Marc's Public Blog - Clubbing and Trance

But those repots are only worth the time I take to write them (sometimes more than one day of work for some of them), if people can find and read them. In the old days I could just post them on facebook, or people would even find them with a google search. Nowadays, things are very different and Facebook does their best so that any post with external links are viewed by as few people as possible since they do not control external sites and want to keep their product (i.e. the users) locked in their site so that they can continue to feed them lying ads, fake AI videos and posts, and the other crap that is now all over FB.

Instagram is not better, although they make things worse by not even really allowing any links in posts, so that takes care of that problem.

So, how do you, my dear reader, find my new posts if both FB and IG have a vested interest in you never seeing them?

The best 3 ways to get future posts/festival reports:

For real time stories and posts from festivals and to follow/friend/DM me, FB and IG are still best, and you should follow both if you can, but expect that FB will make it hard for you to actually see my blog posts, while IG only allows me to make links you can't click on, so you have to cut and paste them.

If you have an RSS reader or you're just happy to reload a web page on occasion:

Hope this helps. For bonus points, you can even subscribe to multiple of them :)

so glad to see the ever cheerful and colorful insomniac entertainers

and we had a meetup with the international EDC crew :)

The Grounds... How was EDC in Asia and how does it compare with EDCLV, EDCMX, and EDC Orlando?

Footprint-wise, the event was pretty big, but it also had some dead space in the middle and hills that were a bit of a pain to navigate. The ground was also uneven and somehow wet in places despite no rain, that was a bit weird. But we got the stages we are used to, and they were top notch.

beautiful

It wasn't the plan, but this ended up not only being the coldest EDC I've been to, but flat out the coldest festival I've been to, and that includes some cold EDC Vegas nights as well as cold Dreamstate San Bernardino nights. It was around 10C, but the wind was relentless and windchill made it feel freezing or below freezing. On day 2, I came with a full sweater and basically 3 layers on the top and I was still kind of cold. I was also wearing a ski hat below my dreamstate LED hat, and gloves. It was that cold, really.

The painful cold did not ruin our party spirits though, people soldiered on :) And double thumbs up to all the insomniac entertainers wearing those colorful outfits that did not seem that warm, and somehow surviving through those cold nights. That was some serious dedication!

how on earth did they survive, wearing this?

The Merch store lost an opportunity to sell over a thousand sweatshirts. They ran out quickly :)

that was the shortest the line ever was, it got much much longer later

There was one combined beauty/kandi station:

felt a bit weird that they were combined :)

And then there was this. Lost in translation? haha :)

There was a pretty big skydeck, I'm not sure how occupied it got, but it looked fairly nice. It was only for mainstage:

Of course a big plus of EDC is all the pretty lights. and the insomniac crew did a good job bringing a nice pixel forest to the venue:

the fire from the statue was a good place to be a big warmer in the siberia-like cold :)

And of course the were more lights:

The nearby Inspire hotel had its own:

And the fun thing was that we were a stone's throw (almost) from Seoul/Incheon International Airport, where I flew out of the next day back to SFO, but the planes were not landing over the festival, so you could not hear them and they were barely noticeable. except maybe to the pilot geeks like me :)

EDM Lovers in Korea and Asia

But the crowds that did come were dedicated. There were a good amount of professional kandi traders who made the event even more fun, and enough people who came with cool costumes despite the cold. Thanks to all of you.

Some professional Kandi traders :)

Plus a few pictures with friends:

Blaztoyz!

PvD!

G.O.

Marlo

The 2 days of festival

The first day, I opened the window of the hotel and thought "mmmmh, it's a bit cold, I'll put an extra layer between my t-shirt and my LED shirt (in blue in this picture):

Kataklops!

OMG, what a mistake in planning. Yeah, 10C is already cold but that not account for the siberian wind that brought the wind chill level to below freezing. I'm not going to lie, I was cold and uncomfortable the entire first day. So on Day #2, I came with a full sweater as my 3rd in between layer, a ski hat below my LED hat, and gloves. Well, even with all of that I was still kind of cold, but less uncomfortable at least:

Anyway, here are some pictures from both days:

Day 2 was trance day at Stereo Bloom:

great trance from Casepeat

and my friend Kataploks

Giuseppe Ottaviani

Paul Van Dyk

Marlo

A bit of bass at Circuit Grounds:

And what's a better way to end the night than with Blastoyz?

Because the taxi/rideshare situation, was iffy, at best, I left a tiny bit early right after Blastoyz's set, and barely got a glimpse of the very legit fireworks to close the show at mainstage. They were pretty. Too bad they were so late:

Video Summary of Day 2:

Thought/Impressions/Suggestions/Conclusion

In somewhat random order:

Now, was this EDC remotely close to EDC Vegas? Of course not, nothing is. Even EDC Mexico definitely felt bigger and better if you wanted to travel to another EDC outside of the Vegas one, but EDC Korea still went well and was lots of fun outside of the cold. If you're in Asia or it's an easy flight, EDC Korea definitely is worth going to. If it's not an easy flight but you wanted an excuse to go visit Korea, which is very much worth visiting (that was my case), it's also a very good reason to go. The koreans at EDC were all lovely and fun to be with (as opposed to my recent report on Ultra Miami where PLUR was somewhat lacking, for instance).

