The Fantazia lanyards have arrived

Its getting exciting the build up to Fantazia Big Bang 2 has begun and two big boxes of cool new Fantazia Crew lanyards have arrived for the VIP ticket holders and also available to buy on the night.

Thanks to everyone who attended Fantazia Greatest Show on Earth, CDs and Photos coming soon

Thanks to everyone who attended Fantazia The Greatest Show on Earth. You were an amazing crowd and it was great to see so many new faces. The weather was bloody awful and it rained for the entire night, but you were wonderful patiently waiting to get in. It might have been cold and wet outside but it was certainly warm inside with 4500 of you dancing away.

The DJs and MCs were banging and the screens on the main stage, which were new to Fantazia, certainly looked fantastic. Hopefully lots of you got to use the laser tag and fair ground rides and that you found all the rooms, it was huge in there and I am sure Bowlers has grown since our last visit in 1994, lol.

We would like to have seen the queue allowed in faster due to the conditions, but the security had strict orders under the local council license to carry our thorough searches for your protection and we hope you appreciate that it was for your safety. Due to the search there were no serious incidents on the night which is great news and what we have come to expect from the PLUR loving Fantazia ravers.

Your outfits were really amazing, we had begun to wonder whether people had started not to wear so crazy outfits at raves but Manchester you proved that not to be the case. Lots of sexy ladies and guys and girls in UV Neon or hi vis gear. Well done you all!

One apology, the venue staff running the cloakroom were overwhelmed by the number of coats on the night due to the rain and instead of refusing to accept any over the planned capacity got overwhelmed and let you all down. This was not being run by Fantazia and we apologies if this caused you any problems, we will certainly look in future to make sure that we run this sort of concession, but as with bars and the security venues normally insist on keeping this in house as a part of the venue hire.

We hope to see all you ravers at the next English Fantazia event. Full date to be announced soon. Do come and see us in November at the Arches in Glasgow.

Photos will be going on line soon and sets will be made available.

Fantazia in Northern Ireland this November

Exciting news for Fantazia which we hope all ravers in Ireland will celebrate on hearing. We are holding our first rave in Northern Ireland since we held a sell out party at the Circus Circus in 1994. More details and the flyer coming soon. The Legend Returns! Coach Nightclub Banbridge!

Heres what you missed if you weren't at Fantazia Supernova, event review by Forum member Joker2

Thought we would share this review of our last event Supernova by a Fantazia forum user called Joker2. Don't miss out on the next one, see you at Fantazia The Greatest Show on Earth!

what a fantastic night!! i came from brighton ,on the train on my own, ive never been to bristol before so when i got off the train i wasnt sure how to get to the club, it was gettin dark i was walking around like a numpty, and i though "sod this" and was thinkin of going home,thought it had been canceeled as didnt see any fellow ravers to follow, but in the end i walked back to temple meads and got a taxi!
ha, whilst queing one of the poor girls on stilts fell over..hope u ok:) but was funny!
i hadnt been inside 2 minutes and was asked if i had any pills for sale??
just because i had a fantazia smiley t shirt on!! ha whats the matter with people??
took meself off to the merch stall and got a whistle!! then had a walk round and soon found the old skool room where vinyljunkie was ripping up the floor with some pretty decent tunes, run tings, back again remix springs to mind..
danceflooor was only half full at the time and it seemed like people wernt really "havin it", so i got myself a couple of red stripes and went to chill out for a beer and tab!
saw some mental fellow in a space suit with mad teeth!!
went back in old skool at 1130 and krome & time were havin a cameo..
rem them dropping "rumblism" awesome tunage...then i think it was top of the buzz...which , no disrespect because they are legends, aint really my cuppa darjeeling.
so went and had a couple more beers and found some bloke in chill out who had come all the way from italy..just for fantazia!! deication a..mind u he hardly spoke a word of english..i bought him a doughnut and he seemed to like that.. then, as im half sicilian myslef, muttered a few italian pleaseantries to him and said aurevior.
back in old skool slipmatt was up and was doing what slipmatt does best...ripping up teh floor mixing up uplifting hardcore in the way only he knows how..a constant rush..highlights being agent orange and think he dropped vertigo too..big ups slippers:)
think im right n saying the ratpack were up next with thier usual show of entertainment..
one bad point was i saw a couple of blokes snifiing what looked like coke froma rizzla on dance floor!!! stone me! naughty naughty..
but back to the music by now the floor was full to the max abd everyone was well upo for it..have to say the main attraction for me was the legend dennis easygroove..but when he hadnt turned up by 4 and lsd was on i feared the worst...
lsd played a below average set , imho, but still in my top 4 djs...
then there he was..the badboy technodread easygroove..by now i was rushing like i hadnt since 95..
btw anyone else see that bloke crashed out by the stage in his pants?? hilarious..he wa well mashed..
i spent the last 2 hours right at the front of the stage givng it some and then some more..was well u pfor it last night..and easygroove delivered his usual sublime mixing of hardcore ,happy jungle and techno.. and what a choon to finish the night on..praise jesus...!!!! mental
big up ez.
all in was a great night evryone was happy no bad attitudes..
the only down point is lost 100 pounds cash:(
which was a shame as i was gonna visit the merchandise stall:(
great p[arty fantazia how about a summer outdoor event next year???

