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.
So last year, Dreamstate SF was a Cow Palace with 2 rooms until 03:00. The first obvious question, is which was best? Honestly mainstage was good at both, but Bill Graham definitely had better lasers, maybe because of Gareth :) As for the 2 stages vs 1, I'll be honest that mainstage last year had a fair amount of music that was not my favorite, including Eric Prydz/Pryda which I've never really enjoyed, and some DJs that sounded more like techno than trance to me. So last year, I spent a lot more time at the smaller Vision stage for my favorite trance sounds. Given that, I was delighted to only have one stage this year that was mostly music I enjoyed and on a much better stage. Also, it's kind of nice not to have to move stages and occasionally have to worry about set conflicts ;)
The one downside of Bill Graham was what I assume was an earlier curfew of 01:00 (Cow Palace last year ended at 03:00 instead of 01:00)
Did I mention that we got a few extra lasers likely thanks to Gareth? :)
Day 1
Since this year ended at 01:00, we started at 17:00 for 8h of trance:
Olly James
Nilsix
Jeffrey Sutorius
The absolute highlight of the day was Ferry Corsten playing a new Gouryella. Strangely he was not the last to play, which was weird as his set was guaranteed to be the best, and he sure delivered. It was another religious experience that surpassed the previous ones I had seen:
and yes, I caught the backwards easter egg :)
This really was the best set of the night by far, not that the other ones were bad, but this one was that good. I even caught the easter egg (clickme)
I did record the full set, although it wasn't with my best camera, apologies for this, but the music is still there:
W&W was last, but Ferry was a tough act to follow:
And that was it for Day 1. Here is the video summary:
I'm not sure what was going on after party-wise, nothing major I think, but given that I had just gotten back from 4 days ASOT, I was happy to get some rest to be there bright and early for day 2 :)
Day 2
our local TFSF boy, Sony opened day 2 again
TFSF represent!
Talla 2XLC was next, great set, great to see him again after just one week in Rotterdam :)
then Roman Messer, I also had seen just a week prior
Aly and Fila
Aly and Fila's full set:
Paul Van Dyk
Paul Van Dyk's full set:
And the night ended with Gareth, with muchos lasers, beautiful:
Yes, I have Gareth's full set here, enjoy:
Gareth was a great ending to day 2, here is a summary:
People
Of course I'm biased, but having just come back from ASOT, the crowds at Dreamstate events are much more festive:
A few pictures for fun as always:
Dave Dresden came to visit :)
shout out to the ground control teams, thank you
my heroes
and Gareth!
Thoughts/Conclusions
Artist-wise, it was likely a lower budget event than last year, only one stage, no Armin, no Pryda. But guess what? Honestly Pryda is not my thing, and while I do remember that Armin at least played trance at DS (which he did not at ASOT for the most part), he must not have been cheap. This is where I personally don't mind if we have DJs that don't cost as much and play music I enjoy just as much, if not more.
This time around it was a simpler event with single room, but we still had plenty of DJs and loads of fun without (I assume) spending as much money on the DJs as last year, which also left more money for the visuals, and they were definitely really good this year. I do not have access to any numbers like attendance or financials, but my guess is that this year the crowd was more trance lovers focussed, and that the event still made money, which of course is essential for us having more in the future.
The Artists we had played either mostly trance, or a reasonable mix of trance and other genres that I didn't find too hurtful to the ear :) (I did notice that both Fadi and PvD went a bit harder trance than they usually do, at the edge of techno at times).
Gouryella and Gareth's show both topped the best sets of last year as far as I'm concerned, so this was great!
In summary, we had a fantastic time, honestly I think it was a great combination of venue and artists. After Dreamstate Socal, this is the best Dreamstate Event in the world :)
Haha, yes, it was a click bait title, but still kind of true. Read on or you can try the video summary I made last year which I find still mostly funny and relevant this year :)
Ok, now that the silly things are aside, yeah, ASOT is continuing to shift towards what my brain labels more as techno but still gives us a taste of trance at the right time and places, and those are still epic. I'm a bit sad since I never was able to attend the stellar looking ones that were full of trance before ASOT 1000, back when they were single day events that were fantastic but difficult to justify flying for from across the world, for just one day. But glad to be able to enjoy these newer 1.5-3 day events, so let's go:
nice welcome at the train station
20 Years since I first went to Ahoy for Armin Only!
missing LEDs, but my cousin lent me two lovely Dutch dates :)
we were all so young :)
Haha, 20 years for me since my first time at a real festival in holland, and 25 years since ASOT started (my first ASOT I listened to was 113XXL). Time flies! Anyway, back to ASOT 2026:
How about the music?
