Note from the editor: Anjunadeep Explorations is an annual music festival and label showcase in Dhermi, Albania. Many dozens of artists – all associated with the label in some way – play sets ranging from two to twelve hours across five different stages.
Monday: We just finished up a fun weekend in Minnesota seeing family, so our itinerary ended up being slightly different this year, but basically the same thing: MSP – Chicago – Athens – Corfu. Even though we’ve done this travel day before, this one seemed to drag on forever. Get us to coastal Greece already!
Tuesday: Just as with the previous two years, we went directly to Angsana Resort for two days of relaxing by the pool, gorging ourselves on the best Mediterranean buffet on the planet, adjusting to our new time zone, and enjoying fresh seafood by the water every evening.
Wednesday: Sleeping, pool, and sleeping by the pool. That evening, for the first time in three years, we finally made it to Benitses, the little village down the road from the resort. All the restaurants and shops are on a single street, which gets quite lively in the evenings. We picked a restaurant at random and had a great dinner, with lots of seafood, feta, and white wine.
Thursday: Another Explorations, another ride on a slow ferry that we didn’t book. A few weeks before the trip, we got an email from the festival organizers saying that one of the ferry company’s boats had broken down recently, so a whole bunch of people (including us) were getting bumped to a slow ferry. We were refunded the difference in price, but it was a little deflating that we’d be stuck on slow boats. Again. Thankfully the weather cooperated – cloudy and even a brief rainstorm – so that we weren’t baking and sweating all afternoon. Somehow we got through passport control quickly and got on the first bus to Dhermi, though there was a lot of extra walking this year: a long walk just to get to the bus (due to road construction) and then a 20-minute death march over cobblestones to get to our hotel. This year we stayed at Nassau Hotel, which was in a different part of town than we’ve seen in years past: the beach southeast of the festival site, which has been built up in recent years to handle all the increased tourism. The aforementioned cobblestone path – which is much cuter when you’re not dragging 50-pound suitcases behind you – is lined with hotels, restaurants, bars, bodegas, beach chairs and umbrellas, and outdoor lounges with hookahs and bean bag chairs.
After checking in, cleaning up, changing, and getting dinner, it was time to kick off the week’s festivities. Thursday evening was a little bit of Braxton at Splendor, followed by a whole lot of James Grant (who played an excellent 4-hour set), and an M.O.S. nightcap at Yacht Club.
Friday: Gjipe for Romain Garcia, CRi, and Hana. There was a bit of a delay leaving since the waters were too rough for the boats to run, but once we got out of there, we treated ourselves to the requisite post-Gjipe dinner at Luciano’s.
It was at this point that my voice, which had been slowly dying since the previous night, basically gave out completely. I joked that I went too hard the first night and blew my voice out, but in retrospect I realized that I had caught something from my brother while we were in Minnesota, since he started losing his voice at the end of that trip (Sunday evening). I still stayed out all night to see Qrion and then Dosem at Empire (aka the Jereme Block), and our crew wore the squad shirts I had made for this year’s trip.
Saturday: The cold/flu hit hard and I spent most of the day in bed, forsaking what I’m sure was a wild James & Jody set on Gjipe. I rejiggered my whole schedule to go out only in the evening (and not stay out all night), so I ended up at a sunset set, which is usually pretty rare for us on these trips. I caught Chris Luno and then Cornelius SA at The Cove and then a wild Amy Wiles party at Yacht Club. She’s very deserving of some recognition, so I was really happy for her that she finally got a primetime slot and a rowdy audience to match. After that I was ready to go to bed. (Such a shame too, since I missed My Friend and Simon Doty at Empire.)
Sunday: Again, I spent most of the day resting, but by the evening I was starting to come around (a small miracle for me, since even the common cold will often have a long tail of a couple weeks). I pulled it together to see P.O.S. at Splendor, which I knew would be one of the highlights of the week, and Paavo did not disappoint. Though the plan was to head back afterwards, I ended up staying out a bit to see some Nox Vahn, CRi, Durante, and Hana.
Monday: This was the one day we did not have Gjipe tickets, so Jereme and I spent the afternoon at our hotel’s pool, which was actually a glorious way to spend the day. It was so good in fact, that it’s made me strongly consider not doing Gjipe ever again. Gjipe days can be pretty draining, but spending an afternoon at the hotel pool is such a great way to remind yourself that you’re on vacation, and you don’t need to be doing something all the time. That night we caught a little bit of Sinca and Jody at Splendor, then it was the 4-hour block I was most looking forward to all week: Guy J at Empire and then Luttrell at Splendor until sunrise. Both played exactly what they were supposed to: Guy J was the conductor of a non-stop train of dark minimal progressive house, and then Luttrell had a fun, emotional, melodic dance party under the soft yellow sunrise.
Tuesday: We skipped Gjipe again – since it was kind of a repeat of the night before – and instead went to Havana Beach Club, which was mere minutes from our hotel. Michael Cassette and anamē played a really fun pool party, which once again was so much more reenergizing and relaxing than going to Gjipe. The final night of the festival was pretty chill: we bounced around between Komytea (Michael Cassette without the 80s vibes), Nils Hoffmann, and Enamour, before turning in “early” (probably 2:00).
Wednesday: We had a very reasonable checkout time and boat departure time, but it was still a long and very hot travel day back to Corfu.
Lummi and I stayed on Corfu until Sunday, spending our downtime wandering old town (though very much limited by the 95+ degree temperatures), shopping for souvenirs, looking for bakeries, eating seafood by the water, and saying our goodbyes to the friends leaving before us.
Since we’ve done basically the same exact trip three years in a row, the current thinking is that we might skip Explorations next year. It requires a lot of time off from work to do this, so we end up missing out on other travel opportunities, and we already have some possibilities on the horizon for 2025. But who knows, we might change our tune next year when we start having dreams of the Albanian Riviera…
