if you, like me until right before I went, have never heard of Shambhala, its a music and arts fest in Salmo, British Columbia, and it is so, so awesome. here's a brief description I just posted on another thread:
so there you go.like BM, Shambhala is a little hard to describe accurately. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Shambles is the closest thing Canada has to Burning Man (of course you have to subtract most of the more radical philosophies, and there is a delicious food court. but the vibe is similar in many ways) its 10,000 beautiful people getting together to share the music, dance, art, each other. put very simply, Shambhala is basically a 5 day electronic music festival on this gorgeous stretch of land in Salmo, BC. i could use the word rave, but i find a lot of people use that word in a negative way...anyways there is a lot of great art at Shambhala, both performance and installation, much moreso than you're average rave. the 6 stages that are set up all have a different theme and are immaculately decorated, and completely immersed in the natural environment, and most everybody is in costume all the time.
for an example, one stage called the Fractal Forest played mostly electro/house music, and you're literally dancing in these awesome woods with lights and projectors everywhere and the deejay spins in the middle in an enormous old growth tree stump. The Ewok Village played breaks, dnb, and some funky house in a huge banged up geodesic dome with treehouse decks and walkways up above the perimeter. sickest sound system i've ever come across. i saw one guy puking because the bass was so intense.
24 hours nonstop juicy tunes. some of the best dj's in the world. no PvD's or Paul Oakenfolds...but who needs them anyways.
anyways, the vibe there is so fucking awesome. until I went to burning man, it ranked easily as the best party I've ever been to, and I've been to some pretty big parties all over the world.
you can google and youtube it, but like burning man, that really won't do it justice. early bird tickets go on sale for 2009 today at 4pm BC time. i would highly recommend getting one!
early early bird tix: $135
early bird: $180
regular: $210
expensive, kinda. worth it, totally.
I am curious, how many people on here have been to both Shambhala and Burning Man? who plans to go to both next year? i'm not sure if i can afford it, but if it is remotely within my means, I will be there without a doubt!
