Sound of Silence – Solar United Natives

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Of S.U.N. Festival’s recent months the Sound of Silence track by Simon & Garfgunkel comes to mind. As official partners, we have been repeatedly vocalizing our curiosity through several channels. What has happened in the last year?

 “The month after festival the Rainbow World Gathering was hosted on S.U.N land. The last such meeting in Hungary took place during the Solipse ’99, for the occasion of the solar eclipse, which we considered a unique ‘cosmic sign’.”

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 “In the beginning of 2014 many projects took place, which created the basic conditions for organizing the festival. Practically, we have tried to do something out of nothing. The most important projects were the building of organic structures, planting trees from the price of support tickets and a variety of award-winning art installation projects undertaken by university students. Because of the water problems experienced in the first year we mapped the geological layers of the site and bore wells in the right places. The irony is that in the end we got plenty of water from above as wel… In addition, we fixed the roads leading to the festival and even built new ones, which was a huge help for the unexpected rainy weather. ” (Oleg)

622362_403074506437019_1327627998_oIf we think back to the beginning, attributes such as “bubbling excitement” come to mind. The hype spread quickly throughout the whole world: the images of the 2012 ‘Rebirth of the Sun’ party organized for the occasion of the winter solstice in Israel were admired by the international trance scene. We were looking at an initiative, that can break the old tradition of leadership – organization, and prefer a community structure, where many equal players collaborate, with the core value of openness.

 “Also, a community-building process has started, in addition, some of the organizing team moved in the area, which might have had an effect on our disappearance. We began some all-year-around projects with the local residents, perhaps the most successful of which is the ‘Bercel Organic & Craft Market’.”(Oleg)

 The first year’s water supply issues and then last year’s fight with the weather has not passed without a trace. However, even before the S.U.N.we had experiences in Hungary when we were walking in waist-deep in water, moved our tent to the hill from the valley, we rescued totaled car due to floods, not to mention our foreign adventures which were hindered by even more trying hardships. In the first two years of the Italian Sonica Festival we also fought water shortages, not to mention the Turkish Soulclipse Festival, where the Spring storm literally picked apart the main stage minutes before the opening ceremony. Supplement this idea with the old-school festivals organized on mailing lists, with the information scavenged from primitive websites, rather than waiting for the information to be put in front of us on Facebook.

 Being on the side of the water-soaked highway leading to the S.U.N and begging the Celestials to send someone to help us fix our car is a much closer memory. As if human nature would function differently when we are there in the opening ceremony and the first sine-waves start to form a bass-line and break the silence. This is when we define ourselves as part of something bigger than ourselves. When we participate in the moment, in heat of the catharsis we are willing to accept the inconveniencies of travelling or those caused by the lack of water, and we surrender ourselves to a common spirit, which is very difficult and sentimental thing to be put into words … and in which S.U.N has always been strong.

 This spirit, which determines the attitude of the organizers towards challenges, received me with an enthusiastic crew in the new headquarters:

IMG_9060“From this year emphasizing on the rebirth, the festival will be renamed to ‘Solar United Natives’, although the S.U.N abbreviation always stood for this term. In addition to the name change the organization returns to its roots, emphasizing the importance of the initial values, which is facilitated by the elimination of the underlying conflicts, and the involvement of some new partners. The Line-Up is complete, but we will wait for the premier of the new “S.U.N Aftermovie” to be presented next week. This year we invited more domestic and foreign artists, who have not played in our festival. There are other innovations we are preparing beyond refreshing our line-up, but I can’t talk about these yet.”(Oleg)

 The work that is going on in the festival office reminds us again to the above mentioned positive vibe of the opening ceremony and the song references in the introduction:

“And in the naked light I saw

Ten thousand people, maybe more

People talking without speaking

People hearing without listening

People writing songs that voices never share”

Simon&Garfgunkel – Sound of Silence

(1968, Sound of Silence, Columbia records)

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