Eclipse Festival at a glance
Eclipse Festival is one of Canada’s longest-running psychedelic electronic gatherings. Its modern format combines a dedicated Psytrance programme with techno and ambient/downtempo stages, visual production, workshops, healing and camping in the Gatineau Valley.
How Eclipse Festival evolved
The first Eclipse event took place indoors in Montreal in 1999. After another indoor event in 2002, the project moved outdoors in 2003 and developed into a recurring Quebec festival. Later editions used several natural sites before returning to the Gatineau Valley for the modern cycle.
Music, programming & dancefloors
Psytrance is one of the festival’s principal stage identities, alongside techno and ambient/downtempo. The psychedelic programme has historically included Goa, full-on, progressive and deeper psychedelic styles.
Role in psytrance festival culture
Eclipse is significant to Canadian Psytrance because its history reaches back to the late 1990s and because it has served as a meeting point for Quebec, wider Canadian and international psychedelic communities.
Place, setting & atmosphere
Forested/riverside Quebec outdoor setting with camping and multi-stage infrastructure.
What sets Eclipse Festival apart
Originated as a Montreal indoor event in 1999; outdoor festival from 2003; long-running Quebec identity; three-stage psychedelic/electronic format.
Festivals with related scenes or programming
Free Earth Festival
Free Earth Festival is a Greek beach-based Psytrance gathering founded in 2013, combining broad psychedelic programming with specialist label stages and a strong community-and-ecology identity.
Gaian Mind Summer Festival
Gaian Mind Summer Festival was a formative East Coast US Psytrance gathering that ran through the 2000s, bringing international psychedelic artists to a dedicated outdoor community festival.
Samothraki Dance Festival
Samothraki Dance Festival was an early-2000s Greek Psytrance gathering on Samothraki Island whose large international editions became a landmark of Mediterranean festival culture.
Transahara Festival
Transahara was a pioneering Moroccan desert Psytrance gathering built around the dramatic Merzouga/Sahara environment and an international psychedelic community.
Adhana Festival
Adhana Festival is a Brazilian New Year psychedelic gathering founded in 2016, combining a major Psytrance programme with alternative electronic stages, workshops and nature-based festival culture.
Burning Mountain Festival
Burning Mountain is a four-day Swiss Alpine Psytrance festival held at Zernez, known for progressive and psychedelic trance, large-scale fire installations and its high-altitude valley setting.
Continue exploring festival culture
Continue with the Psytrance Festival Culture guide or explore the genres linked above.