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Back to ASOT after 2 years, my last (and first one) was (ASOT 1000, read report here). After the last event, I wrote that I felt there was a a bit too much non trance, and while it was the first 2 day-ish event, it was weird, 6H + 9H with strange time offsets.
Well, they actually listened to that and made a proper 2x 9h event last year, but I missed it in favor of EDC Mexico that happened the same exact weekend.
So this year, I figured I'd come back to see the new format and 2 full days, just to be very disappointed when I found out that they had reverted back to the weird 6h + 9h schedule, and a lineup that clearly looked weaker compared to last year :( (fewer hours and I think fewer rooms).
Anyway, flights were booked by the time I found out about the limited hours and downgrade compared to last year, so I went to check it out again. The hightlight as always is to meet all the fellow trance lovers:
nice welcome at the train station
Instead of a long report, which I wrote anyway below, haha, I also had a bit of fun this year, and made this new style summary :)
Thoughts for this year
Security was nice and chill. They still looked but knew how to look. Every time I have to state that I'm thankful for this, and need to say a heartfelt thank you.
Cheap, maybe too cheap? (by that I mean, not enough hours, stages that felt a bit lesser, lineup that felt gutted compared to prior years). I would have paid more for a bigger/longer festival
Unfortunately the amount of hours and stages was a clear downgrade compared to last year
Too much techno and non trance for me. Some liked it, other pure trance lovers like me, did not. Not sure who is the biggest crowd of the 2 since you can't please both easily.
Started too late on day 2, maybe it was to give time to see afternoon talks, but those were not announced to ticket holders (maybe only hotel package people), so what's the point? I missed that all because I hadn't heard about it and was stupidly waiting for the day to pass and 21:00 to finally happen.
VIP and hotel package people were allowed in 30mn earlier, but it wasn't clear this would be true for the VIP folks (the official FAQ didn't say they would be), and hotel package people actually ended up in a longer line than VIP and some were pissed to have paid so much and then wait 45mn or more to get in. Apparently at least some of the hotel package hotels were not that great either. Honestly I was happy with the VIP weekend package
I found production value was good overall. It was not transmission good, but then again transmission is the best indoor show I have seen in the world, so nothing is as good :) I was just sad for area 5 which while pretty was way too small and I was never able to see Ciaran play as there were too many people for the very small stage. Ironically the super small stage was next to a sea of lockers that was 10 times bigger than the stage itself :(
Unlike other festivals that were very annoying with personalization like parookaville and tomorrowland, 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.
So, what did I think of this ASOT and ASOT in Ahoy vs ASOT 1000 at Jaarbeurs 2 years ago?
actually they were similar and but in a not great way (for me): friday was only 6h or so and saturday was 9h but starting 3h later, ending at 06:00. I'm fine if it ends at 06:00, but I prefer if it's because it was 12h long and started at 18:00, not just 9h
Obviously it was Ahoy Rotterdam instead of Jaarbeurt, Utrecht. While Utrecht is a nicer town to visit, I think Ahoy worked a little bit better for getting around, although I think it also had one stage fewer. I think the stages in Jaarbeurs were overall better.
Ahoy had lockers inside the event, after security, which was convenient (Jaarbeurts was outside security, which was a pain)
The security team at both sites (maybe the same team?) were chill and professional. They seemed to limit their work at the level that was necessary.
That said, many people complained of long lines getting in (some got 45 to 60mn), so that was no ideal. For me, arriving at opening time for VIP (30mn before everyone else), it only took around 15mn to get in, so that was good.
The locker they gave to VIPs (only one locker for 2) was very small and could not fit my small backpack, they had medium ones but you had to know in advance to book one and that you'd get a small one with VIP
I remember walking around at Jaarbeurs that was way too much between stages. It was a bit better at Ahoy, although the mandated long walk around for stage 1 was a pain in the rear and unnecessary for the people who came (pictures at the bottom of the page). Also, mainstage never filled it up (it did at Jaarbeurs), so all the gates and long way around they had was a waste of time in the end (also the benefit of VIPs to be allowed in at any time, didn't matter in the end)
The stage production level was average or above average depending on the stage, but I actually felt that it was a shame they put so much work into those stages for those to not even be used 9H.
