Every year at this time Vortex Trance Adventures puts on a 4 day music festival with three dance floors that sees around 7000 revelers and happy campers come set up tent on the banks of the Rieviersonderend on the south Cape coast of Africa.

This is the 25th anniversary. I was at the first events Vortex put on back then, and have seen it go from an underground, avante garde progressive music and cultural innovation to a mainstream international music event over the 25 years.

This year the venue was a new one compared to the last 8 years or so, due to the fact that it had become so popular that an EU electronic music company from Croatia called Modem, has bullied their way in and offered the farmer from the previous venue double the money to take over that past venue that had worked so well. They came in to 3rd world Africa with their Euros, which are worth 16x in value to our ZAR currency and bought out the local farmer. The usual colonialism but now economic colonialism, not military or political.

Anyway, the local Cape south coast of Africa is a beautiful tourist area with its splendid beaches and mild weather all year long. The summer now is idyllic and so numerous local music companies and events organizers put on festivals almost every weekend now in summer, from November to March annually. These outdoor events bring anything from 1000 to 7000 people out of the city of Cape Town to the rural countryside where the Psy Trance music festivals are held. The Vortex Trance Adventure this past weekend is the biggest of them all, and oldest, and has set the trend, as well as drawn the envious from the EU who have pulled in to the local scene.

So this year the new venue on the Riviersonderend is just as beautiful, with several swimming areas on the banks of the river, and lots of shaded camping space for the party goers who bring their tents and sleeping bags for the 5 day festival of non-stop music on 3 dance floors. A chill area, and Progressive/Tech dance floor and a full on Psy Trance floor - the biggest of the three.

Food stalls also pull in and set up to trade in fresh meals on their various menues for the 5 days. So nothing is lacking. I used to have the main chai bar with vegetarian snacks back in the early days for a decade or so, every summer. Then I skipped a decade of partying, but now I have returned to the scene of the chime, to enjoy the festive musical celebrations once more in my older years, close to pension time hahaha.

Here electronic music lovers of all ages can come and camp out while dancing to their favorite tunes for days on end. This time I have scaled down my chai shop to its smallest level, as you can see in the video clip I took above. I was able to relax at the chill lounge area on the bank of the river and sell my cups of original home made spicy chai tea to thirsty campers. I make it according to a traditional recipe for a type of medicinal tea, called "chai" in India.

Ingredients:
The tea I boil up consists of
grated ginger
star anise
cinnamon sticks
cloves
cardamom

and I also use a local herbal tea called "Rooibos". It is an indigenous herbal bush tea, with zero caffeine. The final chai tea is a powerful immune system booster and metabolism catalyst, which warms you up and stimulates the body in a healthy way.

I used to make it the traditional way, with lots of milk and sugar, but nowadays people are more conscious about their diet and so many more prefer to avoid dairy or sugar, so I keep it separated. Add them if you wish, though the ingredients in the chai are sweet an it is.

This is a great herbal or spicy chai tea and I recommend it for you to try at home, especially if you're in the wintry north now. It will warm you up nicely and boost your health as it stimulates your digestion. Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

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