Before I start, I had an enlightening discussion with Ruben and it became clear to me that what my brain labels as trance and techno is not what other people label as such. So when you read those words below, trance to me is anything where I can hear a lovely melody with a beat, from thrillseekers, to Aly and Fila (it's all about the melody indeed), to high energy tech trance like Sean Tyas played. Techno for me is where the beat becomes overwhelming and the melody disappears, like the little of Funk Tribu I heard, or Nifra, or David Forbes (both of whom I'm thankful to know). I have someone dear to me who gets a bit bored by "just trance" and loves the higher energy of those Djs, and I personally label as "more techno". I also know that I'm in the minority at this point in preferring the more melodic aspect of trance than the heavier beat aspect of techno, so do not take anything below as anything more than my personal biased opinion :) Similarly, I don't really think Maddix fits in the trance bucket much, but I actually enjoy his very different sound even if it fits more in my techno bucket with heavy beats, so there you go, it's hard to make sense of it all :)
Back to the event: the "more techno sounds" trend continued, plenty of non trance music, especially on stage 1. Armin explained more than once in the last years that "State of Trance" always meant to explain the feeling of being in Trance because of the music, and it was not meant to be about Trance music itself. I'll let each decide if changing the meaning after the fact, and whether Armin genuinely loves techno and genuinely gets in a trance when listening to techno but for me, techno makes me run away more than get into a trance. To each their own I guess.
Friday did have good trance, starting with Ruben. Armin also did play a wonderful trance set on friday for the 25 years of ASOT, so that was absolutely lovely, and area 2 had some good trance DJs too (but also played techno at other times, leaving the choice between techno on area 1 and techno on area 2 at the same time).
On Saturday, area 1 was probably mostly techno, sadly, I didn't go check all the time due to the punishing huge detour route in and out of 1, it took 15mn or more to get to 1 and back out, a pretty high penalty. I went for the beginning of Armin's set, and after it turned into techno after a few mere minutes, I realized I was stupid and should have stayed at area 4 for Jorn Van Deynhoven who played a fantastic trance set.
I will admit that I'm a bit saddened that techno is being pushed so hard at ASOT, I do hang out with the folks who really don't care for it, and I can't say if the people at mainstage will just take anything you throw at them, or whether they are now genuinely coming because of the techno sound. I realize that classic trance may lack energy for many (you can give me a 6H thrillseekers set any day, but I know it lacks energy and punch for today's crowds). But then, I will ask: last year, Superstrings closed mainstage with a great classics trance set and the crowd loved it, did we really need what I assume was hard techno to close this year? (I was at area 2 which arguably was also techno for the last hour).
When you elect me president of ASOT lineups, I will put Sean Tyas on mainstage. Sean's sets have relentless energy that just keeps on going, and it's trance. When you have tech trance, who needs techno? :) (Sean played at Area 4, it was pure joy, but not sure if it was recorded). Also, instead of so much techno, why not add a bit more psytrance of high energy variety?
So the real question, are we, true trance lovers living in the past, and techno and hardstyle are the inescapable ways forward, and ASOT knows this but we're not quite accepting it yet, or can trance continue to evolve and remain relevant with a range going from Superstrings to Jorn Van Deynhoven, Aly and Fila, and Sean Tyas, and ASOT should stop pushing techno so hard and give Trance a chance? Let me know in the comments.