That said, I clearly felt that some stages were better at Jaarbeurs, so it was a bit of a downgrade.
Still, with all the time, effort and money to setup those stages, I really wish this had been a 2x 12h event, or at least 2x 9h, which is what it was last year (see bottom of the page for multi tier pricing idea to bring in more money without penalizing people who can't afford more).
So this is where I was disappointed, after so many years, ASOT had finally graduated to a full 2 day festival, and got downgraded again to 1.5 days with weird hours and weird offset between the 2 days
Small detail: Cell phones mostly didn't work at mainstage unless you were lucky enough to get wifi to allow you in, other stages were ok (an issue if you want to regroup with friends). There was public wifi but it wasn't sized properly and collapsed easily. It would have been easy to add wifi in the VIP areas as a bonus for those who paid more.
About the stages:
Mainstage was similar looking to Jaarbeurs, but older videos show more lights before including individually addressable color balls that were very pretty. This mainstage was just average.
Area 2 was reasonably pretty but awkward narrow footprint, didn't love that part
Areas 3 and 4 were actually decent, but I didn't spend more than a few minutes there since not really my music
Area 5 was pretty but way too damn small. I was kind of embarrassed for my favorite DJs that ended up there.
And now let's talk about the music:
ASOT 1000 had a fantastic 20 years of trance 6h set from Armin on day 1, and day 2 had mixed music which sounded more and more techno-like. This year was unfortunately worse (for me at least) as mainstage seemed almost overrun with techno (with a few exceptions like Ruben and Ferry, or the great classics closing set from Superstrings). But the rest at mainstage sounded more like basic EDM, techno, and a set from Armin that went from great trance that made you fly to hard crash landings by mixing hard techno on the next track, and doing that multiple times. I read that some enjoyed that, for my ears and brain, it was honestly much harder to enjoy and disappointing.
It's clear that some people on FB clearly liked the new music, and others did not. I have no idea who is the bigger of the 2 groups and whether my losing team may just be the smallest one, so it's all working as intended, but at the same time I also understand that keeping Trance the same for 20 years+ is not the best idea ever.
I think my request would be to keep at least one stage or 2 with real trance classics and other 2-3 stages including mainstage can play whatever seems to make sense today.
ASOT Day 1
AHOY was a 15mn subway ride from most of Rotterdam and easy 5mn walk:
clear signage. I never got to see how long the regular lines were since I went VIP
strangely, the weekend VIP line was the fastest. The hotel package lines were longer and people there were not thrilled
all the staff was nice, kudos to everyone, it really makes a difference
ah yes, Insomniac merged/took over ASOT, no idea how much input they had this year, but I expect they will have more next year
security search felt reasonable although some people said the lines got slow later
Day 1, started with Ruben de Ronde and Ferry Corsten:
Armin took over for a lot of different B2B sets
pretty full for a friday, so should friday only be 6h and not 9h or 12?
one of many B2Bs
stage production had nice lighting
Stage/Area 2 had more real trance, but it was a weird "wide corridor" layout :-//
no VIP area for area 2, which was unfortunate
thankfully Fadi/Aly and Fila played a wonderful set as always
nice to have ferry afterwards
Susana was back!
nice LED walls in stage 2 to make up for the awkward layout
FactorB killed it again
Meanwhile Armin was busy at mainstage with lots of B2Bs and even a new f2f :) It sucked to miss some of FactorB, but it was interesting to see the face2face with Maddix:
Then back to Area 2 to see the end of FactorB:
And then it was over, very early (01:00), so it was time to go to the after party in a small club by the train station. It was better than nothing, but kind of sad to go to a small local club when we should have stayed at Ahoy for another 5h.
