“Loads of old ravers come come to our Fantazia parties still, I would estimate that this year’s events so far have been 50/50 old ravers to new ones. It’s amazing to shake so many hands of those that were there at the first events.”

Chatting to Skrufff this week as he finalized preparations for next weekend’s 20^th birthday celebration (in Trafford Park, Manchester) event promoter Charlie Fantazia remains infectiously evangelical.

“Fantazia past and present events mean a lot to so many people. It truly was the 2nd summer of love,” he smiles, “People met their present wives and husbands at the events and made lifelong friends at the 90′s raves.”

Click for details of Fantazia The Greatest Show on Earth’; takes place on October 8 at Bowlers, Trafford Park, Manchester

The power of the parties and the enthusiasm he recalls is immediately apparent from a quick Google search of Fantazia Youtube, revealing scores of Youtube clips of tens of thousands dancing, ironically like no-ones watching (http://bit.ly/BFDGH , http://bit.ly/tgHJ0  (http://bit.ly/oKm2kY ). What’s also more than clear is the diversity of the original crowds, with black, white, young and old ravers jammed in side by side yet clearly all comfortable. (Fantazia Donnington: http://bit.ly/nM9AvO )

“The 50% that are new to Fantazia or raves are privileged,” Charlie continues. “They are getting to see the friendly atmosphere off the raves of old. No aggression, just friendly happy people. Fantazia ravers really keep to that PLUR ethos, not the hoody attitude at other raves we have been to where the menace is palpable.

We encourage our ravers to go wild with their outfits and just wear want they want, you don’t get the negative snobby vibe that is associated with the superclubs.”

Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): It’s 20 years since you started: what’s the state of play with Fantazia today; what are you core priorities, what does Fantazia stand for?

Fantazia (Charlie): “We still love putting on parties and regularly sell out across the country including parties this year in Scotland, Stoke on Trent, Bristol and next week’s biggest (8th October) at the 4000 capacity Bowlers in Manchester.  When not organising our latest events we are doing DJ interviews, adding events reviews and generally continuing to make the Rave Archive section of our website the definitive source of information on the UK rave scene.

Skrufff: What’s your assessment of the health of British nightlife at the moment? How much has it been affected by the economic crash of 3 years ago and today?

Fantazia (Charlie): “From what we hear from other promoters and DJs, nightlife is on it knees in many areas. Attendances are down at events, they take longer to sell out and some established events have been cancelled altogether. Fantazia are more insulated from the problems because our audience is drawn from an older range of raver, they travel long distances and they perhaps have more disposable cash. Fantazia was born in 1991 at the height of the previous big recession and we survived that, dance music is cyclical in my opinion; it will be back, albeit a little leaner and fitter.”

Skrufff: How much attention do you pay to media driven trends- e.g. dubstep, new rave before that, electroclash?

Fantazia (Charlie): “We don’t, at all. We just call it all dance music and let the DJs play what they want. Dance music fits into a few sub genres but this constant creation of new subdivisions is bad for the scene, creating smaller and smaller niches and bad attitudes as people slag off other genres. How about just going out to dance and party?  Cut the bollocks, I say.”

Skrufff: You still sell ‘rave wear, UV, neon and clubwear & glowing/flashing stuff, fluffy boots’ etc; how much do these fashions actually change year to year?

Fantazia (Charlie): “I think people are cutting back on buying the full cyber raver outfit for the parties, plus of course the less parties the less people are going to need to buy outfits for them. We said earlier that we encourage people to express themselves and have fun. Neon is loud and vibrant and UV colours make you shine, why would you not want to wear some, it’s fun? Plus where else but a rave can girls wear clothes this sexy? Certainly not at a high street nightclub.”

Charlie?

Skrufff: The site says ‘Rave wear for men has never been as sophisticated at that for the ladies,” why not? Have you ever worn a white suit?

Fantazia (Charlie): “Of course I have worn one of our raver outfits, haven’t you? Rave fashion is like the high street, tons of choice for the ladies and a few for the men, perhaps we just aren’t as adventurous or don’t want to invest as much in our looks?

Skrufff: How did you manage to prevent gangsters from taking over Fantazia; I’m sure they must have tried?

Fantazia (Charlie): “We hired in good personal protection to make sure we were okay. It did not come cheap though and we would have preferred to have worked with the Police. The Police, however, worked to their own agenda and that was to try hastening the death of the big raves and moving parties into the all nightclubs like the Ministry of Sound.

Certainly some of the big rave companies including some of the legal ones were taken over by gun-toting gangsters and they did send us threats. If we had let them in an inch I think that would have been game over, but we always used reputable security companies and always did out best to stop dealing.”

Skrufff: How about the police: did you ever have to contend with mega police raids: or undercovers trying to infiltrate you?

Fantazia (Charlie): “No, we always had to co-operated fully with the Old Bill (police) on licenses and as such they were allowed to carry out undercover operations. It is a testament to our organisation that so few arrests were ever made at our parties. Certainly you would get a lot more on a Saturday at a football match or in say Cardiff City centre.”

Skrufff: In the article you also say how ‘a big ego brings us down with a bump’: what happened? Have you ever been arrested?

Fantazia (Charlie): “Personally not, but 30 VAT man did arrest some of the others over the company tax affairs. We were hardly Al Capone and the Chicago mob, but the government used every method they could to try to shut us down.  Were we any good with paperwork?  No, we were 20 year old kids at the time and more interested in putting on a party than checking the accountants were doing the job they were being paid for properly, (that’s changed now though)!

My advice to budding party organisers?  Don’t allow slick national journalists to get you talking about making lots of money. You almost certainly are not make much money when all the bills finish coming in and if you say you are- in black and white-even if it turns out not to be true, it’s going to cost you a fortune in time, efforts and legal fees to prove it.”

Skrufff: Looking ahead: how likely is it that in 20 years you’ll be celebrating your 40th? (with 60 something rave veterans getting out their glow sticks?)

Fantazia (Charlie): “God no, I will have a Zimmer frame by then. But I hope my 18 year old daughter Georgie does, she already does the photography for the flyer covers and dances at the parties, so hopes are she will keep the name up there for future generations. There were plenty of people in their 50′s at the events this year why not in their 70′s if they want to come.” d

Skrufff: The word ‘rave’ is still seen as a dirty word in the States; have you ever disowned it, or been forced to use different terms?

Fantazia (Charlie): “I think the Electric Daisy Festival is helping over there in Las Vegas. And I would love to see Fantazia at a future one of those, by the way. When we moved from putting on big raves to doing House Music compilations we did call them Dance Music not Rave. I guess that was a change of tack for us in attempting to reach a wider mainstream audience with out any of the illegal connotations that I guess rave parties had at the time.

From the huge sales of our House Collection series I guess we were successful in that reinvention. Since 2000 I think the term rave has become much more of a general description and we are delighted to once again be at the forefront of it, through our events and website.”

http://www.rave.org.uk/trumps/index.htm

http://bit.ly/l8y9wg (‘Fantazia The Greatest Show on Earth’; takes place on October 8 at Bowlers, Trafford Park, Manchester). DJs including , CJ Bolland, Dave Angel, Trevor Rockcliffe, Liquid, N-Joi, Slipmatt, Top Buzz and Shades of Rhythm headline. Click here for more details:

Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff

——-=——-
For unknown reasons Facebook are currently censoring all Skrufff stories, so the ‘share’ button doesn’t work. 

However, if you follow Skrufff.com on Networked Blogs (to the right on your screen), the stories are share-able. Or please try clicking the like’ button right at the bottom of this page.