Also, after writing all this and talking to some folks, I second guessed myself, so I asked Google Gemini AI to look up all artists from the last 4 ASOTs and count how many are considered Trance overall or Techno overall vs everything else. I should note that I used Gemini Pro 3.0 which is the best AI model available today and it took several minutes to carefully gather the info on each artist and then research what set they actually played before giving the result. I got a table for both the entire event and just mainstage. I should also note that Gemini considered Nifra and David Forbes as Tech Trance, so it's a generous definition of trance. I think the numbers of trance vs techno at ASOT speak for themselves:
Then I thought, wait a minute, I want the table that shows what the DJ actually played at ASOT since some of them can play either, and I've even heard Laura Van Dam play great trance at the ASOT hotel while every other time it was more techno. So I got 2 new tables, and they just slide further from trance to techno by a few points:
But as I said elsewhere in this report, while it's depressing to see the steady decline of Trance in front of Techno, as long as the Techno crowd allows for the event to continue existing, it's still a good thing.
Thoughts for this year
This was the first year that Insomniac Europe had taken over and had time to help out with their knowledge, and I only saw good changes from last year:
This year, overachievers could actually do EDC Mexico and ASOT back to back as they were one week apart (Thanks to Insomniac for ensuring the 2 events didn't conflict). Outside of too much techno, ASOT did improve in some ways compared to last year. Let's go through it:
ASOT was 6.5h on friday and 9h on saturday. That was still the same weird offset schedule
but, whether someone read my feedback from last year pointing out that 15h of festival was a bit short for people travelling across the world, or it came from surveys, ASOT improved this year by adding more events and hours to make the trip more worth it for non locals. There was a pre-party radio show on thursday, and friday added an official after party at another club from 01:00 to 05:00. Thank you!
Unlike other festivals that were very annoying with personalization like parookaville and tomorrowland, while ASOT did ask you to personalize but in the end, it didn't matter, you just had to scan a bar code at the entrance. Also, they had a good resale platform setup, so it was easy to buy verified resale tickets. Kudos for this.
ASOT had reasonable food options and they took real money, none of that fake money bullshit like Tomorrowland, Untold, Parookaville, Transmission Bangkok, EDC Mexico, and a few others. Thank you for being sensible.
Many people complained of long lines getting in (some got 45 to 60mn), so that was not ideal. For me, arriving at opening time, it only took around 10-15mn to get in, so that was good.
I would still vote for starting Day 2 earlier than 21:00, even just 1 or 2 stages.
There were also more things happening at the official hotel for ASOT hotel package guests
Since last year:
The stage production level improved. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the Insomniac folks brought in their light and laser knowledge :)
But generally for stages other than 1, stages still felt better at Jaarbeurs. Jaarbeurs had just more room, better layout, no narrow stages like area 2 or 5 (5 was still the worst, so small next to a sea of lockers). According to google mainstage size of Jaarbeurs and Ahoy is similar.
it felt to me like cellphone connectivity improved, which was great. They also had mostly working wifi, that was great for staying connected with friends after separating or sending a scout to area 1 to tell us if it was worth the long walk there and back or if it was just mostly techno and fine to avoid.
While the main festival hours didn't really change, they did add 2 extra official parties to add extra party hours, very good change.
the added warning tape on the half step of death in VIP, hopefully fewer people fell on it. It's a small change, but I notice those things :)
Suggestions for Alda/Insomniac Europe
the paylogic website didn't have a simple page with all the festivals tickets you needed on a single page (pre-party thursday, ASOT tickets, post party friday, and bus back to station on sunday morning at 06:00 when trains or metros aren't running yet). For that matter I never found the page where to buy the thursday pre-party, and had to use a link sent by a friend. Later, it was not easy to go to the paylogic site, log in, and get all my tickets all at once in one place.
The official resale platform, when the event was just 10 days away, had one big issue: it offered your tickets to one person at a time, and they each got 48H to decide. That's way way too long that close to the festival, and to make things worse, when I decided to pull my spare tickets out to transfer them to friends, I Was not allowed to and had to wait over 24H for someone to sit on the buy offer, not reply, and waste time that close to the event. They really should offer resale tickets to multiple people at a time, first buyer wins, and of course the ticket owner should be able to reclaim their tickets anytime.
The post party on friday was a great addition, but having to go to a small club in the middle of the night while it was raining, was not ideal. How about just keeping area 2 running at Ahoy for those who wanted to stay? Hell, it's even possible to have some kind of after party ticket where you can only enter the remaining area after hours with that extra ticket.