nice to see Roman Messer again
oh yeah, almost forgot I was in Holland
and my TFSF Friend Alastair was also there to play
ASOT Day 2
For reasons that I can't really imagine except legacy and maybe no one asking "why are we still doing this?", ASOT still started at 21:00 on the 2nd day. Why? probably because that's when it used to start at that time as a single day event, but for a 2 day event, it's nonsensical. Everyone has had time to sleep have lunch, go see the talks that were not announced and most people missed, and still make it in time for a 18:00 start. Starting 3 hours later makes little sense, especially for people in hotels where they get kicked out of the room around noon and getting to bed around 07:00 does not leave room for a lot of sleep on the 2nd might
it was very cool to be able to stand behind mainstage
but I went to Area 2 as soon as it opened for Xijaro and Pitch's Anthony
it was a fantastic pure trance set, real joy
yes, it takes a few people to run all this :)
Area 3, which was unused on day 1
later when filled up
Area 4 was also interesting, even if a bit narrow
Area 5 was the most narrow and smallest though
What a shame given the lovely lineup
Ciaran was in there, but was never able to get close enough to see him
Back to Area 2 for Ruben:
then Giuseppe
And it was time for Armin's main set at mainstage:
it was reasonably full but not at capacity
So, for Armin's set, honestly his trying to go back and forth between lovely trance and techno didn't work for me. It took all the flying feelings of trance, and crashed them into a wall when the hard techno got mixed in. This is me though, others have said they enjoyed it, so there you go.
Anyway, at some point I had to leave for Alessandra's set at Area 5, the smallest stage, but it was Alessandra, can't miss her!
she was excited to see us :)
and we got to say hi :)
Once she was done, there was only one hour left, and I had heard good things about superstrings, so back to mainstage. They played a new style of trance similar to what TDJ plays, high energy with an engaging beat but without falling into techno. All the techno is the new trance people, please look at these guys and TDJ, isn't that where you want to go instead to evolve Trance instead of trying to merge it with Techno, which will never work for people like me (and I'm not the only one)?
Yes to VIP behind mainstage :)
And just like this, it was 06:00, the mere 9h were over (could have been 12H had they started at 18:00 like the day before).
shuttle bus back to main station because metro didn't open until one our later
back to the room by sunrise :)
Should ASOT cater more to World Wide Trance Lovers? If so should it conflict with 2 other festivals that same weekend?
In the many past years, instead of doing a bigger event in Holland that would bring more people from around the world, ASOT went around the world for smaller parties, which was not a terrible idea, and explains the roots of ASOT not really meant to be an event for international travellers outside of Europe and being a mere 9H on a single day (fine for Europeans, not enough for people to travel from other continents). But fast forward to today where trance or ASOT seem to have shrunk so that most of the ASOTs that used to be around the world, are now gone.
Last year, I missed on out on the first real 2 day ASOT ever, the only one! before they went back to 1.5 days :(
And why did I miss it? Because I was at EDC Mexico which was the same weekend and that one was 3 12 hours days with more stages.
Still, my plan was to come back to ASOT this year, but what did ASOT do this year? Not only did it conflict with EDC Mexico where many of my friends went instead (can't blame them, there was much more music there than the 1.5 days of ASOT), and to make things worse, it also conflicted with Trance Unity in Montreal. Triple conflict!!!
Not only did this take attendees away from ASOT, but it also took multiple DJs away, DJs that played at ASOT in the past (although somehow Ferry Corsten and Fadi managed to play at both events, troopers!). Actually Ferry Corsten played at all 3, go Ferry! :)
But seriously people, is this really necessary? EDCMX isn't exactly a trance festival but still has a lot of trance, and Trance Unity, well, is Trance, so did all 3 events need to be the same exact weekend?
That being said, while I missed some amount of friends who were attending one of the other 2 events that weekend, I still got to see some:
Conclusions/Suggestions
ASOT is at crossroads between trance and non trance, as well as a 1 vs 2 day festival, and it felt uneasy in the middle this year. From my perception, Armin was struggling to play several genres at once to please everyone, and at least in his main set, when he would mix what almost felt like hard techno right after a euphoric trance track, that really killed it for me. I do have to repeat that some don't feel the flying from those trance tracks and thought they were just slower tracks to recuperate from the hard techno, and actually liked those transitions. So yeah, once size clearly does not fit all. Still, my advice for Armin would be what he did at ASOT 1000: a dedicated trance set, and more progressive/techno-ish sets. Please don't try to mix them, I don't think it can be done gracefully in a way that works for all.
