Mushroom Magazine (The Final edit)

At the beginning of the 1990s, shortly after the Berlin Wall came down, a new techno culture emerged in Berlin which I entered enthusiastically. After a few self-organized parties I wanted to inform the party visitors about the DJs I had booked and therefore started the small copied, at that time 4-page black and white techno fanzine “your personal mushroom“.

When the VOOV Experience took place in my hometown Soltau in 1994, I experienced a Goa party for the first time and realized that the music that I loved to listen to, next to techno at that time, had its home here. VOOV changed not only my entire life, but also the concept and the content of the magazine, which over the years received an ever greater reach and number of pages. From now on my life’s task was to carry the Psytrance spirit into the world.

Many dear people have been involved in this scene project over the years – so many that I can’t list them all here anymore. At this point, once again, my heartfelt thanks to all of you.

With the help of these great and self-sacrificing people mushroom magazine and the side projects such as “Trancers Guide To The Galaxy” developed into cult objects – probably because the magazines were supported by many supporters within the global Psytrance community also and its content was really solely dedicated to the Goa scene.

In the early 2000s, the Internet not only changed communication, but also the entire music industry, as music was increasingly copied illegally. As a result many labels and distributors went bankrupt which completely turned mushroom magazine upside down, since we were deprived of the financial basis within a very short time. After all, your free distributed Trance Guide was mainly financed by labels who advertised their new CD releases in the mushroom. In the years 2003 to 2018 we have been looking for new ideas and possibilities to continue writing, designing, printing and distributing mushroom magazine internationally free of charge.

Now we finally arrived at the sad realization that in the 21st century it is probably no longer possible to offer a free print magazine for the scene without extensive capital in the background. Unfortunately, the support of the many small and large sponsors does not suffice to meet the regularly very high production costs of the coming years without approaching self-abandonment and physical overexploitation of our small team.

That’s why we decided to discontinue mushroom magazine on its 25th birthday in May 2019. You can be sure that this decision really wasn’t easy for me and the whole team.

Thus only the four issues July/August, November/December, the 200th mushroom magazine in February/March and then the big final May issue with the last big summer overview 2019 will be published. Therefore you will get enough information about festivals, artists and other small and big Psytrance institutions, which appreciate and support the idea of a regular, internationally free distributed print magazine for our scene.

The future is digital and boundless. That’s why the mushroom is still online. We are already working for you and all other readers as well as for our supporters on the best possible implementation of various new and sometimes extremely innovative online projects to bring the Psytrance spirit into the world in the future as well. For example, we support our supporters with innovative online methods for building communities so that you can stay connected with the Psytrance community without the large online companies monitoring and disclosing your personal data. If you (really seriously) feel called and addressed by the vision to rearrange the psychedelic-digital universe, then feel free to contact us.

Many thanks again to all our supporters who have supported the mushroom all these years and will continue to support it in the future.

I am already looking forward to the next 25 years!

Mat Mushroom and the whole Shroom Team

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