Motion Notion
July 17-20. Bent River Valley Ranch. Tickets and info at www.motionnotion.com.

I remember my first Full Moon Party at Haad Rinn beach on the isle of Koh Phangan in Thailand’s south. Well... more or less, anyway. Musically, it was actually a lot less spectacular than I had hoped it would be. Every competing bar along the strip of sand and high on the rocky promontories blared psytrance, pop, and rock into what ultimately became an indecipherable din. Granted, a few buckets of Sang Tip whiskey and a “special” milkshake helped make the visual appeal of the party the real draw. Ten thousand drunken a-holes from around the world whooping it up Thai-style… sigh. Good times.

Nobody is ever going to mistake the Pembina River for the Gulf of Thailand (though that may arguably depend on the consistency of your milkshake), but events like the Full Moon Party were what inspired Katalyst’s James Hodges to start throwing his annual Motion Notion outdoor music festival. Now in its ninth year, MoNo returns this weekend to the Bent River Ranch, about 25 kilometres north of Drayton Valley. This year’s event, as always, features a cavalcade of international headliners, local DJs, and electronic acts performing on a variety of woodland stages and interactive zones. The 2008 lineup includes Freq Nasty, Dieselboy, Eskimo, Treavor Moontribe, and Dietzche V & The Abominable Snowman—and many more.

Hodges hesitates to refer to Motion Notion by the much-stigmatized term “rave,” stressing that the feel of outdoor parties differs considerably from their indoor counterparts. And while promoters in metropolitan centres like Edmonton and Calgary will attest to the difficulty of throwing a party within city limits, Hodges says those problems are amplified when you’re trying to sell the concept to rural folk.

“The Bent River Ranch was chosen because it’s on the edge of civilization, with nothing but Crown land to the west,” he explains. “We chose this location not only to avoid noise issues, but also to create the proper atmosphere for this peaceful, artistic gathering.

“Part of the resistance we received after last year is probably due to the age-old tendency to resist change. Every new style of music has experienced it. When rock ’n’ roll was born, it had a very similar resistance to what electronic music is now experiencing from the mainstream populace. Remember how Elvis and The Beatles played ‘the devil’s music’? I think people need to realize that new things aren’t necessarily bad, but are just the next step in the progression of an art. Music is a reflection of the mind, and the human mind is progressing.”

Too lofty for you? Well, then take it from U.S. drum ’n’ bass hero Dieselboy (aka Damian Higgins): outdoor dance shows are a helluva lot of fun.

“They’ve always had a kind of renegade vibe,” Higgins says. “You feel like you are roughing it a bit with nature, and the events themselves seem to pull a lot of the more of the hardcore party people. Given that there is a lot more room to circulate around the party—or even outside the party—you are always sure to see a lot of interesting things going on. People tend to get wild in the wild.”
He’s got that right. And I should be easy enough to spot. I’ll be the drunk, sunburned dude wearing an inflatable penis hat. After all, Motion Notion comes but once a year.