On the topic of money, having talked to a good amount of people, it's pretty clear that some festival goers think that ASOT is expensive as is and don't want to pay more, while others are used to festivals that cost $200+ anyway and don't mind paying more to get more party hours. Given that, while I didn't love the piecemeal part where you could buy 4 different tickets just from paylogic, this allowed each to pay what they wanted/could afford, so that was probably the right thing to do and to continue doing in the future, but it should be on a single page, easy to get all at once
Just like last year, the mandated long walk around for stage 1 was a pain in the rear and really looked unnecessary, especially as mainstage never filled it up. Even as VIP, there was no shorter path, that made it undesirable to even go check out the music there, because of how long it took to get in and out. This was just as bad as last year, and I'm pretty certain it can be made better, please consider this, it made Area 1 "so far away" as a round trip that it turned me away from going to check it out several times. Similarly the one ways in and out of area 2 felt over the top and unnecessary although the detour was not nearly as painful.
this fence was 1000% unnecessary, making everyone walk around added lots of pointless walking and did not improve any flow. They literally made you walk a long away around to the other side of that same fence, and it was so stupid that all the staff went through the shortcut, but we could not
While I wish saturday started earlier than 21:00, Adrenaline Sessions had an unofficial pre-party starting at 16:00 in a club across town, Reverse, close to the main station, which was a reasonable option, but still having ASOT start earlier, potentially with a small a extra fee for whoever comes early, would be great thing.
I again have to say thank you for the the 2 extra official parties that were added this year, but indeed having them announced earlier would be better next year, they were announced only in the last weeks after far away people had already booked flights, and Adrenaline sessions even had to move their own party after ASOT announced theirs that conflicted in time. It worked out in the end, but it was a bit confusing and last minute to line up all the parties.
Realistically most of what long time trance lovers call trance was at stage 4 this year. It had lovely trance indeed, but it does not look like it was video recorded (maybe sound only). I realize it's a smaller cheaper stage, but it would be lovely to still have those sets full recorded, especially to put on youtube and bring more people to trance.
About the stages
Mainstage improved this year, much better lights and decors
Area 2 also got better lights and decors but still weirdly shaped, although that's not fixable for that location (Jaarbeurs was better on that front)
Area 3 was music that I don't know what it was, but the stage was pretty cool looking with an open concept, so even if it was full, that wasn't terrible, you could enjoy it from the back and the sides.
That was not true of stage 4 though. Trance moved from stage 5 to 4 this year, so I spent more time there. It had a bit of an EDC wasteland concept bordered with shipping containers, cool in some way, but also restrictive space-wise. If it got full, and it did so quickly, it was uncomfortable and hard to get in and out of. But, but but, area 4 was better than 5 which was way too small, so having trance move to 4 was an upgrade from last year.
area 4 was inside indeed
Area 5 was still pretty but way too small, once full, and it would fill up quickly. Once full, it was near impossible to enjoy, never mind the location next to lockers and a fries' stand once it overflows like it did last year with trance.
Ahoy vs Jaarbeurs
Honestly stages 2, 3, 4, and 5 were all better at Jaarbeurs, and they even had an extra secret stage. I read that Jaarbeurs had to be renovated, which is fair, but from looking at their website and footprint available today, it still looks huge and bigger than Ahoy. I realize that ASOT may not move back there, but I found it a better venue.
it was also cool that the stages had names at Jaarbeurs
Security
If you've read my other festival reports, you know that I'm sensitive about this, and because I have security training myself, it's easy for me to make the difference between a good security team and one with no clue what they're doing but optionally on a power trip (that's you lumi and creamfields). The ASOT security team gets thumbs up for doing a thorough job while knowing how to focus on their real targets. I did hear that they took some people's umbrellas (no idea what size) which was not great given the raining weather outside, and the security lines could be longer if you did not come early (some friends said it took them 40mn to get in later in the evening), but at least in my case they treated me fairly and competently.
