Is it minimal techno, Industrial techno, micro house, etc.?

Classic latin Techno banger.

Hey, raver from the US here. Anyone else going to CLOSER Festival in Bosnia this weekend?

It's pretty YOLO for me right now since it's their first run in Europe, taking place in the middle of nowhere, and has very little info online.

Would be cool to start a Whatsapp group to discuss logistics and get a support system going. Let me know!

Edit: Made a group, feel free to join: https://chat.whatsapp.com/BSm7gnh2qc945iBMwjZVmd

I was questioning myself about the existence of Norwegian artists that may have the same inspirations as Joost Klein or just the new techno-dub musical scene

I was going to answer in this post, but realized that my answer was so long that I might as well create a dedicated one for it.

I was there for Friday and Saturday, the Festival was excellent but I'm not sure it is what most people in this sub are looking for.

First of all, as a Spanish person, I found the comments about Spanish people in a recent post in this sub the other day pretty disturbing. I know we like to yap and that we are more social than others on the dance floor, it annoys me as well sometimes. But seeing so many negative and discriminating comments in a community that is supposedly about openness and inclusion was pretty upsetting. If you share these believes, DON'T COME TO VETA, stay home, we don't want you or need you in our community.

Its a very small festival (I think not more than a 1000 people) where the majority of the people will be from Spain. Nonetheless, most of the attendees there, were seasoned people that know how to behave at these kind of events and that were mostly there for the music. For me the vibes were excellent, everyone was there to have a good time and everyone was very friendly. I did talk to some foreigners and at least from their experience it seemed like it was a bit hard to connect with others, so if you are not Spanish that might be the case.

Regarding organization, I thought it was really good for the size of the event, there was never a long queue at the bar or at the toilets. There was a water fountain where you could fill up your bottle and wash your hands. Two food trucks were operating the whole festival, one with Italian focaccias and sandwiches and one with burgers. I tried both and both were pretty good, I think there was a vegan option at the burger place but not sure anymore. We booked some lockers to store our stuff and they worked flawlessly, the whole cashless system also worked really well. The staff was very friendly during the whole event.

One of the main negatives was that the Guardia Civil (local police) did show up on Saturday checking some people and giving fines in the bathrooms. The event organizers did warn people and tell them to stay on the dance floor until they left. In general there was a strong police presence in the whole area, I got drug tested when driving to the village we stayed in the first day. It just seems like the local police sees this event as an opportunity to make some extra income in fines but it really is something the event organizers can't control. I personally made sure to be completely sober before driving and always have anything on me well hidden or in the lockers during the event.

The entire area is not used to this amount of tourism so for accommodation people will be spread out on the villages around Barruelo de Santullan where the festival is located. Veta did organize shuttle buses through all of those villages to get people to the festival. Those buses had a limited schedule (first return bus was at 7.30 in the morning) and were a bit disorganized on Friday. On the second day we managed to schedule a taxi with some other people that stayed in the same Guest House at 5. There were only 2 or 3 taxis in the whole area so getting one was not easy. This means you don't really have a lot of flexibility to return if you are not staying in the village itself. But this is just the reality of a small festival in a remote place, they can not have lots of buses running around the clock because there is not enough people to fill them and there just aren't many taxis because they are not needed the rest of the year.

Now regarding the most important thing, Music and Sound. I'm not a sound expert but to me it sounded fantastic. The stage is positioned very nicely and it sounded great on the entire dance floor. The ambiance of the old mining facilities and the nature around it was beautiful. The Music was also excellent although there were some artists that disappointed a bit, especially GiGi FM seemed to have a bad night. There is only one stage so if you are not liking the music you have no alternative. I do think a chill area with some different music would be cool but I also see the up sides of having just one stage as it makes the whole festival experience a lot simpler. I loved the fact that most sets were longer and that some artists were willing to experiment a bit more. I loved the breakbeat set from Adriana Lopez, although a lot of people I talked to did not really enjoy it, mainly because they didn't expect that kind of music at the festival. The live sets on Saturday were amazing as well and we ended the night with Oscar Mulero who was just phenomenal. I wish we would have made it for Svreca but we were exhausted and needed to drive home that day.

Finally, you are up in the mountains and it gets very cold at night. We were freezing our asses off on Friday! So be prepared to take some warm clothes with you.

All in all I had a really great time and I'm seriously considering going back next year. It is not the easiest festival experience though. You don't have the same luxuries of a bigger festival and it will be predominantly a Spanish crowd. It for sure is not a Stone Techno alternative, it is something very different, on a smaller scale and with a different philosophy behind it.

Been LOVING this EP from the always-awesome Ilian Tape. One my favourite techno releases of the year so far. Scribbled a few words about it/my relationship with ambient/dub techno generally here: https://www.gatekeepmusic.com/p/review-fields-of-mist-intergalactic