Limited number of EB Fantazia Supernova tickets left. Don't miss out on saving £5

There are only limited numbers of Fantazia Supernova tickets left. If you want to save yourself £5 and buy the tickets at the Early Bird price do purchase soon or risk being disappointed. We only have a few days worth of tickets before we sell out and the price goes up to £20+bf. 5 arenas and 2100 ravers doing it Fantazia style @ Motion in Bristol.

Buy now

Hardcore Heaven Weekender cancelled is this a rave dip?

Sad news that Slammin Vinyl have been forced to cancel the Hardcore Heaven Weekender that was due to have at Pontins next month.    At short notice you have to wonder whether the official explanation is correct or whether ticket sale had been poor.

The rave scene has been going for 20 years or more (hence our Anniversary celebrations this year) and during this time is has had many ups and downs and seems to work in 5 year cycles of popularity.  Is this the next drop?  How you explain these cycles is interesting... is it a generation thing?  After 5 years of raving doing the current crop of ravers get bored of doing the same thing?  After all the DJ and music whilst evolving some over time does not really change that much and there is only so many different venues, lasers, productions etc that you can put into a venue to make each different.   Or is just in tandem with the economy.  The demographic of raves is varied but a large proportion are working class and in times of tight money or no jobs can people just not afford to go out to raves as often?

The scene will undoubtable recover.  People love the free expression and just sheer fun of rave parties that no other type of event can match and in some ways maybe a quiet time forces the artists to be more creative and try new things and DJs will inevitably be forced to drop there fees enabling the promoters to lower the ticket prices and make the events more accessible.

The cycle will continue!

Fantazia Londons Calling @ Mass, Brixton

For the first time ever Fantazia are coming to the capital for 1 night of raving madness to celebrate our 20th Anniversary.   Whilst we have travelled the country and in fact the globe we have never done any large scale events in the London.  So now to mark this special year we thought we would give you a night to remember including Radio 1 DJ and Legend Grooverider.  See you there!

Tickets are available from our website, via ticketweb or from Ticketsellers.   The line up also contains other Fantazia favs like Slipmatt, Ratpack, Ellis Dee, Billy Bunter, Top Buzz, Phantasy and MC's Chalky White and Energy.

Our 20th Birthday is a sellout 12 weeks in advance! Amazing

It is amazing news that so many old and new ravers have decided to join us Fantazia for our 20th Birthday celebrations in April in Stoke on Trent,  the 2000 tickets sold out in record time for us, with 12 weeks to go they were all gone.  It is a great testiment to the loyal following of you our fans.   We have people flying in from far away placing including Tenerife, Ibiza, Germany and coach loads from from Scotland, Blackpool, Yorkshire and more.

It also reflects well for a scene that was so well loved and shaped many peoples early experiences.  Ravers have such fond memories even 20 years on that many still want to turn out to dance the night away and a new generation want to come to see what all the fuss was about.   We welcome you all ;)

To ensure everyone who wants to come has an opportunity to attend we are doing it all again on the 4th June at Kings Hall again. This time we have an all new lineup of classic Fantazia DJs including the legendary Top Buzz!  Tickets are selling fast and the early birds will only be available for a limited time.  Proving its appeal again this time we have sold tickets to groups of people as far away as Australia.  Now thats dedication!