So that said, I made a newbie mistake on the first day: I removed one of my LED shoes while in line to find the power switch and turn the shoe on. A minute later, I was pulled out of line, taken to a back room, asked to remove my shoes and socks, and what drugs I was bringing with me, ooops ;) On the plus side, they did a good job noticing someone doing something suspicious looking with his shoes. Once they verified that indeed I only had a bunch of blinky stuff, no drugs in my shoes, and sent my picture to someone in a back office who apparently recognized me and said "all good", I was on my way in, just 5mn or so.
the nice lady who took care of me :)
About VIP, worth it?
This one was a mixed bag:
VIP used to give you access to enter earlier for a warmup set, not anymore
I heard the VIP line to get in was kind of long later in the night, so I'm not sure how much of a win that was
VIP does give access to mainstage when it's otherwise full, but that never happened at Ahoy, so not a great benefit
Free welcome drink each day, nice touch.
Free 0.5 small locker (one small locker for 2 people)
Elevated viewing platform which did go behind the DJ booth.
- VIPs wee allowed in 30mn earlier last year, but not this year
Honestly the viewing platforms for area 1 only were probably the best benefit, but given how much techno was on mainstage, that made that benefit more limited for trance lovers. So I'd say VIP is ok if money isn't that important to you and/or you plan on spending a good amount of time at mainstage.
ASOT Day 0, ASOT Hotel, Thursday ASOT 1266 Live Pre-party, and Adrenaline Sessions Post-Pre Party :)
time to meet friends again :)
One meeting room was changed into a small club :)
first time I heard trance from Laura van Dam, and it was great
I told Ruben as a joke that I was a big fan and never had a picture with him, he told me to get lost :) (just kidding, he didn't, he's both the nicest guy and a really good sport)
After Ruben ended his set at the hotel, it was time to get ready for the evening, and go to Now and Wow, a small club in Rotterdam for a special live ASOT episode recorded from there:
weird building, no idea what was there before the club
ah yes, welcome to Holland, the land of nickel and diming
things worked, but the pipes and layout were weird
the room was not big and packed, hard to get good pictures
Ferry and Ruben took over for the 3rd hour and it was over by 23:00:
But thankfully Adrenaline Sessions had pre-after party at Reverse Rotterdam with pure trance:
first met Casepeat from Korea at EDC Korea, lovely trance
ASOT Hotel had a few live sets starting at noon, although after going to bed at 06:00 with thursday pre-after party, I missed most of Xijaro and Pitch at noon :-//
small merch store
Then it was time for day1: AHOY was a 15mn subway ride from most of Rotterdam and easy 5mn walk in light rain:
lovely opening set from Ruben
as I mentioned, Insomniac dialed up the lights and lasers
Ulrich!
After Ruben, I had to go see Fadi at area 2, because I just can't miss the master Fadi:
bad ass video wall
and then Ferry Corsten
Ferry brought his parents, his mom was dancing to the beat :)
But while I was pessimistic for area one and Armin's set, I figured that as a 25 year of ASOT, it might be worth it, and boy it was. Armin can still put out a wonderful trance set when he's in the mood :) There was no techno, no mainstage EDM cheese, just a wonderful trip in trance memory lane that brought back many artists on stage to thank them for their contributions. It was absolutely wonderful.
After that it turned into a f2f with funk tribu, and it degraded into techno in no time, so I ran away to area 2 again :)
where JoC put out a lovely set
By 01:00, it was over, I think they decided that they didn't want to go much longer and public transport did shut down at 01:00, so that was it. But, the best surprise ever was to step into a metro wagon and see it decked out with CDJs, speakers and superstrings. I cannot express how freaking awesome that was. It was only a 20mn ride to the main train station or in my case 5mn to the next stop to go to Now and Wow for the afterparty, but those few minutes were fantastic :)
Superstrings also recognized me and were as surprised to see me as I was to see them :)
I was wondering after it happened if they were on the only DJs playing in the metro, only in that wagon, and only on that one trip, and as I write this, I just heard back from them and the answer is yes :)
So back to Now and Wow for the 2nd night and music until 06:00:
Finally got to meet Jeffrey Sutorius of Dash Berlin
As a side note, at 06:00 you were on your own to get back home, no public transport at that time, so it was walking, biking, or rideshare.