Thanks to everyone who welcomed us (both the local korean trance family and EDM lovers, and the insomniac crews and entertainers)!

Links

First, I tried Warp Shinjuku, and they simply denied me entry. Even after I agreed to turn off my LEDs (they didn't like them, and that was crappy because I had been there in the afternoon, asked their staff if it would be ok, they said yes, and when I came that night that staff said the afternoon staff was wrong and the answer was now "no"), they showed typical Japanese inflexibility and denied me entry, even after I offered to give them my battery pack so I could not turn the LEDs on. Sigh....

Atom Shinjuku was nicer, they also had a rule about nothing lit up inside, which is obviously not my favorite, but it's their club and I'm the tourist, so I get to abide by their rules. They were fine with my word that I wouldn't turn anything on (I didn't), and I got to see the several rooms. It was a nice club overall, but the music that night was a mix that I didn't love. Nothing really wrong with the club, I'm sure similar music is being played in San Francisco in many clubs I never go to, unless it's trance night :)
Oh, and entry was free before 23:00, so that was nice :)

First room that had everyone until the main room opened at 23:00:

23:00 and the main room opened:

I looked all dark and sad :)

plenty of people came with suits and ties, looked like they came straight from the office

I didn't stay super long, it felt very dark and a bit sad for my (maybe unusual) taste :) but it was nice to see a Japanese club and I thank Atom for being reasonable people compared to Warp.

Instead, they simply denied me entry. Even after I agreed to turn off my LEDs (they didn't like them, and that was crappy because I had been there in the afternoon, asked their staff if it would be ok, they said yes, and when I came that night that staff said the afternoon staff was wrong and the answer was now "no"), they showed typical Japanese inflexibility and denied me entry, even after I offered to give them my battery pack so I could not turn the LEDs on. Sigh....

Before you tell me, yes, each country and culture are different. I would have been ok with them letting me in with the condition that I keep all my stuff off (which really was just a few strips on my arms and legs that are not even visible in the dark, as the clubs seem to be quite dark in Japan). Also, I probably wouldn't even have brought my outfit except for having been in that same club during the afternoon to see their ninja show (which was good) and having 2 of their day staff confirm the outfit would be fine and I could bring it that evening :-//

This is what I looked like in Atom Shinjuku a few minutes away (they nicely let me in after confirming I had to keep my lights off, and I of course complied). I don't think this was terrible, I was black and dark like everyone else :)

Anyway, there is that, Wrap Shinjuku, not a friendly place, even if they seemed to have nice rooms, lights and decors inside. Instead of getting a +1 and potential new customers, they get this blog entry instead, bummer.
Now, in full fairness, I need to state that some clubs in Vegas are no better than this (actually likely worse), so this is not a jab at Japan, just stating factual experience in some clubs being somewhat inflexible and not very customer friendly, while some others are super accomodating and nice.

It was a very welcome Trancefamily SF Reunion:

David and Sony both got to open the vision stage, congratulations!

Welcome back to SF, we missed you!

Back to DS, each time there is a new venue, we always get to wonder how good it will be and what the setup will look like, and I'm happy to report that the production level was the best we've had in SF, bar none! The insomniac folks continue to be overachievers, and the dream stage was absolutely wonderful. Even the smaller vision stage had very nice lighting and lasers:

And vision was cool too:

Thanks to the magicians in the dark who made all the lights, happen

The lineup had more DJs that were lesser known to me, which is not a bad thing per se, although many played too much techno for my taste, with a few hours slots where both Vision and Dream had techno, and that was not my favorite, obviously, but clearly most of the crowd seemed happy with it, so I guess that works out (and as I've written before in my last reports, techno has been creeping in everywhere, even in what used to be a State of Trance).

Day 1

Day 1 Summary:

Day 2

of course, went to support our local boy, Sony ;)

The show (lighting and lasers) for Armin was outstanding:

Ilan proposed on stage, she said yes ;)

Day 2 Summary:

People

meetup day 1

meetup day 2

yes to people who brought LEDs!

someone stole my hat :)

Had fun taking pictures with my new and improved LED outfit freshly built for the event :)

I was ready for Anthony, this time :)

ulrich!

Kim, our former TFSF marketing lead

2 for the price of one :)

but we did better later

Triode!

then had fun with Yoji-San :)

that was his idea, brilliant ;)

Thoughts/Conclusions

Of course, nothing is ever perfect, especially in a new venue. Things I noticed:

Links

And that was it, 2 days of joy with extended times until 03:00, lots of fun, thank YOU!