Ok, so I like electronic dance music, more specifically Trance. When I started in the 1990's, the US was a bit behind in that department.
Still, with San Francisco and San Jose nearby, I've had some opportunities to see some great EDM/Trance DJs. Back in the early 2000's, they sadly played club music in the US that was nowhere close to the hits they had composed and were known for, but over the years, as Trance started becoming more popular, those DJs finally started playing their good tunes in the US too, and maybe from 2004 on, it's only been getting better. Popsicle Halloween 2004 was really the beginning of great music parties in the San Francisco Area, and thankfully things have gotten even better since then
As a matter of fact, after another 10 years (2015 and beyond) the good news is that Trance has grown quite a following in the US, and places like the SF Bay Area, and while Trance has been declared dead a few times in the last 10 years, it's still going strong here.
Trance Family SF is definitely strong in the area, we've been getting more big trance parties every year, including many top DJs that come visit us what feels like every other week now (as of 2018-2019), and through those events, I made many friends in Trance Family SF. Thanks to you all.
Over those years, I got the chance to meet a few of my favourite DJs, including Armin more than once, and my last hobby has been to work on lights for my shirt and pants (version 3) and (version 4)
And if you are curious about my LED outfit, you can read more about it on my led peacock engineer medium post and if you'd like to read all my festivals or dreamstate, or clubbing posts, please click on the links higher on the page to get taken to those categories.
It had been ages since last time I was at Halcyon. They have fantastic lighting and sound, but unfortunately that night it was run pretty badly. The room was dark and uninspiring most of the time, and on top of that it was way too warm, as they weren't running any AC or enough of it, which was disappointing.
John, whom I love with passion, played a set different from the Deep Trance he usually does, so unfortunately that was not my favorite set either. It is what it is, next time will work better hopefully :)
Timescape this year was moved 2 weeks later, and whether it was luck or not, the rain from last year, was replaced with beautiful weather, not too warm, not too hot, it was just perfect. Of course, sunset was still a bit late given the northern latitude but the party went on until at least 02:00, so no complaints (apparently it actually went until 06:00 in some fashion on saturday night, after having started at 11:00). If that's not enough trance, I don't know what is ;) (and yes, there were 4 other stages of course, not all trance)
Rick, redbull powered troublemaker in chief
Just like last year, Rick Weekender, Adam and his crew who I've now confirmed are indeed powered by triple espressos and buckets of red bull, did a great job with the venue. It had some improvements in decors this year, more lights at night, better lasers, better tent. And there was a full psytrance tent a bit on the side, short walk but better to avoid sound bleed (there was no sound bleed, unlike at lumi where sometimes you could hear 3 sets at once).
Another big plus of this event was the limited costs. The ticket costs were very reasonable given what's offered, and you could camp onsite to save money. Given that costs are a concern for many, timescape did a great job keeping that in mind (interestingly multiple people I chatted with mentioned one of their main issues with lumi was the high and increasing costs).
Venue
beautiful weather and shade, so I didn't have to bathe in sunscreen. Not too hot, not too cold, awesome!
haha, a trinket swap box, awesome!
There were multiple vendors with the essentials for clubbers and campers:
the bar was also well stocked
The venue itself in otherwise kind of unknown Huntingdon, was conveniently 1h-ish from London by direct train, which was a huge plus. Small downside was that nearby Luton airport was not easily reachable by train, but about 1h via uber, not the end of the world.
For people like me who avoid camping if they can (especially with my gear that needs to be recharged nightly, and soemtimes also fixed ;) ), the nearby hotels in town were about 15mn away, and thankfully there were enough bolt/uber drivers to get us there and back without issues.
People
Of course these events are not just about the music, but the great fellow trance lovers, many I get to see around the world, chasing the same high ;)
friends!
another chief troublemaker :)
lovely outfits
And then this legend was back with the POV light sticks
Meeting Djs again to thank them for all the great tunes
Cold Blue did a wonderful melodic set
I had no idea that after 25 years, I would finally get to meet the legendary Ian van Dahl, who has done a lot lot more than just Castles ;)
Security
There was good perimeter security and at the same time, the security staff was nice and chill. They did their best to stop people from bringing lots of drinks instead of buying them from the bar, which is fair enough. For the rest, the attendees didn't give them much (or hopefully any) work to do, which is great:
this is the best scenario for security staff :)
I should add that thanks to a chat with Dave Clement, one of the co-organizers, who was so kind as to share some of the work they do and how they do it, including indeed ensuring that the security team does appropriate work for the crowd at hand (in this case mostly trance lovers). And this is exactly what Lumi fails terribly at due to total lack of clue from the organizer.
3 Days of Music
the lasers were great
Video Summary of the 3 days:
And I was thanfully a ble to record almost all of Ian Van Dahl's set:
After-After Parties
Timescape really offered much later hours this year. The die hards could go into the wee hours of the morning at the wellness ten, which had pretty cool lasers this year:
Conclusion
First, I'm told the attendance was 3 times higher this year, which is great news, and good proof that the event is doing well and people appreciate the uniqueness of Timescape and what it offers (seriously, where else do you see DJs from 20y+ ago that many like me have ever had the chance to ever see?).
The lineup had lots of trance, a full psytrance lineup for 3 days which is not that common for EU festivals, so big props for that, and 3 other stages. Plenty of music...
Now, I also need to say that just like Euphoria Malta, the lineup was "cheaper" as in fewer expensive DJs. That's of course not a problem at all, it's a chance to see plenty of other DJs that play lovely trance and don't get the cchance as often, while keeping pricing down and the whole event affordable. And then surprises like Ian Van Dahl, OMG, IvD, this is worth 10 big name festivals where I get to see those bigger name DJs, which I absolutely enjoy, but often see multiple times per year.
