a few hours of nap before returning for Gwenan’s film at 3am. Of course I ended up sleeping through till 7am.
HIT: Sunday morning with Kia at Floresta
I can’t tell you what Kia played because I didn’t recognise barely any of it, but I did enjoy it a lot. It was much more varied than her b2b a few years ago — some minimal, some acid, not much trancey stuff, which I was happy about. Some squelchy bass. I had just finally bumped into the Colombia crew so we had some excellent silly fun that lasted late into the morning. The vibe was STRONG.
MISS: The music coming back on at 2pm
After Kia’s set finished and the music stopped at 10am, we had such a good time hanging out, sunbathing, taking dips, generally getting up to no good by the water at Floresta, that it was a crying shame when 2pm came around and the techno started up again.
HIT: Intermittent sightings of the Manchester feral queers on their first Waking Life experience
MISS: People complaining about there being more British people this year
Just because you don’t understand good craic.
MISS: Noise pollution from Outro Lado
Every year it seems Outro Lado gets louder and more annoying, especially when you’re trying to enjoy something as delicate as The Space Lady at Cochilo. Humidity and wind conditions aside, surely there must be some kind of technical solution?
HIT: The Space Lady almost convinces me about ‘Imagine’
Almost. I still can’t stand it, but her version was both hilarious and heartfelt.
MISS: Trying to find people
I got myself into a bit of a bind on Sunday night trying to locate people. After five years of WLs I should know by now that the moment you stop looking for people is the moment you find them. After an hour or so of pacing the paths between Cochilo, Praia and Floresta, I finally gave up to go back to the tipi — which is the moment I bumped into Nick. He accompanied me to the main site entrance before deciding to head back into the fray.
HIT: The Kosmicare generative AV installation
Andrei already referenced this above. Me and Nick had no idea what was going on when we walked into this tent. On screen was a panoply of bums all mutating into each other. About 30 seconds later someone said the words “no more bums” into a microphone and the bums disappeared. This was an absolutely insane installation featuring endlessly shapeshifting visuals controlled by verbal and motion instructions. Knowing Nick hates them, I had the urge to say “baked beans” into the microphone, but resisted it. Maybe I should have said “harvest spiders” instead?
(Here is a video of last year’s more rudimentary installation.
HIT: Tech house Jane & Paquita
This was indeed the perfect soft landing, only spoilt by ending on the dot at midday rather than carrying on longer. If Outro Lado can keep going to all hours on Monday, why can’t Floresta?
HIT: Leaving on Monday afternoon
While I regret not seeing the Monday evening concerts, I remind myself of the frustrations of last year: Outro Lado noise pollution, sore bum from sitting on the ground for too long, the final concert actually being a bit shit. This year I was grateful for leaving during the day on Monday and getting home in good time for a shower, a Chinese takeaway and an early night.
HIT: Pretty much everything
Not to live up to the Waking Life Cult stereotype, but I can’t not go on about how good the festival was again this year. On a practical level, as mentioned above many of the teething issues they had last year were fully addressed this year. It ran much better than you would expect a festival of this size to run. I don’t remember having any complaints. Do you? And even though I took it easier and didn’t experience the WOW quite as fully as in previous editions, I still had a remarkable time. You can’t quite beat swimming out to the lighthouse in the middle of the lake and taking a look round at the teeming life of this temporary experiment, suspended delicately in controlled chaos. It’s beautiful.