Fantazia Anniversary & Rave event details update

2011 is Fantazia's 20th Anniversary. To celebrate we will be running special features, competitions and raves during the year, do make sure you take part in some of these by attending an event we hold or by participating or commenting with some of your memories. If you have not already done so and you are on Facebook join the Fantazia group.

Who would have thought back in 1991 we would still be holding rave parties 20 years later and creating that special atmosphere that only Fantazia ravers can.. 

This 23rd April we will be holding a 20th Birthday party at Kings Hall, Stoke-on-Trent. Join 2000 fellow ravers for a very special Fantazia night. Early bird tickets are only £15+ BF until the 1st February. Headline acts include Ratpack, Ellis Dee, Jumping Jack Frost, Sy, SL2, Pilgrim, Robbie Dee, Ribbz, Man Parris, Energy, Vinyljunkie, XTC and more. Full flyer releases on the 1st February. Buy tickets from: 

http://www.fantazia.org.uk/Mailorder/fantazia_tickets.htm

If any of you work in publishing, radio, TV or have your own website and want to do a story about Fantazia, the Rave scene or dance music, we would love to help with interviews, comments, profiles by email, phone or video..

Below you will find some interesting facts about Fantazia to get you started: 

Fantazia are the biggest brand in rave music and still put on many large events to this day. We think your readers would be interested to hear more about the height of the rave scene (not just the M25 days) and we would be happy to do an interview, biography, competition, giveaway or something else with your mag. Fantazia held the record for the largest ever single arena rave (25,000 Donnington 1992), Largest indoor rave (12,000 SECC 1993), largest single arena house event (12,000 G-mex 1997), we also featured on the ITN News, front page of the News of the World, Sun, Telegraph etc etc 

Our record company sold several million compilation and those including the gold selling House collection and Club Classics now sell for large amount £30-50. 

Our website is the largest in the UK on the past and present rave/hardcore scene. It has profiles on much of the scene and is very informative. We have done a series of sell out 8000 people events in Scotland over the last few years and have a 2000 people party in Stoke on our actual birthday. 

Read more at http://www.fantazia.org.uk/index.htm

Its Fantazia 20th Anniversary this year and we have a party for you

It is 20 years on since Fantazia first party at the famous Eclipse in Coventry,  and to celebrate almost to the day we are holding a classic rave event for rave UK wide with an event and The Kings Hall in Stoke on Trent.  Licensed for 2000 ravers this event will feature a great line up including many of Fantazia own favourites from the early days including Ratpack, Sy, Jumping Jack Frost, Ellis Dee, Robbie Dee, Ribbz and more.

We hope as many of you as possible can come and join us for this great night which promises to be a great birthday party for Fantazia and old skool ravers everywhere

Two new Fantazia gigs to be announced in the New Year

Exciting news Fantazia will be announcing two new gigs in the New Year.  One in the Midlands and one in the capital London.  Full details will be released soon and we hope you will join us at these two great old skool nights out.  Experience that special Fantazia vibe for the first time or relive the best times of your life.  More details coming soon.

Lets set a world Record for ravers

We have applied to the Guinness Book of records to set a World Record at the forthcoming Fantazia The Ultimate UV Glow Show event next month. Everyone wearing UV clothing on the way into the event will be counted and hopefully with 8000 of you mad people willing to be part of the show we will set a world record for the number of people in UV Clothing in one place.

There is a vast range of UV clothing available these days and they are readily available in most shops including Fantazia which has a very large range in its clubwear section.

This will be an excellent experiance and great fun. If we can pull it off it will be good to get some positive press for the rave scene nationally for once.

Lets Glow for it! The Ultimate UV Glow Show

Well it was time we thought we would make a big thing about the amount of effort that all the Scottish ravers go to to wear UV reactive clothing and carry glow sticks and so we bring you Fantazia The Ultimate UV Glow Show event @ Braehead arena. Now with 5 arenas including HTID and for the first time an up and coming dj arena.

To make sure you the people are part of the show we will be installing lost of UV lighting in the venue to make you the audience in UV clothing part of the light effect. Should be awesome alongside the lasers and screens!

Festival Fun?

As I am sure I have already posted I am going to Glastonbury for the first time this year. I have alway wanted to go, but for one reason or another, normally being to disorganised to get my shit together never got around to it. Plus I am not sure I love being drench in mud. This year though its what a close friend wanted to do for his stag do so there was not excuses and so we are going.....

