Pepsi Electronica Festival Istanbul <09-10 September 2005>

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-- Pepsi Electronica Festival Istanbul <09-10 September 2005>

Posted by Dj Ahter on Sep-16-2005 23:36:

Pepsi Electronica Festival Istanbul <09-10 September 2005>

It's over now but wanna let you know what we happen to listen in Turkey Festivals.. Honor for us indeed

Nothing else to say..
The names speak for everyhting...

The locals forums have been growing and growing with reviews but they're in Turkish so won't be able to understand. Just in case you might understand here are the links...

http://www.tr-ance.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=7686
http://www.electro-forum.com/index.php?showtopic=1718

Greetz;
Ahter S�nmez

Posted by Dj Ahter on Sep-16-2005 23:42:

Here are some pictures from 2004's festival..
The Venue is the same so you can have a feel of the atmosphere inside...

http://www.pepsielectronicafest.com/2004pics.htm

Posted by Dj Ahter on Sep-16-2005 23:43:

Here's a part taken from Judge Jules journal 16 Sept. 2005

quote:

........
Three and a half hours later I was up and heading for Tenerife Sur airport, en route to Istanbul Turkey. If a direct flight existed, point-to-point the journey would be around 2000 miles (or 4 hours in the sky.) However, not only was there no direct flight, I had to route via Amsterdam. Have a look at a map if you want to know just how indirect this was. It became a 10-hour journey on two different airlines.

At Istanbul Airport I met the very Irish sounding dj Perry O�Neil, part of Armin Van Buuren�s Dutch �Armind� stable, who was playing at the same Turkish event. He�s actually not Irish at all, having adopted O�Neil as a stage name. I never got round to asking him where the inspiration came from, but since my surname is O�Riordan I can see the appeal.

Before arriving I knew little more than that I was due to play a large festival in Istanbul, and Krafty Kuts (Martin) hold told me at dinner at Kasbah in Ibiza that this was an excellent event. I wasn�t aware just how huge the line up was. Taking place over two days, dj�s included Sasha, James Zabelia, Stanton Warriors, Mylo, Nick Warren, Guy Ornadel and countless others.

Despite the strength of the UK festival scene, British organisers have traditionally struggled to secure sponsorship from big companies. On the one hand this is surprising because the 18-30 festival market are high spenders who traditionally shun other forms of mainstream media, such as tv. On the other, out of touch newspaper journalists consistently peddling �dance is dead� lies don�t help.

The event in Turkey �The Pepsi Electronic Music Festival� couldn�t have had more well-known companies on board. In addition to Pepsi, there was branding from Adidas, Motorola and Marlboro, to name but a few. One can�t understate the importance of sponsors at an event like this. Without their financial input the economics of booking so many international dj�s just wouldn�t stack up (with flights and hotels to take into consideration, as well as fees.)

I�m passionately interested in current affairs, and this is a key period for Turkey. Next month the EU member states will vote on whether to initiate debate on Turkish European Union membership. It seems bizarre that they�ll vote on whether to �start a debate�, but that�s the EU for you. The British government is a staunch supporter of allowing Turkey to join, whereas the French are opposed to the idea, their population having recently voted against the European constitution and its enlargement.

It�s against this backdrop that one has to view Turkey�s image in Western Europe. The negative press I�ve seen is totally unjustified. I�ve now visited Istanbul three times, and it�s a wealthy, vibrant, cosmopolitan modern city. In fact much more so than many cities of member states who joined the EU in May 2004. In my view Turkey clearly qualifies for European Union membership, and it�s only racism that makes some people fearful of allowing the first Muslim entrant to the European family.

With that off my chest, perhaps I should get back to describing the event. My set followed dj Mistress Barbara, whose music style I�ve always admired. From my perspective, too many techno dj�s play beat driven records that are devoid of any hooks or focal points whatsoever. Barbara manages to find tekky records that are memorable and not too drab. If I could find similar tracks, I�d play more of this style�

The event had four arenas, and the location for my set was a fantastic amphitheatre that held around 1500-2000. It�s always a challenge playing to an unfamiliar audience- although I�d been to Istanbul twice before, this was over a lengthy period of time. In order to gauge the success of your set it�s important to pay attention to the outer recesses of the dancefloor. At a big event the middle will always be packed, but it pays to identify a quieter spot towards the edge, and asses the drawing power of what you�re playing by how well you manage to fill this portion of the dancefloor.

There wasn�t a huge choice of return flights from Istanbul to London that allowed a safe margin of error to arrive in time for my Radio 1 show at 7pm on Saturday night. I departed at 1pm, and we were at the gate in Heathrow at 3pm. I�d done most of the extensive prep for my show in advance of going to Turkey, so I rolled into R1�s Yalding House HQ well-prepared, despite landing later than I would have preferred.
.........