I'll also repeat my suggestion to look at new styles of trance that aren't techno like what Superstrings and TDJ are doing, or Gardenstate/Aname's legendary remixes of trance tracks with a slowed down dubstep beat.
My thoughts/improvement suggestions for this year's venue:
find a way to raise the ticket price at least somewhat, maybe more ticket tiers to allow people who can't pay more to keep their current price, and people who can and spent quite a bit on the trip anyway, to pay more.
I've been asking for 2 full days instead of 1 or this 1.5 day weird setup, but it does cost more. How about running the event 18:00 to 06:00 both days, selling the same basic price tickets that only let you in at 21:00 or 22:00 (until 06:00) and higher price tickets that let you in 18:00 to 06:00 both nights?
Then you can still add VIP tickets and make sure the VIP benefits are real. Too many VIPs and especially hotel package people complained it took 45mn or longer for them to get in. That is definitely not ok, VIPs can pay double but they should get in 5 or 10mn for that price.
The point is not everyone can pay the same, charge each what they can pay, but bring in more money to pay for more hours and let's say at least 4 stages both nights (or hell, I'll setlle for 3 as long as good trance is guaranteed for sure at at least one stage every hour). Honestly 5 or 6 stags is more music than we can see and should only be if there is enough money to run them, but not at the expense of more festival time.
New music is the present/future, fine, but it's ASOT, don't let trance die. ASOT must have at least one dedicated trance stage for both nights. Honestly 2 dedicated trance stages with 2 styles of real trance (new style trance like TDJ / Superstrings is totally fine, hell even psytrance, why not?), but not techno or basic mainroom EDM everywhere please
If there is enough revenue for the above changes, a few improvements in stages would be nice. Area 2 honestly felt like a big corridor, very awkward layout. Area 5 was sad, a nicely lit super small stage shoehorned behind a seat of lockers. I was so disappointed for the DJs there.
When I checked online, the subway system claimed it would start running at 06:00 on sunday, but that was not true. We all needed to take the bus back to town, and ASOT thankfully made busses available, but you had to pay for them through a long a tedious checkout procedure on your phone in the street. This should have been an add on offered when I bought tickets online and sent back again via Email a few days before the event "Do you need to sign up for the return shuttle?"
Please optimize the routes between stages. This is not tomorrowland, are all those tedious one way routes really necessary? They sucked for us.
the black bit was really not needed
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
Oh and please make sure this half step at the Area 1 VIP bars does not exist again. It was near invisible in the dark, many people stumbled or fell on it, I did even after taking this picture, and at least one person reported a non minor injury due to it
someone literally stumbled on that same raised step and almost fell in front of me while I was taking this picture
ASOT 1000 had pre-parties the days before, this one did not.
The post party on saturday night/sunday morning at 06:00 was not really helpful. How many people were still awake? If ASOT had started at 18:00 on day 2, then 03:00 for the after party would have been more reaosnable. But really it lacked pre-parties on wed and thu for international travellers who arrived early.
And things I liked:
The VIP area being mainstage was very cool:
Security was nice
Lockers were inside the event after security even if they were too small
VIPs got in 30mn earlier
18:00 start on the first day was nice even if it ended too early and started too late on the 2nd day
Food options were good, and they took real money
Here is my video summary:
Should you go, Would I go back?
If you're in Europe, going to ASOT is a no brainer. But if you're coming from far away like me (but I realize I'm very likely a small minority), it's a bit of a hard sell in its 1.5 day format and lineup and means that were somewhat lesser this year (my personal rule is to avoid going across the world for less than 2 days given the time and costs involved). Ideally a festival should at least match the previous year or exceed it, so it was a bit sad when it shrunk this year. 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 yes, please raise ticket prices to pay for this, or at least offer higher tier ticket options to bring in more money from people who can pay.
And maybe not conflicting with EDCMX would still be a good idea, that said maybe it doesn't matter too much since realistically few people can afford to fly around the world to go to festivals every weekend.
But don't let all this feedback confuse you, although some things can be improved in my opinion, and my feedback is actually in the hopes that some of it does get implemented, and I get to enjoy an even improved ASOT, I did have a great time this time too, it's hard not to :)
A heartfelt thanks to all the crews who put all the work that went into this event for our enjoyment.
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