Now planning has started...... surely a word that the original attendees, mainly hippies, would not have given any thought. My friend is planning on taking chemical loos, camp bed, several tents, gazebo etc etc etc..... I can already see the purchase bill running into the hundreds of pounds, so not cheap given the £175 ticket price. Its not really the carefree rough it event I was thinking off. Several problem have already occured to me..... 1. how the bloody hell are we go to get all this stuff from the carpark, which on those aerials shots from last years newspapers, looks miles! 2. Are we not advertising to all the criminals or just jealous other campers come and steal from here we have done the hardwork lugging it for you. I have visions of setting up our palladium camp site and coming back after the first night to find it all gone.....

Well I will give you a report of what happens after the event, wish me luck, I think us clueless people are going to need it. Now where is my viking horn hat?

Lasers are dangerous

I alway thought the health and safety report we have had to do to get lasers at our recent Braehead events as a bit of over kill. But perhaps not:

Lasers Blind Raver goes in Moscow

Reports of large numbers of Russians being blinded at a festival outside Moscow is serious news.

Trained operators who know their equipment are essential and I am pleased to say that all ours are certificated. The use of indoor lasers not outdoors ones is I guess common sense, but if you are in the audience you would not know the difference until after your retina's are burned out in a split second.

UK Weather

Well is it time to move abroad? With the UK summer almost half gone and no consistent sun so far it is all so depressing. The family and I went to Cornbury a few weeks ago and got suitably wet. Festivals just are not the same in the rain.... with Godskitchen on the way and our own Sanctury Festival as well its fingers crossed. If it doesn't work then its time to look at emigration to Australia

Sonique added to Heroes 3D. Amazing

Click the heading to read the story.

Great news that Sonique will be doing a live PA at the forthcoming Heroes 3D event. It will be amazing to have her for the first time at a Fantazia Scotland event!! The vocals will really go down a storm and its great to have such massive hits sang live once again at one of our events. :)

This line up looks amazing!

Raves better now or then?

A constant post from old ravers on the Fantazia forum is that parties are just not as good as they used to be back in 1992... Well is that true? In some ways 1991/92 was very special. The scene still had an underground / cool to be involved feel and then it hit the national press which made you feel part of something big. There was definitely a special buzz around, the music/tracks were new and being played for the first time, the sense of discovering something together was good. Another plus was their were less restriction and health and safety rules, (though this changed rapidly), this enabled events that were double the capacity and therefore felt rammed...

On the minus sides this meant they probably were not very safe at times (though fortunately their were very few accidents that I can think of). Technology has now moved on and you now get visually far more for your money than just a few strobe lights. Video screens, 3d graphics were just not around in 1992, you could not watch the DJ on a screen mixing whilst he played.

People moan now about the amount of kids in events, but back in 1992 there were hundreds of under 16s at each event, Scratchmaster Techno was only 14 when he started MCing! Just remember old ravers you were young once and would have said what are all these old people doing around, lol, I'm old to now, so everyone looks younger to me.

So come on Rave is a vibe and state of mind, praise the new generations, without them there will be no scene in the future, let them discover it for themselves and decide whether it is good. Have fond memories but like your gran don't tell everyone it was better in my day.....

Global Credit Crisis - Do people party harder during bad times?

Every time I turn on the tv it is stories of the global credit crisis, housing market crash and plunging stock prices and rising cost of oil.... now will all this have an impact on the dance scene? Will people rain in their spending and stop going to events and buying music? Of course no-one knows for certain but I believe when things get depressing people still want to go out and party. They might not buy the big tv, or go on the long haul holiday, nor buy a car, but surely a rave is to good an experiance to miss...

My evidence.... well we (Fantazia) have seen all this before of course. Back in 1991 when we launched Fantazia the country was in a major housing crash with sterling droping out of the ERM etc. People still wanted to party!! It could help that with 18-26 years old, the main audience of our events, don't always have houses, cars etc, they are not so constrained by responsibilites. When choosing entertainment they will likely go for the big one off experiance where you get more bang for your buck, and that definitely applies to us.

So through all the doom and gloom I will see you parting at the next one!

Heroes 3D Very Early Birds only from Fantazia

Don't miss out on our very special VERY EARLY BIRD TICKETS for Fantazia Heroes 3D, only £27.50 +BF, only until the 30th June direct from Fantazia. A huge saving from the Full price ticket