Friday Video Summary:
ASOT Day 2: Saturday
So while I did almost everything until then, I did wake up around 15:00 on saturday and ended up resting a bit and fixing the several things that broke on my LED outfit the previous night. There was a pre-party at Reverse, but it was across town in the wrong direction, I was tired, it was gloomy and raining outside, so I stayed put until the main party, even if I would have loved it if it had started a couple of hours earlier (it might sound like quitter talk, but going back and forth across town for multiple parties was a bit of a barrier to entry
headed for area 4 that had all the trance that night
From there, went to Giuseppe Ottaviani's Ottagon set at area 2, an impressive performance:
Next was Cosmic Gate:
From there, I made te tactical mistake to go check out Armin's set at Area 1, but it techno and I lost time I should have spent in Area 4 with Jorn:
pretty
but the really good music was with Jorn inside the containers
awkward stage, but great music
and then Sean Tyas, OMG, Sean, soo good it was!
master at work
After Sean, it was time for Lovely Richard Durand at area 2
exactly one lit up inflatable pink totem :)
and david forbes closed the night
And that was it, 06:00, time to get back to reality and get some sleep! By then you had to take the for pay shuttles back to the train station, or rideshare to get home.
Saturday Video Summary:
Conclusions/Suggestions
I wrote those at the top, you can go back for them :)
But I can still say: despite more music that my brain labels at techno, there was still plenty of trance to enjoy during most of those 3 days, and we can only be thankful for that. It was a wonderful party, a yearly reunion of friends, and loads of fun. The extra events that stretched things to 3 days was a great improvement. Despite my being a bit sad for having missed those older ASOTs with great trance at mainstage, and now going to the smaller stages to find trance with my fellow trance lovers, I'm also aware that those other stages help pay for the event and venue and ultimately those smaller stages that would not pay for the event on their own, so even if I don't love that music, I'm happy it's there :) I also need to acknowledge that trance was upgraded from area 5 last year to 4, which was bigger, so that was a great change. And as was pointed out to me, those people might get lost, end up at the trance stage by mistake, and decide they actually like that music too :)
Should you go, Would I go back?
If you're in Europe, going to ASOT is a no brainer, even if you dislike techno about as much as I do, you can still find lots of good trance if you go to the right rooms
If you're from North America, by going to ASOT, you'll see multiple DJs you'll never see in the US, like Jorn Van Deynhoven, that can totally bot worth the trip if you can afford it.
Last year, I said ASOT was a bit of a hard sell at 1.5 days only if you travel from far, but realistically this year if you went to all the pre and post parties, it was pretty much 3 days, Much better!
Last year, I wrote 2 things: "I hope Insomniac Europe invests more into ASOT next year, to bring it back to a real long term sustainable 2 day festival worth flying across the world for. And maybe not conflicting with EDCMX would still be a good idea", and both wishes were granted!
So despite the worrying trend of trance being replaced with techno, let's hope it stops or reverses somewhat (even Tiesto said Trance is cool again :) ), and if they do 3 days of parties next year again, I can recommend ASOT as "worth the trip"!
Last but not least, just like the dreamstate guys, the ASOT team, cares, listens, tries to please as many people as they can, and put a lot of work into all this, so thank you so much to everyone!
Disclaimer posted by request from Groovecruise team: this is a fan created blog post, I do not work for Groovecruise nor am I affiliated with them. GC did not participate to the content of this post, nor did they censor it, and for full clarity: I am confirming that all views and content on this page, are my own.
welcome back
The new and even bigger boat: Wonder of the Seas
The boat this year was ever so slightly bigger than last year, although it looked quite similar in size and where things where, but it came wit ha few bonuses. It was a the biggest ship in the world when it was launched a few years ago, but now it's the 3rd biggest (although the biggest one is really just 10ft longer).
I signed up for the flowrider on the first day, did ok standing but it still didn't feel natural compared to snowboarding. I forgot to give my phone, so therefore it never happened and you can watch better people:
After I managed to hurt my back and my neck there, which is very easy to do, the boat left Miami around sunset:
Many swimming pools and definitely more cool things on the deck than last year's Alure of the Seas (which I'm told has been remodelled since then), including water slides and the abyss ride from floor 16 down to 6:
unfortunately waterslides were not open when I tried to go
looked cool, though
The rest of the boat was equally nice:
different decors, equally cool
nice promenade
Nice art gallery:
The dual abyss slide was cool looking:
get in here
reality is that it was mostly dark
And because the GC crew is really a bunch of overachievers, they even setup side quests with riddles where you could unlock secret doors and get stamps for bragging rights:
Boat staff/policies/security
This is mostly a repeat of what I wrote last year, the only difference is given how long it took them to scan and deliver one of the pieces of luggage last year, I hand carried everything this time around, which wasn't a huge pain and was much easier in the end.
