ff2_typeset_ver1 Capturing the Vision at California’s Symbiosis Festival TEXT AND PHOTOS BY PASCAL QUERNER 1. Sculpture “Twilight Anima Rising” by Mardi Storm.1 From 17-21 September 2009, California’s Symbiosis Gathering was held next to California’s Yosemite National Park. Combining music, art, dance and performances, it was the ! rst time the event (in its fourth edition) was hosted in the sequoia forest of this region, a truly unique and site for a psychedelic festival. With trees as tall as buildings, a beautiful lake in yin-yang form, and a large open ! eld made this the perfect place for the four dance " oors combining music, art, people, love and nature over !ve days. 2. Lake 3. Field stage on Sunday a!ernoon Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture 1(2) 2010, 105-111 ISSN 1947-5403 ©2010 Dancecult http://www.dancecult.net/ DOI 10.12801/1947-5403.2010.01.02.08 from the floor #e music performed was diverse, with DJs and bands from the psytrance, progressive, dubstep and world music scenes. For much of the time, I could not distinguish between the performances on the stage and those on the dance " oor. Every second person looked like a Cirque de Soleil artist. 4, 5 and 6. Official performances 106 Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture • vol 1 no 2 7. Visitors As a photographer who travelled to the US in 2009 for Burning Man, Symbiosis was the perfect a$er-Burn party. Compared to many other electronic music festivals, art, in the form of larger exhibitions, small galleries, dance and theater performances, and individuals selling self-made jewelry, represented a signi!cant component of the festi- val. I also had the chance to meet some of the best visionary artists I have known for many years from books and the Internet. A dream came true watching Allyson and Alex Grey2 painting live on stage with Shpongle DJing on Sunday morning. Other visionary artists, like Luke Brown,3 Adam Scott Miller,4 Xavi,5 Carey #ompson6 and Raul Casillas Romo,7 to name just a few, also painted, presented or discussed their work at the festival. 8. Visionary artist Luke Brown 9. Adam Scott Miller working Querner • Capturing the Vision 107 10. Visionary artist Xavi 11. A visitor painting 12. Visionary artist Alex Grey presenting his work in the forest 13 and 14. Large sculptures at the main dance #oor (some previously exhibited at the Burning Man Festival in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada) 108 Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture • vol 1 no 2 As a self-identi!ed festivals of “Art, Music, and Conscious Living”, this is one of the true psychedelic festivals in the US and, alongside Burning Man, succeeds in combin- ing music and art, while impressing a “leave no trace” awareness upon its participants. Additionally, the friendliness and openness of participants, mainly Americans, was wonderful for me as a visitor and photographer. 15. Entrance to the main stage 16 and 17. Lake stage Querner • Capturing the Vision 109 18-21. Participants 110 Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture • vol 1 no 2 For more information’s to the festival see www.symbiosisgathering.com and the following video of the 2009 event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvDOoV7s2X4 ••••••• Author Biography Pascal Querner is a biologist and photographer living in Berlin and Vienna who loves documenting psychedelic festivals and uses his camera to capture the spirit and atmosphere of each moment.  Notes Querner • Capturing the Vision 111 1 www.mardistorm.com 2 www.alexgrey.com 3 www.spectraleyes.com 4 www.corpuscallosum.cc/ 5 podcollective.com/browse/ 6 www.galactivation.com/ 7 www.raulcasillas.com http://www.symbiosisgathering.com http://www.symbiosisgathering.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvDOoV7s2X4&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvDOoV7s2X4&feature=related http://www.mardistorm.com http://www.mardistorm.com http://www.alexgrey.com http://www.alexgrey.com http://www.spectraleyes.com http://www.spectraleyes.com http://www.corpuscallosum.cc/ http://www.corpuscallosum.cc/ http://podcollective.com/browse/ http://podcollective.com/browse/ http://www.galactivation.com/ http://www.galactivation.com/ http://www.raulcasillas.com http://www.raulcasillas.com