Third Eye Festival

June 14, 2024 Theresa Baeumel

The Third Eye Festival, taking place from September 6 to 8 near Berlin is deeply rooted in creating and sharing an intimate musical and artistic gathering. Launched in a small garden venue called gART.n, this festival has now grown into an event held at an abandoned airport.

Co-founder Valentin says, “We found the perfect location for this second edition and we are pairing the beautiful atmosphere with curated projections and an organic stage inspired by Japanese festivals. This is the gathering that we’ve been envisioning for a long time finally taking shape, and we couldn’t be happier!”

The journey is about a perfectly curated lineup that tells a story from beginning to end - starting with sound healings and ambient leading into the finest contemporary techno in the night. The curation contains key contributors in the field: Sa Pa, known for field recording combined with dubby atmospheres, Ario, head of the Astral Industries label who droned us away more than once and of course Sarah Wreath. We featured her gong infused horizontal spheres already in one of our podcasts. (find the full lineup below)

photo by Yozy Yu Zhang

As night falls, we will hear artists on the Funktion One that probably no event has booked with this consequence so far. Wata Igarashi, Rrose, Claudio PRC, Dasha Rush and DJ Maria are some of the featured artists. Everybody in this lineup embodies electronic music filled with finesse and invites introspection as much as getting lost in wormhole ecstasies.

The programming extends beyond some of the classic names, and with Spanish multi-talent Imox and Korean Unjin, we have some “must watch, but lesser known” artists that are highly convincing across a spectrum of music.

Through only one active stage at a time, the festival aims to connect people in the moment. While other events are so overloaded that people barely get their eyes off timetable apps and racing around between stages, The Third Eye focuses on connection and storytelling throughout the event. “We love gathering energies and the feeling of becoming whole on the dance floor while being surrounded by nature.” says Festival Co-Founder Juli.

photo by Yozy Yu Zhang

Another important ingredient is time to rest. In a city like Berlin, that celebrates such an intense 24hr party culture, this may seem counterintuitive. Time to rest at night and being woken up by the sound of ambient in the morning, add something special. It allows people to enjoy themselves more holistically. Not only is it physically less taxing, but one feels more nourished from looking inward, from collective painting or workshops to top class raving. Valentin and Juli tie everything together with beautiful attention to detail in the design. Light Artists, projection mapping and flower sculptures add to the mystical, wholesome vibe of the festival.

Doing all of that in a reality that favors the “big Instagrammable drops” is not an easy undertaking. Nation, Fusion, or Garbicz- all festivals not too far from Berlin - and their recipe of extended weekend partying seems to still be the way to go in the area. With 1000 visitors, the Third Eye is also much smaller - another way to enable connection. While there is plenty of ambient and experimental to explore in the city’s concrete flair, it is different to enjoy music while sky-gazing and with feet in the grass. Setting up a festival with this philosophy, is an invitation for the region to be different. We are all tired, overstimulated, not connected enough to nature and sound. The Third Eye encourages us to tune in. It seems that what the organizers have planned adds a significant new dimension to Berlin's electronic scene, like a refreshing breath of forest air.

Lineup:

Ario

Artefakt (Live)

Blume

BOTO (Sound bath ceremony)

KĀ (1) (Sound bath ceremony)

Lou Drago