Carribean's rules were of course geared towards the normal cruises they had the rest of the year, but ultimately they worked well for GC too, and they were pretty lenient with the many things people brought it for the party. Department of immigration somehow brought sniffing dogs to do their own scan of people getting in, but outside of that, the rules were mostly reasonable:
they did allow one bottle of alcohol per person
no issues with costumes or led gear for people like me
there was a restriction on bringing your own power strips, my small one in my laptop bag was allowed
last year, we spent 2.5h in line to get on the boat which was quite poor. This year was a lot more efficient and we were in, in less than 1H. Much better.
I felt the restaurants had better hours to be compatible with the party crowd, that was a nice improvement.
The boat staff was of course amused by all the craziness GC brought to their boat. They were great sports dealing with all the craziness and did the best to accommodate us. Like I wrote last year, I'm sure we made their 5 days interesting, but they did the best to please anytime they could (polar opposite of Creamfields and Lumi where the customer was almost an enemy in multiple places).
Like last year, instead of having to worry about thefts like some festivals, people were happy to get their lost items brought back. Awesome!
This is a good time to point out that the Groovecruise team did an amazing job decking out the place and turning a cruiseship into a small city with nightclubs and festival areas. They really went all out, all the way to confetti that had to be cleaned carefully afterwards and even balloon drops. Multiple stages had lasers and cool lighting and overall the sound was good. Given the location and that it had to be installed and torn down in record time because the ship was used for regular cruises just before, and just after, was nothing short of amazing.
I also need to give the GC crew a shout out for really being chill trusting. This year, I added lasers to my outfit, which I researched carefully for power and safety with the help of specialized engineers to make sure they would not be a risk to others. I also did my best not to point them at people's faces for obvious reasons. While they looked super cool, a couple of GC technicians came to talk to me and ensured I knew not to point at people or DJ, and generally to make sure I knew not to be an idiot with them. After that, they told me to have a good night and have fun. The trust was very much appreciated.
People
Ok, so I've been to many festivals (over 80 in 20+ years), and I like the costume aspect of those who encourage them, like most insomniac festivals in the US including EDC Vegas, Beyond Wonderland, and Dreamstate Socal. But I have to say that Groovecruise won as "best vibes and most costumes" by a good amount. I was positively impressed and it was loads of fun:
towelie!
Running into Friends:
Great to see DJ friends again:
Groovecruise Days 1-2
Getting on the boat was a lot less painful this year, but the weather was shit on the arrive day (thursday), and the rain continued all day and night, which unfortunately messed up Darude's decks for his pool set, until he had to stop. Still it was great to see it until it shut down, and then we retreated indoors as trance must go on :)
Adam Scott continued at the promenade
The next day, we got another cool balloon drop during Markus Schulz's set:
and no matter where you were, other parties were going on :)
Day 3: Nassau, Bahamas
Nassau was very close, most of the time, the boat went up and down the coast, and on Day #3, dropped us off in Nassau
Last year, we spent an entire 2 days to get to Labadee, Haiti a mere 4H before the boat had to leave and boat 2 days back to Miami. This time, we had a full day in Nassau, which was a cool place to visit:
there was an outdoor stage and party, although I spent most of the day visiting Nassau
Back on the boat, turned out it was easier to watch Jon Summit from our room:
skydeck VIP backstage view :)
Groovecruise Days 3-4: Partying
After Nassau, it was trance night at Aquatheatre:
Darude!
