I didnt plan going to this festival (psychedelic tribal gathering,which origined from people's reunions during eclipses decades ago) when I started the trip,but my parents suggested that we should go when I was on my first kilometers in Italy,and I thought it might be possible to reach ozora by bike,in time.
To be honest I didn't know what this festival is about or what bands are going to be there,but since my parents have a quite decent(and similar to me) taste in music,I thought whatever is going to be there,I will enjoy,and I will definitely enjoy meeting all these new people,because its a big festival after all
My parents arrived in their little american van:chrysler voyager (old&rusty and almost undestructible,like all our previous cars) with an inflatable matress inside,acumulators,a solar panel,another big sheet of waterproof material(like mine) a portable grill(so small it was funny),and some clothes I asked them for(yay! no more smelly,wet&sweat shirts)
It would be no problem for me to find a place to camp,because I have been doing this for whole last month,and lets face it,with my bike&stuff, I only need 2 meters square of space,but with my parents and their car tagging along,huh,not so easy anymore.
As a familz of 3,we are lazy,very LAZY,so we couldnt be bothered to go far on the camping site available inside the ozora festival, we stopped maybe 500m from the entrance(and so far away from all the stages :/)but bathrooms&showers where near.
In the morning I noticed the strangest thing,Slovenia was freezing,but Hungary is like hell,and they are right next to each other!!!,sun starts frying at very early in the morning(7 am),and doesnt stop till like 20:00.
This fact made it slightly impossible to schedule any partying or assisting the workshops/activities (yoga,martial arts introduction,discussions,brainstorming etc)
because everything besides the music would mostly happen in the morning and in the afternoon,somewhere around 18:00 when the killing temperature would drop I would go out and hit the dancefloor on ony of the stages(main stage, pumpui-music almost 24h, dragon stage-personal opinion:not worth the time, artibarn).
Type of music: I am not a big fan of techno music,and anything that isnt really energetic or hasnt got a lyrics and singer/s, but this festival is mostly techno,trans and electronic music, what made me change my mind and opinion about this sort of tunes, is the bass.
The speakers at any point of this festival wouldn't kill your ears with high tones,but would make your belly,stomach and feet vibrate from the deep bass, and as weird as it sounds,I found this sensation to be very enjoyable. (Specially at night with all the crazy neon lights&decorations around)
People: So I found Ozora was mainly dominated by Germany (just like Poland was during frist and second world war) second most frecuent nation was the French people,and since I made a lot of french friends during this festival I was told they dont have succh events in France,so this is why they all come here,and I was also told, over and over,that what we think in Europe about french nationalism and hate for english and speaking this language is just NOT TRUE ! They really try to speak English, and they don't hate it,they are just very embarresed andd shy, and most of all, friends I made told me the level of english taught at school is just too low to be able to comunicate freely.
Third nation to dominate the festival was Austria,and I dont know if they all just love this sort of music and events,or they come here because its(relatively) close, if it wouldnt be for the number plates on the cars, I couldnt even tell the differencce between Austrians and Germans.
Least but not last,there was Netherlands, needless to say what they mostly contributed to the festival(I think) .
But enough about nations,what you mostly need to know about the people at Ozora is the spirit,the mentality,the way of looking at life,call it the way you want,but its unique,so MANY people,and we all share the same positivity,the same love for each other,no need to show off, no agression, creative spirit and will/eagerness to learn new things,not only abitilies,but to learn about other cultures, lifestyles,and stop being an ignorant sitting at home in his confort zone, critisizing people/nations around the world without even ever being there.
Everyone I met,was unique in his own way,I met young German guys from the army (getting ready to invade Poland again huh? just kidding :P ) along with them was a guy who tried to have his own punk band,and sort of came here to look for new people to continue his project with,a french acrobat who wrote poems in his free time,weirdest of all I met DOZENS of people studying my exact degree (eng. industrial design and product development) a whole lot of braiding/crocheting enthusiasts,so I spent hours talking with them,showing my own jewellry,decorations and projects
My old crafting blog (take a second,its mostly nice pictures ) During the last day I met a Turkish guy waliking with a very equipped bike,and yes,after the festival he is planning to cycle 1000km around what we know as the coutries that formed old Yugoslavia, he boight a really expensive bike,and this was his first (but not last,I bet)trip.
On second day I went shopping with my bike,to the nearest lidl which was almost 30km away(relatively close comparing to my normal daily distance) and on my way I had to exchange money in a bank,and there was a couple by the ATM trying to withdraw money,but something seemed to be wrong with their card.I noticed they had ozora's bracelets on,and I asked if they need any help,I can exchange them some cash,or borrow/give if they need for thee taxi or food....but after I withdrew money with my card the ATM started working well again,and thed whole problem was gone.Afterwards during the festival I met them again twice,and we even hang out during a whole day. Generally I made a lot of friends,and the last two days I stayed a lot with these three couples who made a charming camp with their three vans,and they had a lot of shining cute decorations for their kids.They were so nice,polite,and treated me like their family(pretty much like everyone at ozora!!)
I must say I am very positively surprised with the organization of the whole thing,the bathrooms were very clean most of the time,toilet paper was refilled every few hours,drinkable water had very large queues in the key hours of the day,but waiting wouldnt be longer than 30min,same thing with showers,trash was thrown out every day,sometimes even twice a day, and since people were so nice,everyone in generall tried to keep the place clean,roads would be sprayed water on in the mid day,so no dust clouds emerged when cars passed by.All the surroundings&roads were dirt and grass,so 80% of people walked barefoot,its sort of a way to conect with nature,no worries:nobody threw or broke glass anywhere.
I definitely hope to go next year,because not only the music,but the people,the aura,the creativity,activities,and feeling like you belong,no matter who you are,is incredible.