We are happy to share with you a trip report from our collaborator, ex-news editor – Tatyana. Tanya is a big traveller, passionate about music and life, she has finally made it to her 1st OZORA, and now ready to give you some of her insights.

All photos and text by Tatyana Zaytseva

It is still not clear for me which year is considered as the first Ozora. Was it 1999, under the solar eclipse? Or should we say 2004 when it became annual? Or even 2005? What we do know is that, in 1969, Woodstock opened a never-ending festival season. Fifty years later we are still dancing and celebrating the love for life, and on a much higher level. Having seriously evolved in Goa, the music is different now, too. The Main stage is all breathing and flickering in the dark, like some wild extraterrestrial creature. Eat Static is chopping the reality with his lightning blade, like Zorro! And this is just one of the many stages, one of the millions of moments!
Welcome to Ozora 2019!

This was my first Ozora – nine days of an enchanting kaleidoscope. We arrived on July 27 and left the grounds on August 6. I was trying to be everywhere at the same time (mission impossible, unless you can tear between the stages). We could and we did, but it was already stunning, without the tearing: here and now. I was mostly at the dance floors, though, selflessly skipping workshops, lectures and even kambo frog trips. I have just checked a schedule for Yurt, for the first time, and already am sad about other acts missed. And let’s not talk about some special fanciful arty world at the Dragon Nest hill… #fomo
 

Such a huge territory, the design of stages and mesmerizing installations deserve a hashtag all its own — #mesmozorian, maybe? Oh, and how great it was to swim and have sunbaths at the Ambyss stage, so remote and thus chillaxing. And people! Thousands of happy Ozorians floating around and looking so different: from dinosaurs to topless nymphs with aliens. Wooden Adam is looking at this chaos meditatively, and you give him a smile right back.
 
I’ve read some discussions on the commercialization of the festival. Well, for me it was fascinating to be in such a safe and well-prepared area. ‘Heaven’ spot with vitamins and instant help to space travelers, water refilling stations, a food court with wi-fi, good coffee and Nutella pancakes for 2 euros. Vehicles are allowed at the camping areas with their shady trees and hooks in the showers. (Oh, the Ozorian shower-trips! Arrows of ice breaking into your skin and sobering you up immediately!) Washing hair was a special mind trip, too %) Ozora team has even brought Stephen Perkins, Jane’s Addiction drummer, from the States – this guy had a special trip even without showers, I guess. And this is just one musician for the “Think Floyd” live gig! Have you seen “Ott band” live?
 

 

Volunteers were fast and furious in their cleaning work, too. The waste was picked up promptly, together with personal belongings, though: we left our pareo/water stuff at Pumpui grounds, came back there 40 mins later and found nothing. I’ve read later, the waste was also sorted. Bravo!
 

 
This festival was like my first season in Goa, emotions-wise: everything around was so intensely beautiful! Add the market, the daily delivery of goodies to the camp, harmonically synched meetings with friends, and some drops of magic. Just like ‘One day in Goa’ parties in Shiva Valley: a looot of people, hot dance floor, cozy chai talks. It was originally so vivid and fractal that I forgot about furthur fractalizing :) You could simply be watching around, feeling it, being a tiny part of this happy madness – a little fractal within a fractal.
 

 
There was a guy on photos from the last year; he was dancing at Main with ‘Please Exaggerate’ poster. My more experienced friends considered it the quintessence of Ozora. I did not understand them at first, but closer to the end the motto came to mind oftenly. It peaked on August 5, at Pumpui, with the closing set, after which the silence came gradually. The final beats will stay in my mind for a long time, together with sweet memories popping up here and there since then, like a psycorn.
 
Thank you very much, Ozora, for this abso-magic-lutely time! See you next year!
And please, exaggerate!

All photos and text by Tatyana Zaytseva