Shankra Festival at a glance
Shankra Festival began in Lostallo, Switzerland, in 2015 and built one of the most recognisable Alpine identities in European Psytrance. Created by Mahi and Madu Murugar, the festival links psychedelic music with art, self-expression, community and the dramatic Mesolcina valley landscape. A separate Sri Lankan edition extended the same organising philosophy into a tropical setting without replacing the Swiss event.
The Swiss festival has faced an unusually difficult run of interruptions. After pandemic cancellations, a landslide disrupted the 2023 edition, severe flooding and landslides prevented the 2024 gathering, temporary-site plans failed for 2025, and updated hydrogeological requirements and rising costs prevented the planned 2026 return. In June 2026 the organisers announced that the Lostallo project is now being prepared for 2027 and that existing tickets will remain valid, so Shankra remains active rather than historic.
How Shankra Festival evolved
Shankra was created in Lostallo in 2015 by Mahi and Madu Murugar. Through the second half of the 2010s it developed into a major Swiss Psytrance gathering, using the valley and surrounding mountains as a central part of the festival experience instead of simply a backdrop.
The pandemic forced two editions to be cancelled before Shankra returned in 2022. In 2023 a landslide hit part of the site shortly before opening; the event eventually proceeded in reduced form after delays and safety work. In June 2024 catastrophic rain, flooding and landslides struck Lostallo and the wider Mesolcina region, making that year’s festival impossible.
Organisers explored alternative municipalities for 2025 but could not secure the necessary permissions. Work then shifted back toward Lostallo. A new hydrogeological risk map and stricter safety requirements led to a detailed risk-management plan that received municipal pre-authorisation, but the financial and operational burden meant 2026 also had to be postponed. The official June 2026 update says the foundations are now in place for a 2027 return.
Music, programming & dancefloors
Shankra is explicitly a Psytrance festival, with several dancefloors designed to cover a broad psychedelic spectrum. The Swiss programme has historically moved through Full-On, Progressive Psytrance, psychedelic and darker styles, with chill and ambient areas balancing the high-energy floors. The organisers continue to describe music as the fundamental core of the festival.
Role in psytrance festival culture
Shankra’s importance comes from the strength of its place-based identity. The Lostallo valley became inseparable from the brand, and the festival’s public philosophy presents nature, art and Psytrance as tools for self-expression and shared experience. Its Be The Change initiative extends that ethos beyond the dancefloor through social and educational work connected to Sri Lanka.
The sequence of landslides, floods, permitting problems and safety redesign has also made Shankra a revealing example of the pressures facing large outdoor festivals in sensitive mountain environments. The decision to keep working with Lostallo instead of simply abandon the site shows how strongly the festival’s identity is tied to that landscape.
Place, setting & atmosphere
The Swiss edition occupies an Alpine valley where terrain and weather directly shape festival operations. Landslides affected the 2023 event and severe regional flooding prevented 2024. By 2026 the organisers were working from a new hydrogeological risk map and a specialist safety concept developed with risk-management professionals. Environmental conditions are therefore not just part of the scenery; they are central to whether the festival can safely exist.
What sets Shankra Festival apart
Founded in Lostallo in 2015 by Mahi and Madu Murugar; Swiss Alps setting; broad multi-floor Psytrance programme; art, performance and personal-development activities; related Sri Lanka edition; pandemic cancellations; 2023 landslide disruption; 2024 floods; unsuccessful 2025 relocation attempts; 2026 postponement; official plan to return to Lostallo in 2027.
Artists connected to the festival
Atmos
Tomasz Balicki’s Swedish progressive Psytrance project, a foundational name in the late-1990s Scandinavian shift toward deeper, groovier trance.
Audiopathik
Mexican dark Psytrance duo of Alex Urias and Gilberto Wendlandt, associated with fast, experimental and high-intensity psychedelic sound.
Crazy Astronaut
Nikolay Golutvin’s melodic, rave-driven high-speed psychedelic-trance identity, distinct from his more experimental Furious project and strongly associated with OSOM Music.
Dark Whisper
Manuel Bellini’s dark, experimental psychedelic-trance project, associated with Alice-D Records and spanning Darkpsy, high-speed Psytrance and later Hi-Tech overlap.
Deedrah
Frédéric Holyszewski’s solo project, bridging the first French Goa wave, early-2000s Full-On and later progressive electronic forms.
Highko
German psychedelic-trance producer associated with the early development of ultra-fast night music and the hi-tech scene, both solo and through Highcosmos with Cosmo.
HypoGeo
Nicola Grigatti’s dark progressive psychedelic project, historically tied to Zenon Records and now founder-led through SubЯitual Records, with strong Zenonesque and Psy-Techno characteristics.
Kromagon
Nicolas Aragon’s dark-progressive psychedelic project, combining Zenonesque grooves, detailed sound design and techno influence.
Transwave
French Goa Trance project of Christof Drouillet and Frédéric Holyszewski, whose concentrated mid-1990s catalogue became foundational to the French psychedelic-trance scene.
U-Recken
Yaniv Ben Ari’s Israeli melodic Psytrance project, active since 2006 and now entering an artist-controlled catalogue and label phase.
Waio
Fernando Seca’s Brazilian-born Psytrance project, combining technical versatility with a transnational career spanning South America and Europe.
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.
Hadra Trance Festival
Hadra Trance Festival is a French nonprofit psychedelic-trance festival launched by Grenoble's Hadra association in 2005 and based at Plan d'Eau de Vieure since 2016.
Own Spirit Festival
A Spanish Psytrance gathering founded in 2015 that combines psychedelic music with art, holistic practice, family/community space and a long-running home beside the Santa Ana reservoir.
ATMAN Festival
ATMAN Festival is a Sri Lanka-rooted underground psychedelic gathering that grew from the ATMAN Tribe scene, later expanded to Portugal and is now advertising a return to Sri Lanka in 2027.
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.
Dimension Festival
Dimension is a Northland psychedelic trance festival founded in 2017, focused on multi-day outdoor Psytrance and a deliberately intimate New Zealand community experience.
Continue exploring festival culture
Continue with the Psytrance Festival Culture guide or explore the genres linked above.