Marc's Blog: festivals - A State Of Trance London

π 2023-07-02 01:01 in Clubbing, Festivals

This was the first ASOT in London, at a new location I hadn't been before (ABGT was at the drumsheds, this time was at the dockyards dockyards, just renamed silverton island a few weeks before the event). It was an interesting venue just outside London. However, despite this being an island away from everything, and literally at the end of a local airport runway, they still had a curfew of 22:30, which was slightly unexpected and disappointing. As a result, the event started at noon, and thankfully it wasn't too warm.

Got up in Paris, took a Eurostar, got in London in barely over 2H and got the event just as it opened.

interestingly the event was only accessible via a floating bridge

plenty of planes taking off over the event, but that wasn't much of a problem

Even if we only got about 1H of darkness, that didn't stop me, I waited patiently for it :)

thankfully the rest of the day wasn't too warm, weather was pleasant.

I got lucky with security, which was kind of a worry with some of my prior negative experiences in England (Creamfields being the worst by a lot). Reading the security rules and list of forbidden items (camelbacks and hydration pouches were on the disallowed list. Worringly the entrance list also listed small personal cameras as not allowed, WTF?? Thankfully this was not enforced for me, not sure bout others)

They offered VIP as an option, but from what I saw it was mostly for a couple of viewing stages that were not super well situated, so I'm not sure if it was worth it. That said, it was merely an option, so no big deal either way.

The venue was good enough: 3 stages without sound bleed issues, actually a good selection of food options (better than many festivals), plenty of bar lines to limit lines (well done), and the drinks were reasonably priced. Of course free tap water available like any reasonable festival.

diverse enough food options that were reasonably priced

Interesting buildings and sights around:

Here are the DJs I got to see from the 3 stages:

Great to see Ruben again, as always. His new visuals were funny and dope:

haha, good one

and more funny ones

even better, Ruben in space

After Ruben, time for more DJs, including a wonderful B2B from Craig Connelly and FactorB

they definitely went for it!

this was a wonderful set ana handoff to Solarstone

Craig and FactorB nicely came to meet the crowds

FactorB still havin the best time of his life

Back for more sets, and mainstage for Gareth Emery:

Then Vini Vici:

Followed by Cosmic Gate:

Back around other stages:

And finished the day and short night (just 1.5H of darkness for my led outfit) at mainstage

Part of a festival is of course the crowd atmosphere. A few people came dressed or at least with appropriate T-shirts:

I actually have that shirt :)

And Armin played the last 1.5H as darkness set:

After that, we ran out just as the show was over to catch a train back to London before things ot too crowded (not too many ways to get out)

Conclusion

For a first time ASOT in London/UK, it went well. The venue wasn't perfect, the 22:30 curfew was suboptimal, but the stages, sound, and visuals were decent enough. Had a good time, thanks to the organizers and the DJs.

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