Who I Created TrippyGigs For
During every single event I have hosted or been involved with in the psychedelic community, people come to me and ask me “how would I find out about more events like this?” I have also seen many partnerships, collaborations, and colleagues acting as each other’s platform for promotion and visibility, having no dedicated space to promote events for anyone to find. I created this place for those who have an event to promote and get seen but nowhere platform it. I created this space for all our potential audience, clients, and visitors, who don’t know how to find us. I created this place for everyone from the scientists to the festivals, a place that can become ubiquitously known as the place to go to find out What’s On. Why I Created Trippy Gigs
Hailing from Dublin City, I grew up in theatre and music, taking after both my parents. I went on to have a long career in various aspects of showbusiness, from working behind the scenes in venues and shows; running the box office in some of Ireland’s biggest Arts festivals; as a costume designer and wardrobe supervisor for film and stage; and performing throughout my life from local theatre to major burlesques and festivals stages. I moved to Amsterdam in 2017 to study Psychology, and where I co-run the Psychedelic Society of the Netherlands (PSN) and have been involved with various other psychedelic organisations. This platform was born out of this history in event and entertainment spaces. I see all the amazing work that everyone is doing in psychedelics, but I know there is a gap on the event side that can only be filled by someone passionate about the minutiae of how events promotions and ticketing works in the background. This project is a number of years in the making, and has grown out of a time years ago when I used to run regular monthly meetups for PSN and would make a printed list of all the events I knew of happening around the Netherlands to put on all the tables for our guests to see. Then, through the harrowing days and obstacles of plague, war, and recession, not only did the idea of this platform continue to gestate, but the necessity for it continued to grow. Representation & Equity
One of the things I’m most passionate about achieving with this platform is to not only give all the usual suspects, the popular crowd, a chance to have all their events properly platformed, but to give lesser known organisations an equal chance to be seen and to find their audience and community. I want this platform to extend beyond our Western borders and mindsets, and become a place where our whole global community can be represented, where voices can be lifted up, and where everyone has the opportunity to flourish. I also want to break class barriers by devising a business model that’s accessible to everyone, one which is based on equity and fairness, not greed and profit. Paid promotions are tailored specifically to every budget and all featured ads are promoted equally, and listed chronologically and alphabetically, never according to who’s paying the most. This platform is open to people from all walks of life and to all kinds of events. This is a space for people of all ethnicities and cultures, of all genders, of all sexualities, of all physical and neural diversities, and all classes. The only limitation is that events that promote any kind of hate towards any group based on their identity cannot be platformed here (ie. no racism, no xenophobia, no homophobia, no transphobia, no ableism, no classism, etc.). Branding
I wanted to create a brand that is contemporary, striking, and polished. I want this to be a platform that doesn’t skimp on professionalism but remains fun. I wanted to avoid getting sucked into the trend of believing that professionalism in psychedelics is synonymous with austerity. I wanted to create a brand that keeps into perspective what psychedelics are really about: It’s tripping, folks. It’s literally tripping. As much as I am a scientist myself and welcome the sobriety of the scientific, medicalized side of psychedelics in therapy, I wanted to create a place that is welcoming to all, and alienating to none. Whilst I can see that creating a universal platform that’s “too trippy” could mean slow adoption for some, overall, I can see Trippy Gigs becoming a place that is both comprehensive and reliable. The Future of TrippyGigs
The platform as it is now in its genesis is only the beginning. I have great plans for where to take this platform, but those visions will take time, finance, and most importantly, some really skilled teammates like developers and administrators. I look forward to a time when I can take talented people on board and build even better features and a stronger network that the whole community can benefit from. What are all those new features going to be? Well, in the true spirit of the psychedelics, I’d like to stay a little mysterious about it, and let those things reveal themselves in the journey…
