Goa branch near St. Petersburg: How is the cult trance festival. Goa branch near St. Petersburg: How is the cult trans-festival going? Photo: Alexey Zaitsev, group of the VKontakte festival

secret clearing

The quaint name of the festival is due to the village of Sisto-Palkino, 120 km from St. Petersburg, near which the first rave was held in May 2004. I must say, the very idea of ​​organizing open-airs in these places in the first ten days of May looked quite extreme: at this time there are still remains of snow in the forest, the ground turns into a swamp, and the temperature at night sometimes drops below zero. But for the fourteenth year, this has not stopped anyone.

The festival lasts five days, although some enthusiasts stay for two weeks or even longer. Systo does not have a permanent location: the festival migrates from one district of the Leningrad region to another, and each time the venue is revealed only a couple of days before the start. The organizers try to choose places that are deaf, away from any settlements - the less contact with the authorities and natives, the better. Having found a suitable forest (always with a lake on the territory, and preferably with two or three), volunteers go there a few weeks before the festival and equip the site: they build stages, decorate the forest with art objects, dig holes for public toilets. At the end, everything is disassembled and buried; the organizers claim that the territory after Systo becomes even cleaner than before it.

Systo does not have a permanent location: the festival migrates from one district of the Leningrad region to another, and each time the venue is revealed only a couple of days before the start.

Formally, the festival is considered non-commercial, so tickets for it are disguised as registration fees. Visitors transfer the declared amount to the account of the organizers and receive in return a number that will become their password to enter the territory. The closer to the festival, the higher the amount of the registration fee: in February, they asked for 1,800 rubles for entry to Systo-2017, now - 2,600 (about $30 and $45, respectively), in April the price will be raised again. For non-residents (and people from all over the CIS come to the festival) the price is slightly lower.

Republic of freedom

My first trip to Systo happened in 2012. The day before I Once again returned from Goa and, having passed through a makeshift barrier to the festival territory, she could not believe her eyes: it turns out that in the northern forests it is possible to create a branch of the Goan village. The same dreadlocks in fluorescent clothes, the same shops with Nepalese sweatshirts and singing bowls, the same cafes knocked together from past materials, the same music. Is that instead of pine palm trees and dressed all much warmer.

Since then, I have been to the festival every year, and every time it stunned me anew. Systo is a real parallel reality that has nothing to do with either St. Petersburg or Russia in general. I can’t even believe that in a country where a crazy printer does not have time to print new prohibition laws, and theatrical performances are constantly closed because they hurt someone's feelings, there can be a territory of such complete freedom of expression. Light installations, futuristic structures, whimsical art objects inscribed in the landscape, exhibitions contemporary art under open sky, psychedelic video art, surreal performances - discoveries await at every step. But the real magic begins after sunset, when all these art objects flash, shine with fluorescent colors and are illuminated by lasers.

Over the years, the festival has not lost its intimacy - despite the fact that its territory is now comparable to the area of ​​a small locality, and the number of visitors exceeds several thousand. This is still a hangout "for their own", where the line between the creators and the audience is almost erased. Those who come to Systo themselves create the atmosphere that attracts almost more music here. Someone holds tea ceremonies, someone organizes free yoga classes at dawn, someone leads master classes, someone builds a bathhouse, someone arranges a show of psychedelic cartoons, someone bakes pancakes, someone turns poi . Even those who come just to relax and are not involved in any activity try to contribute to the general atmosphere: they decorate their campgrounds with candles and garlands, hang bright canvases between the trees, build tents and Indian dwellings - tips.

The structure of the festival is reminiscent of a small town, with districts clustered around stages. Systo has long grown out of a purely trance festival - now very different music sounds on its venues: at Gudelnya - noise, at Polyana-Valyan - chill, at Golosistaya - live performances, and only on Dancefloor plays trance, around which it all began. To avoid cacophony, the scenes are quite far apart.

At the busiest point of Systo - the information center - you can charge your phone and meet other inhabitants (I remember when I first came here, an unfamiliar young man politely asked me: “Excuse me, can you tell me how an owl blinks?”, And then another stranger asked , I don’t know who cut his hair at night). However, getting to know each other and having conversations is appropriate everywhere: the atmosphere at Systo is the friendliest.

An unfamiliar young man politely asked me: “Excuse me, can you tell me how an owl blinks?”

In the "City of Masters" lectures and master classes are held from morning to evening. Topics are very different, but with an esoteric bias - from tarot divination to holotropic breathing; payment - as a rule, donations (donation). For parents with children (quite a lot of them come to Systo) there is a kindergarten.

Trade is booming on Systo: dozens of shops and shops are concentrated on the main alley. They sell mainly Indian-Nepalese consumer goods, handmade jewelry, smoking pipes of the most bizarre shapes and designs, exotic musical instruments like jew's harps or "singing bowls" and all kinds of handmade.

In order to have a snack, there are no problems either: tea, pancake, falafel, scrambled eggs are found at every turn. The assortment in them, however, is rather monotonous: Indian soups, rice, pancakes and other simple dishes that can be quickly cooked on a stunted gas burner. Almost all food is vegetarian: meat is not forbidden on the Systo, but it is not welcome either.