Just like last year, I'll repeat that I hope UK people realize how lucky they are to have these trance events, few countries have that many. Heroes like Rick, Dave and their crew of rockstars who make these parties happen, are what makes the UK unique and lucky. Let's thank Rick, Adam, Dave, and the many others who made it happen
I'll mix things up around a little and start with "where and why Sunrise"? :)
If anyone associated with Sunrise Festival ends up reading this page, please contact me (ledtranceguy on IG or FB), I would love for the extra LEDs to be allowed without issues:
Sunrise, should you go, would I go back?
Sunrise is a legit festival in Poland, if you're Polish and reading this page, you rule :) and you probably already know about Sunrise so you don't need my help with it. If you're not Polish, should you go?
First, since I come from far, once I already fly to Europe, I try to line up more than one festival to make the trip worth it ;) In this case, it was supposed to be Sunrise, Timescape, and a psytrance eclipse festival in Spain that Spain itself unfortunately cancelled. Sunrise is definitely worth the trip if you like to visit good festivals.
Getting there: it is honestly hard to get to. The nearest airport, Szczecin if you can manage to spell it :), is 2h away and barely has any flights and mostly despicable ryanair which were b*tches with luggage as always and costing me a lost hotel room in London after landing 5h too late). Gdansk is a bit bigger, but 3H+ away which is over $300 by private transport unless you manage to catch several buses in a row which may only run once a day. Basically renting a car and driving is the way, or being willing to spend $500+ in taxis/private transport.
But the cool-ish thing about the location is that it's literally on a former airport, with the main runway separating the stages and the campsite. Not a bad idea, an airport is not a bad place to make noise :)
this is actually the runway :)
The festival production itself is quite good, the team knows what they're doing and the DJ selection was pretty good (varied and included a fair amount of trance, which was much appreciated). The 5/6 different stages were quite nice (I'm told they stay in that location all year as the space is otherwise unused the rest of the year).
Another plus is most of the festival was late in the afternoon/at night, and the weather north of poland and close to sunset, was pretty cool and comfortable, which was a nice change from the heat waves going across Europe. Actually to be entirely fair, it got pretty cold later a night, as in bring layers cold.
not too long to wait before sunset
Pricing: it was not cheap. It was priced close to EDC Vegas level which I found high given that it's good but not EDC Level good. If you bought the VIP tickets, it was over $1000, which did include some ok food, but no drinks (those were extra). The food+drinks combo at Euforia Poland a few weeks earlier was much better, and the VIP experience was not to the level of EDC while being close to the same price. Poland is going well, I guess Polish people can afford it :)
VIP: a big plus was being able to get in easily and security just letting you in, but it was quite expensive for a side viewing area on some stages, and some food that was decent, but not worth the $1000+ for 3 days (especially when no drinks were included, not even water)
[rigimg:1024:297*|it was mostly about spending more money to be with other people who had also done so
as many expensive drinks as money can buy ;)
took advantage of the food
Security: that one is a bit tough to write about. The perimeter security was good, the security staff was quite thorough and seemed fair enough in what was allowed, and what was not, but indeed my LED panels were a bit too much for them. There wasn't really a good reason outside of mostly "a bit too weird and high tech". The guy who dealt with me at the entrance called someone to ask for guidance but that person wasn't even there and probably just said no as it's the default answer in Poland :) and to be honest they aren't really used to more elaborate outfits and didn't want to deal with it.
- On day 1, the guy allowed me in with it so I didn't have to go back to the room, but asked me not to use it or he could get in trouble. It was of course simple for me to use it anyway and figure no one would really care, but indeed the guy tried to be careful, I gave him my word not to, and I did not.
- On day #2, I tried another approach (camping side entrance), which was worse, and then figured out that because I had VIP on day 2 (which was very expensive), I could just walk in the main entrance with it and no one cared. Go figure...
- On Day 3, I didn't have VIP so they cared again, and it was about to get denied, until I showed pictures of day 2 where everything was fine, and then they said 'fine'.
So I'm not quite sure what to write, the disappointing part is that there was no one to contact before the event to ask for permission beforehand (no one replied). When I talked to a person in charge of security at the end of day #3 on the way out if there was someone I could reach and get proper permission for a future time, he took email info and I never heard back after that. I understand they have lots of do any many details to worry about though.
Yes, I know some will say "TMI, who cares?" and you're not wrong, while others have told me they are amused when reading the stories of my dealing with security or airports :) (on that topic, I did fine with all 3 airports after replacing my safe USB powerbanks with not as safe but legal lithium batteries)
All in all, it was a nice festival, it was possible to stay at decent hotels walking distance (but not cheap), but I'm not sure if I would go back if I can't reach anyone from the event to get approved for a future time.
Venue
nice decors, even outside by the campsite
camping side
good use of shipping containers ;)
green stage
plenty of food and drinks, for sale but the plastic glass recycling program was way too hard: stay in line, and return a useless token along with the glass or it doesn't count
For people not camping or staying around the area, they had busses that went to the main next town 20-30mn away I assume
3 Days of Music
I spent most of it at the "trance stage" aka blue stage.
a Paul Van Dyk - Aly and Fadi!
yes!
First time seeing Gus Gus
While I was mostly at the trance stage, aka blue stage, mainstage had some interesting acts:
scooter
still rocking
JAmes Hype is not generally my music, but he's an very skilled DJ and he played some fun tunes when I walked by
Video Summary of the 3 days:
People
The previous Polish festivals, not many people had any outfits at all, but some did at Sunrise, which was nice:
at least LEDs were allowed ;)
Another chance to say hi to a few favorite DJs
Farius
and Ruben
Ben Hemsey
Grundy
Asteroid
Fadi rightfully complained my picture of him didn't match anymore, I fixed it :)
