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.
TFSF returned to 1015 for a 4 room set. It was 5H in 4 rooms, difficult to see it all, but we did our best (Jennifer was able to join me).
Here's close to 1H from my roving camera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D4Db10AfJo
And here is close to 1H of DJ Blurr's set in the classics' room:
Here's another 30mn+ from the front room with Alastair James B2B Voices From Within:
Can't believe it's been 5 years since my first EDC already, time flies.
Having learned from previous years (both EDC with the bus system, and me), I left vegas earlier (17:30 to 17:45 all 3 days), which meant not bus line, and that was great.
The shortcut through the air force base was not always faster depending on traffic to get there, but was a mostly reliable 1-1.5H trip:
empty bus line yipee!
nice awacs planes
Welcome to EDC, 3 more days of fun:
Basspod
Quantum Valley, much much nicer this year with pixel forest in the foreground
Daisy Lane
Rainbow Road to Kinetic Field
the calm before the storm
One fun thing at EDC are the people and costumes:
fantastic paint job, well done
The dancers were nice and took pictures with us:
LED/Neopixel/RGBPanel work:
low res version of my previous shirt better coverage. Nice job
I obviously didn't resist the urge to take pictures with others:
Including friends and people I know from other events:
Afik and his new sign
in his natural habitat
Hi Nathalie
and then, there is this guy, it was his first EDC and he did more than great :)
not causing trouble :)
Random burning man-like displays and projects, as well as art:
Art cars:
burning man's mayan warrior
it's a beautiful art car, just not my kind of music
VIP Areas (there were many kinds):
Then, there was Pixel Forest, really really cool job, especially the music/neopixel tunnel:
Another great display were the Tesla Coil Dancers (Lords of Lightening?):
Lots of rides:
Misc:
Every day had a parade:
And yes, EDC was about music of course, let's start with Day #1:
Quantum Valley (trance) was much improved
Niko Zographos helped open the new stage with a great set
Ali and Fila
above and beyond was next at circuit grounds
only at EDC
Gareth Emery was next, for an interesting set that travelled all over
And there isn't an EDC without fireworks, right after Above and Beyond's set:
Also, a lot of tech to make this all work:
Here is a summary of Day #1:
And brings up to Day #2
after Craig, I went to check out the competition a bit
cosmic maedows
basspod
then back to Quantum Valley for Bryan Kearney
then Paul Oakenfold took over
Nice suit :)
Ferry Corsten was next
Paul van Dyk sadly only got to play a little bit before the stage was shut down for wind
Sadly, there was a lot of wind on day 2 and day3. It caused a shutdown of some stages on the 2nd day:
Here is a summary of Day #2:
Then, the last day, the hardest one on your energy bank :)
Ruben was nice enough to take a picture with me
I then tried to check out other stages again, got to see a good portion of Say My Name, which was an interesting mix of genres:
Then, it was time for Armin's set at Kinetic Field:
Armin was also nice enough to take a few pictures
After Armin, back to Quantum Valley for Cosmic Gate:
Marlo:
And Mark Sixma:
Here is a summary of Day #3:
And it was time to get out and catch a shuttle to make my flight (which ended up being cancelled, thank you Southwest):
eventually, all good things come to an end
time to get home and race back to the airport for my flight that I found out got cancelled when my phone started getting signal again
I'll admit that I didn't know Allen Watts, which was on me. I should have known him, and now I do :)
Eugene Luu opened for the first 2 hours with a good set. We enjoyed it:
Allen Watts took over at 23:00 for a 3H set, which was really good. It was 3 hours of goodness, and I'm very happy I got to learn about a DJ I didn't know yet and plays Trance I quite enjoy. Thank you to the folks who organized the event and got him over:
I really enjoyed what he played, here's a quick summary:
