Two weeks ago we welcomed the premiere electronic music festival to Fellah Hotel in Marrakech, Morocco. Running from Friday September 11- Sunday September 13, the event stretched across the beautiful boutique hotel grounds, with an impressive array of house and techno artists, playing across two stages: the Desert Oasis and Bamboo Arena.
Names like Carl Craig, Cassy, tINI, DJ Harvey, Axel Boman, Derrick Carter, Dyed Soundorom, Will Saul and Gerd Janson set the soundtrack for around 2,000 visitors from over 25 different countries, in what is less like a festival and more like a very very good villa party.
The main stage isn't really a stage at all- it's a pool party that begins 1pm with a distinctly welcoming and relaxed Moroccan feel. Surrounded by high cacti, wooden bunk bed chill out areas, palm trees and two Function One stacks, festival goers danced till past 3am, with Âme, Guy Gerber back-to-back with Matthew Dear and Carl Craig closing out proceedings each night respectively.
Tucked away behind tall trees is the Bamboo Arena where tINI and Cassy played their first ever back-to-back set together and DJ Harvey kept things rolling for over four hours to close out Saturday night. It wasn't all dancing in the desert-like sand though; the area also hosted yoga lessons and massages under an open air bamboo hut.
Safe to say, the sold out festival successfully set the bar high for future editions of Oasis. Notable effort was put into ensuring the event stay true to the country's culture, with a pop up poolside restaurant from Marrakesh, a souk, henna and local artists creating art on site. The same level of attention to detail was also applied to the line-up, with organisers consciously creating a defined mix of artists and a strong presence of female DJs.
Just like the Moroccan cuisine, Oasis has expertly combined all the ingredients to become world famous.
