MAKEMBA TOURS EUROPE

by jodi jade smith April 6, 2020

After a ten day festival on the shores of Lake Idanha-A-Nova in Portugal, it’s time for our next adventure, We pack up our shop, pack our van to the brim and hit the road, our next festival is halfway across Europe and it starts in four days.

After two days on the road, catching naps at the back of our van at dodgy gas stations in unknown places, crossing the Mediterranean sea by ferry for eighteen hours, almost loosing all of our belongings to gypsies in Spain, and crossing over five borders we finally arrive.

Arriving to the festivals in europe is half of the work, anything can happen along the way when you crossing borders to countries with different languages and laws and a van full of stock. We pray to arrive safely, we pray that we don’t get stopped by officials along the way and we pray that our van doesn’t breakdown.

But we have almost made it, we arrive to Barcelona. Just another ten hours on the road and we reach our destination, Mjesto Primišlje, Croatia.

As we park in the check in queue we start to see familiar faces, friends and family from all over the world arriving in vans, trucks, bicycles and some even hitching rides. We see some of our friends rolling in with their vans, also packed to the brim carrying their shops. Some, like us have travelled from Boom festival, Portugal. Most of us traders go from festival to festival for three months of the summer, setting up festival shops across Europe.

We spend the next two days setting up our shops before the festival kicks off. Modem, a seven day Psytrance Music Festival, set in a beautiful forest, surrounded by trees, fresh spring water, crystal clear rivers and waterfalls.

For most of us this is our favourite festival, it is usually the last festival of the season for us and even though we are physically tired we couldn’t think of a better place to be.

It’s a privilege to be surrounded by such unspoiled nature, earning a living doing what we love, surrounded by our friends and family from around the world.

I take a moment of gratitude as I watch my seven year old daughter reunited with her travel buddies once more as they run off naked with their blow up boats, and head for the river.

We spend the week selling our creations, we dance a lot, we work hard, we party hard, we swim, we eat great food, we cook together, we reconnect with friends, we go back to simple living, connected to nature and each other.

we remember what is important.

After seven festivals, ten countries and about twelve different borders, I can say my heart is full with gratitude and inspiration for the next production.