Wonderful views of Dave Dresden and Adam Scott while the boat pulled out of Nassau:
bye bye Nassau
Day4 (Sunday), I took things easy, got some sleep and an easy day on sunday:
Blastoyz by the pool
and then, make fun of me, I went to bed not nearly as late as the previous year, because of Day5:
Groovecruise Days 5: Rough Trip Back to Reality
I remembered how terrible monday morning was last year, so I didn't go party late sunday night, it wasn't worth the pain of being woken up and pushed off the boat a few hours after going to bed :) As a result, I wasn't as sleep deprived as the previous year, getting off the boat was less rough this time around and there was almost no line to get out, so it was pretty painless.
Should you go? Would I go Back?
First, I will point you to my thoughts and conclusions from last year, I won't repeat the same ones here
This is mostly what I wrote last year, as it still stands. While I don't have official numbers, it looks like the return rate for Groove Cruise is very high, and that's for good reason. I was impressed by how many things the crew did right, and things I was worried about were not much of an issue.
Fantastic job decorating the boat and decking out the stages, including side quests, even
internet package worked significantly better this year
Attendees were the best, and the most costumed I had ever seen anywhere
security was just what was needed, nothing more, never an issue, and I never felt like I had to "fight" to be there or be able to enjoy myself in a PLUR way.
4 days go by quickly, I wouldn't have been upset with another day or two :)
there was a fair amount of stuff to do on the boat outside of partying
there was trance! I hate to have to say this, but too many festivals are dropping trance. Even untold which was a trance heaven for a festival of all EDM genres, severely reduced the amount of trance last year :-// Huge thanks to Adam Scott and all the DJs who did trance for us.
Is it worth flying across the world for? Yes. It's actually a long flight from SFO, and I didn't regret it. I think it's almost the same distance from Paris or London :)
Generally, the team really cares, they go above and beyond, and even after 20-ish years, they are still humble and always want to try their best and improve. This is huge, too many festivals rest or their laurels, or "it's just a job" and the experience is nowhere the same. This kind of culture is crucial for the best experiences, and only at insomniac festivals have I seen something similar.
Things to improve:
The GC android app was pretty poor though, it mostly didn't work to show you what should be your saved schedule and selected sets, if you were offline.
Some amount of the stages in the GC app were not mapped anywhere or visible in the Royal Carribean app. Maybe it was part of the game to have to find those stages, but if not, better info could be given.
The morning announcements while really lovely were also very painful if you happened to be sound asleep. Honestly a fair amount of people were upset to be woken up so early by then, and so loudly. There is literally no way to turn them off as they are (mis)-using the ship's emergency alert system. If there was only one wish I could have is to be able to turn them off or not have them. Having them be forced on everyone and ruining sleep is just not cool
The last thing I really hope GC can fix is allowing people to sell/transfer back their room to whet travel if there are people on the waiting list who really want one (for a small fee for their time and of course preventing any scalping and reselling over face value). They tell you to get insurance, but insurance that covers "change of plans" costs a lot and only covers 50% of what you paid, so that's not really a reasonable option.
And you're going to ask: Isn't it expensive?
So, yes, it's not cheap, around $1500 to $2000 per person, but it includes:
4 days of music with up to 10 stages, mostly non stop
all the amenities of a cruise ship if they appeal to you
your room is 5-10mn away, you can go back and forth any time you want. This is priceless! I really need to emphasize how awesome that part is and how alone it's worth the bit of extra money.
included food in buffet and restaurant was more than decent and "for pay" restaurants were very good
Nassau excursion was nice and nice to have an entire day there
To me, this is not that much more than what I would spend at EDC with VIP tickets + hotel + food and I felt the experience was close enough to VIP like. The crowds were also more mature and more PLUR than the average festival, and that was a good thing to me. Ok, the stages are not to the level of a real EDC or Beyond Wonderland-like festival, but they were good enough for me to have lots of fun.
All in all, I was very satisfied and felt it was well worth the price. Clearly plenty of people seem to agree as more people are going every year and they keep having to migrate to a bigger ship (another bigger one even for next year and this year's was already one of the biggest on the market).
I will leave you with a few links:
While groovecruise was not in the cards for me for a bunch of prior years due to conflicting events and priorities, I also regret not having gone sooner, it's a pretty awesome event. If you already have been, you know. If you have not, take my word for it, it is cool and unique (and has lots of styles of music, most I didn't have time to go see).