However, some "restaurateurs" still dare to break the unwritten rule. "Pilaf, hot pilaf!" - a handsome young man loudly invites into his cafe, and when I approach, he adds in a dramatic whisper, as if offering a batch of drugs: “With meat!” Pilaf is a success: not everyone at the festival has reached the heights of enlightenment. I don't give up either.

"Pilaf, hot pilaf!" - a handsome young man calls out loudly, and when I come up, he adds in a dramatic whisper: “With meat!”

Under an unspoken ban and alcohol. It is not forbidden to bring it with you, but it is not for sale at the festival itself. As for other doping, for the time being Systo treated soft drugs quite loyally: they did not sell or promote, but they did not prohibit them either. At the very least, cannabinoids were smoked at the festival quite openly, and many visitors used a variety of psychedelics and hallucinogens. However, all these substances are for the most part "contemplative", and people, looking at the harsh northern landscapes with childish delight for six hours, did not particularly interfere with anyone. But it couldn't go on like this indefinitely.

End of the idyll

No matter how hard the organizers try to find places as far from civilization as possible, it is quite difficult to hide a festival with four stages and several thousand colorful young people. So about four years ago, law enforcement officers began to look closely at the festival. At first, touchingly dressed in civilian clothes (against the background of a crowd dressed in all the colors of the rainbow, a group of strong men in black jeans, black bombers and polished boots looked rather funny), they simply wandered around the festival grounds, filmed something on camera, with curiosity looked at counters with smoking paraphernalia. Their appearance, of course, did not deceive anyone, but did not particularly disturb anyone.

Photo: Alexey Zaitsev, group of the VKontakte festival

Taught by experience, last year the organizers received all the necessary permits in advance. The local authorities agreed on the festival, but a detachment of OMON was posted at the barrier, whose fighters inspected entering cars and turned out the bags and pockets of passengers. On the very territory of the festival, in addition to the police, employees of the FMS showed up: their victim was the vocalist of one of the invited groups, a citizen of Kenya with an expired visa. As a result, the group performed without a vocalist, and the Kenyan himself spent the next two months in jail.

However, with pressure from the authorities in last years all the major raves of the Northwest region collided. There were cases when the festival was banned right on the opening day for an obviously invented reason, because of which the organizers found themselves in debt (for example, the popular summer open-air “Prophetic Moss” ceased to exist). Some organizers decided that it was pointless to work in such conditions and closed the projects. Others began to hold quite official festivals, renting, for example, ski resorts for them: there is a little less freedom, but fewer problems. And only the creators of Systo still somehow manage to maintain a delicate balance between the atmosphere of an underground rave and interaction with the authorities. Whether they will be able to continue in the same spirit, time will tell. At least the new Systo date has already been set: May 6-10, another secret location.

Cover photo: Oleg ViZZa, group of the festival "VKontakte"

Music festival, a massive gathering of tribes held in special picturesque corners of the lake-forest spaces Leningrad region. We love Systo for the incredible beauty of Nature, rich program, confident power and variety of action, a galaxy of colorful people, bright creativity, frank extravaganza and multiple ambiguous concepts. In today's publication, we are making a sketch about Systo based on photographs by Yulia Postnova. Detailed analysis festival we are in 2014.

This event is special, first of all, in that it opens the real outdoors for the majority, prepares the most courageous for summer trips. Indeed, at this time, it can frown almost in winter, make you wrap yourself in layers of clothes and blankets, but still promise the best, because the organizers of the festival have long decided that Systo is exactly Solar!

A lot of humor is involved, because after the winter the soul tends to open wide.

During the day, people rest a lot, freeze in a natural way, lie on mosses and bedspreads.

They sit, chat, show off, maybe even sell something.

Around northern forest, its stunning pattern and ornate texture.

Special radiance, green-brown palettes underfoot.

People enthusiastically sing on a live stage, presenting different styles world ethnicity.

People harden and refresh their bodies in cold waters, they are not embarrassed.

It must be thought that they organize the action from beginning to end. Advise, accommodate, inform, supply.

And the evening comes, and the colors thicken, intriguing shadows appear, scarves are wound.

Enchantresses come out like a fairy tale come to life.

Under the leadership of a real witch.

The night is coming. Bewitching faces appear, a dark background sets in, hints at caution.

The forest is pierced by rays and rhythms main stage, mother owls.

A great celebration of creativity, openness, love and kindness traditionally precedes the season of the main domestic open-airs.

The Solar Systo festival, also known as Sisto-Palkino or simply Sisto, has been gathering fans of underground culture from all over Russia since 2004 in the forest wilds of the Leningrad Region. What once began as an ordinary psy-trance party in nature, today has turned into a kind of mobile city, the inhabitants of which are united by a special attitude towards nature and man's place in it. The organizers of "Sisto" promote environmental values, vegetarianism, avoidance of alcohol and harmonious co-creation of all residents of the "Indian" art village.

The Systo Togathering space is filled with consciousness-changing pulsations of ethno-jazz, fusion, psy-trance, ambient, reggae, dub, techno, psychedelic rock. The multi-day musical marathon takes place in the scenery of fluorescent paintings, sculptural installations and surrounding natural beauties. A rich additional program, including seminars on spiritual practices, exhibitions, theatrical performances, fire shows, a hand-made fair and much more, helps the guests of the event to maintain their spiritual and physical tone.

Officially, Solar Systo is a non-commercial event, so the ticket for it is the registration fee, which is 2-2.4 thousand rubles. The exact location of "Sisto" is announced a few weeks before the start of the festival.

Exist., Number of synonyms: 1 river (2073) ASIS Synonym Dictionary. V.N. Trishin. 2013 ... Synonym dictionary

Sista (disambiguation)- Sista: Sista village of Kingiseppsky district of Leningrad region Sista river in Leningrad region See also Sisto Palkino village of Lomonosovsky district of Leningrad region Sisto Palkino name music festival passing in the spring in ... ... Wikipedia

Sista (river)- This term has other meanings, see Sista (meanings). Sista River Sista in the lower reaches Characteristic Length 6 ... Wikipedia

Sista-Palkino- ... Wikipedia

Sistan- Seistan, desert plain in Iran and Afghanistan. Height is about 500 m. Crossed by the lower reaches of the rivers Helmand, Farahrud, Khashrud (Basin of Lake Hamun). Oases, nomadic pastoralism. * * * SISTAN SISTAN (Seistan), a desert plain in Iran and Afghanistan… encyclopedic Dictionary

Sistan- (Persian سیستان‎ ), earlier Sakastan (literal translation of the Saka country) geographical area in southeastern Iran and southwest Afghanistan. Western Sistan is part of the Iranian province of Sistan and Balochistan, while eastern ... ... Wikipedia

Seietan

Seistan- Sistan (Persian سیستان ) used to be Sakastan (literal translation of the country of the Saks), a geographical area in southeastern Iran and southwestern Afghanistan. Western Sistan is part of the Iranian province of Sistan and Balochistan, while eastern ... Wikipedia

Seistan- Sistan (Persian سیستان ) used to be Sakastan (literal translation of the country of the Saks), a geographical area in southeastern Iran and southwestern Afghanistan. Western Sistan is part of the Iranian province of Sistan and Balochistan, while eastern ... Wikipedia

Sisto-Palkino- This term has other meanings, see Sista (meanings). Village Sisto Palkino Country Russia Russia ... Wikipedia

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As it usually happens, the Solar Systo festival began with a small event for its people near the village of Sisto-Palkino, and, by now, has turned into a large-scale festival that marks the beginning of the season of forest open-airs.

Solar Systo turns 15 this year.

If earlier it was an event for its own with a bias in trance, now Sisto attracts absolutely different people. Accordingly, the musical scope has become much wider. There are several main stages: on the main, that is, "dance floor" - trance, on the "vociferous" - live performances, on the "hoot" - noise and ambient. Throughout the forest, along the lakes, there will be many local scenes - and there will be music, in some places, completely unexpected. Masters who create the festival from year to year will try to surprise with installations and stage design. Dozens of brightly decorated tea houses, cafes and shops will grow along the paths and paths, counters with all kinds of products and decorations from handicraftsmen will appear.

So what is Sisto?

A third-party person, if he heard something, then usually nothing good. Like, they gather in the forest, supposedly to listen to their strange music, but in reality they eat fly agaric, copulate and do all kinds of tin.

The forest in early May is still fresh in winter and is just beginning to wake up and turn green. The sun is shining more often and brighter, but don't be deceived. The weather changes too drastically - it just warmed up a little, but already the clouds threaten to descend with heavy rain. And it can rain for a long time. Accompanied by a piercing cold wind, it drives people under awnings and awnings closer to the fire and warmth.

The flames of the fire are mesmerizing. You understand its undeniable significance for our ancestors. The lack of civilization and the severity of the spring forest awaken a special state of freedom and peace, as if your ancient Scythian ancestor woke up, for whom all this is easy and natural.

And around - people! They have fun and drink, talk about high and low, cry, laugh and poison stories. All are so different, but all childishly sincerely real.

The city injects a weighty load of social obligations, consisting of the norms of communication at work, the rules of interaction in everyday life. But here it is not. Everything is simple here.

Be kind to people and they will treat you the same way. Be sincere - you will get drunk and warm. Share what you have - and people will repay you the same.

The warm light of the spring Sun, the heat of a blazing fire, the kindness of the people who create the festival - all this is Sisto.

Well, a little about gesture.

Holding a festival of this format cannot do without the attention of certain structures. Yes - they change clothes and go dancing, sniffing out what is happening along the way. Then they follow the form. They may ask you to pee. In addition to them, dubious people flock to the Vysokinsky Lakes in the form of gopovat guys, apparently from the nearby area. In the morning after the first night, they go around the camps, look out for something lying somewhere, steal, behave aggressively.

As a rule, both those and others disappear safely on the second or third day. But some get in and stay.

And yet - it can be very cold on Sisto. It snowed last year.