aug 9, 1997

Rainbow 2000

japan

(taken from: plur magazine nov 97)

What happend in Rainbow 2000 last 14 hours
was just like a surreal dream.
The beautiful sound of trance music
is still burning inside my ears..................

We arrived at Shinjiku, Tokyo around 1 or 2 p.m. After a good night, we were all ready for the excitement. We planed to arrive at playground on Mt. Fuji, where Rainbow 2000 takes place every year. David, Jenny and Ching took the van DJ Q-hey was driving. There were 8 in ours -- magazine writer Maho, three local musicians, Louis and Paul from Club Edge, three of us from BlueMoon.

We stuck in the saturday-afternoon traffic jam right away when we got on highway. The traffic was slow even for us from Taipei, a city notorious for it's traffic. The japanese friends in front seat were playing some jungle music, smoothness with a bit of emotions while the grand bluish green scenery fly by us. The completeness and freshness of green was too nice to be true.....A great visual enjoyment. It took a while for us to relax in nature since we're used to be exposed in the pollution and intension from urban life. Maybe that's the reason Rainbow 2000 takes place in the countryside far away from city instead of some huge stadiums. The music such as trance or ambient has it's own breath and rhythm like nature itself, we don't have to pump up the volume when we hear it.......the beauty of it leads us back to the embrace of nature.

It was getting cloudy and windy when we finally approached Mt. Fuji around 5.p.m. We started to worry about the weather up there. [We thought the typhoon was already gone!] Some people brought umbrellas and raincoats in the convenient store.

There was still some hope in my heart.

After the night falls, it was getting so foggy that we couldn't even see the road signs. Everybody was getting really anxious after few wrong turns. When we reached the top, the moisture in the air was freezing while we were waiting for the press pass. Later we were lost again while we were looking for another parking lot. It was about 9 o'clock when we finally found the entrance for the party .

Typhoon already arrived the playground. There was trance music in the wind. We were cheer up again. The whole program started from 4 o'clock in the afternoon in three divided areas in this monstrous play-ground --Future Ground (Drum N'Bass), Rainbow Ground (Trance) and Cosmic Ground (Techno and Hot House). There are 5-10 minutes walking distances between each ground. It seems like walking through the time tunnel into another dimension when we walked by the foggy hills with tents and venders. The other hill was already packed with ravers. The huge speaker standing up front, no sign of djs. The powerful music was coming down from the sky radiate to every single person, there's no more sense of space, no more sense of time. You were not in Mt. Fuji. You were in another planet, showered in music, in a way you never experienced. We walked by the ambient ground. People were calmer, moving their body quietly in the rain. Everybody was facing the direction of the speaker as some sort of religious ritual. My hair was dripping water.....I didn't feel cold as long as I dance, in stead, I felt this warm swirl moving up from my tummy..........Maybe it's still a bit early, the rave scene we heard about was still in the dark. It was not there yet.

Walked through the long hall way some people were sleeping and talking on the floors in the dim light. Into the Rainbow kitchen, there was a huge Tatami platform with 50-60 people, lying, sitting, playing instrument, dancing in a peaceful mood, under the cosmic images projected on the ceiling. And of course you can always find food in Rainbow kitchen,organic food. The best vegetable/potato soup I've ever have in my whole life, along with some unidentified food with funny taste and texture.

There was Rainbow market across the hall from Rainbow kitchen. A huge space with a giant white blow-up dinosaur floating above. That was a hippie market carried all kinds of goa party clothes, accessories, t-shirts.....and you could also find fortune tellers, cd venders........ It was so warm and nice in there away from the storm going on outside. The guy at cd vender started his djing job, non-stop music. People were dancing everywhere in the market. The crowd was getting high when he started Happy Hardcore, the care-free excitement really moved me. I wanted to jump right into it and rave. Even though the dj guy was not doing a very professional job, but nobody seems to care. Around 5 a.m., Jimi came back from outside and shout to us: " Come quickly! Come with me! Join the big party !!" We put on our coats and rushed to Rainbow ground. The sky was light and clear, people dancing all over the hill. Trance music, loud and clear in such a powerful punch on our heart. That was the moment to release the excitement and energy . I looked around, everyone was dancing with a smile, people I know or don't know. People with different sexes, nationality, ages, languages were all dancing as a big reunited family. I felt I was experiencing a form of explosion inside my body. Ching ran to me and said: " Look! All these wacky people are dancing with you. Isn't it incredible?" I saw this freaky Israeli guy with leaves on his nest-like hair, japanese couple look like porcelain doll, ROCK 'N' ROLL skinhead, blonde spice girls, people look extraordinary or ordinary all danced for a moment of existence inspired by pure music and dance. Sure it was incredible. When I was standing up in the hill, wind blowing, the trance I heard was so different from the one I heard in a club. The trance I heard there blended in with natural elements and vaporize in limitless form. It has life of its own. I could feel it in me, in my blood, it came from the ancient ages and going to bring us to the future. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a spaceship coming down from the sky........I would jump right on it without any hesitation. You gotta be there!! The stimulation a rave scene brought to a human being psychically and spiritually is beyond my comprehension .... undescribable ....... The only thing I knew was I couldn't stop moving my body .... Image thousand years ago, people celebrated life with their dance when there wasn't any form of language. So this was what their dance would be like, primitive and simple, with no burden on their shoulder.

Close the eyes, the cosmic above us, we were enjoying our life here, enjoy the very moment trance brought us to.

Party finished around 9 a.m. but nobody wanted to leave. When the music appeared in the air again, the crowd were screaming, some people knocked over the fences........

When music disappear, it vacuumized the space. We walked back to the foggy parking lot with feet could hardly moved. We were so exhausted and passed out right away. The exhaustion was flowing in my blood which I also experienced for the first time.

What happened in Rainbow 2000 last 14 hours was just like a surreal dream.

The beautiful sound of trance is still burning inside my ears..............