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.
Welcome to Euphoria, aaargh, the sun, it burns :) (thankfully it ran until 02:00 to 04:00 almost every night):
With less than a day to pack/unpack after EDC Vegas, and fix my new LED outfit which has plusses, but it's unfortunately more fragile and needs more maintenance, I barely made it to a plane to Frankfurt and then Malta to arrive half way through Day 0 of Euphoria Malta's 6 days of Trance! I can't say I was super awake, or that I stayed until the end that first night, but I was glad I at least made it this year :)
How is Euphoria different? It's actually a small festival in size, and purposely so. It's meant to be affordable, and to focus on trance music and fun. There is no VIP, no backstage, and DJs, when not on the decks, are part of the crowd and the party. What else can you ask for? This is the lumi from 10 years ago, before it got too big, and that I never got to attend before it was too late and become what is is now. While I don't have a time machine, and I did ask Craig Conelly :) to go back and experience these nice and small lumis, I don't need one anymore, because Euphoria is where it's at, except with much more lovely people running it.
Now, the DJs are DJs that don't play the big stages every day, they probably don't get paid loads, which in turn allows keeping the event affordable without big crowds, which honestly made for a great experience. I've even got to meet some I had listened to for years, but never seen in person, that was just plain awesome.
And because it was basically a big family party, there is no ridiculous bar fight bouncer security like the place you know, although if you wanted to get your genitals groped at the entrance, I'm so sorry, but Euphoria will not be the place for you :) All the clubs were super nice, and the security folks there to make sure everything went well, not to harass customers. Best case scenario.
So, like I mentioned last year after going to Rong and then Captured Malta, I took a chance a wrote a comparison of all 3 festivals, even if I hadn't been able to go to Euphoria. You can go here for that malta trance festival comparison and I am happy to see that my review of Euphoria was actually pretty on point before even having had the chance to go. You can go visit the page, but the relevant bit, I'll paste here:
"Euphoria Festival Malta is indeed the cheapest and most grass roots of the 3, if it weren't just a few days after EDC and I could have attended, I'm pretty sure it's similar to Anomaly Summer of Trance in feel, just without the 4 stages from ASOL: smaller festival feel, more chance to chat with and meet the DJs, and so forth. The DJs will be less mainstage big festival DJs, but that's also a good thing in many ways, and I really mean this: I've attended lots of big festivals with the big name DJs, I do absolutely enjoy them, but it's really a nice and a breath of fresh air to enjoy smaller festivals that simply have more of a family and friends feel and where you're going to get real trance (more techno and hardstyle in the bigger trance festivals this year). I hope I didn't screw this description since indeed I wanted to attend, but just couldn't"
The one thing I missed is how many hours of lovely trance Euphoria actually had. 68!!! That is a winner right then, and as I properly guessed, no techno or hardstyle being pushed everywhere, sooo nice.
Day #0 Preparty, Zion Bar
After landing and unpacking, took a bolt to the south side of the island, to Zion Bar
this is why we come :)
PLUR, the European way :)
Day #1, Beachaven
After much needed sleep, made it to Beachaven, day 1. Nice bar with view and indoor night club:
Day 1 Video Summary:
Eventually, sun came down and we partied outside a bit longer before having to go indoors:
Day #2, Beachaven
Back at Beachaven for day #2:
We got an absolutely lovely 5H thrillseeker set
we got to chat afterwards
Then more partying indoors:
Thillseekers (partial set):
Day 2 Video Summary:
Day #3, Gianpula Phoenix Club
Day 3 was at Gianpula in one of its numberous clubs
they were already getting ready for Captured in Sept (will be back for that)
surprise Lost Emotions b2b Xijaro and Pitch
and Marcella Woods was awesome, first time I got to see her
Day 3 Video Summary:
Marcella Woods (full set):
Day #4, Liquid Club Malta
The next day was in a night club all day and night, Liquid Club. and it allowed for 2 rooms
haha, I love this shirt :)
Day 4 Video Summary:
Day #5, Gianpula Rooftop
Monday, one last day, home stretch back at Gianpula rooftop with the swimming pool. Glad to be back :)
By the 6th day, just like Captured less September, my LED outfit fell apart, but this time the new design allowed for replacing a failing panel much more quickly and without a soldering iron, progress ;) screwdriver and duct tape were the essentials (but jokes aside, not super happy with how fragile the new panels are, will need to find something better and more durable):
Sunset was beautiful from up there:
And a bit after midnight was it for Day 5 (really day 6). That was a lot! I think I managed to do 60 hours of trance out of 68h available over 6 days. Wee! Anyone who has not done this probably cannot comprehend how many 6 days is and how exhausting it is (in a good way, haha). Definitely worth experiencing.
Day 5 Video Summary:
The People
Lots of familiar faces of course :) great to spend time with fellow trance lovers again:
[rigimg:1024:8127*|my friend Dmitriy won the "best troll shirt" award and those two crazy people also went direct from EDC to Euphoria. Respect!]
As I mentioned earlier, one great thing at Euphoria is that you can meet the DJs and chat with them every day:
Steve!
Andrea!
David Forbes was surprised to see me again after 5 days :)
First time meeting Ronski Speed!
Marcella Woods, so great to see her perform
Mark Sherry
Darren Tate
Should you go? Would I go Back?
If you read the intro, it should already answer this. At the same time, I do not think Euphoria should grow too much in size, or it will lose the wonderful family and "we are all one" feel, so I'm wondering how much I should recommend it :) So, if you're looking for a big party, big name DJs, Euphoria is not where you want to go. Consider Rong in May (the bigger of the 3 with lasers and confetti and smoke and fireworks :)) ) or Captured in Sept as an in between answer (not too big, but some bigger name DJs).
And lumi, well, if you've read past reports, you already know how I unfortunately have to feel about it (if not, you can find that in the previous posts). While I'm glad I got there in 2019, even though by then it was already feeling a bit too big, I feel like it lost its family feel quite a while ago given its current size, and honestly I don't need festivals to play 4 or more trance DJs at the same time (and that comment is also true for dreamstate socal), so it was really nice to only have 1 or 2 stages at most at Euphoria and not have to stage hop or agonize that much.
Since I'll always regret never having been to Lumi 10 years ago when it was nice and small, it was actually fantastic to be able to experience this with Euphoria, and really I have to repeat how nice it was to have a festival where we were all one, no VIP, no backstage passes, and DJs coming to party with us and chat and have fun!
Also, while I enjoyed Captured festival last sept, the weather was pretty brutal (Thailand like hot and humid). Euphoria was nice and cool in May, even during the day, that was a true pleasure.
Now, if you're in Asia and february is not the month you're gone snowboarding, Unkonscious is still a very clear choice and another great way to spend 6 days with trance. If you're in Europe or Europe is closer, then Euphoria is clearly a great choice. And if you're just that dedicated, you can go to both of course :)
Now, the hard question is should Euphoria grow to allow more trance lovers to experience it without losing what makes it special? This is a tough question, and I'm not sure I have the magic answer to it. But the fact the organizers are so nice and dedicated to the event, I'm confident whatever they decide, Euphoria will remain a great place to go.
Euphoria was absolutely a unique event (and I mean that in a very good way :) ), and I'm so happy I managed to drag my butt there, this year.
As for the "will I go back?". Honestly I really want to. I'm not going to lie that going 24H after EDC Vegas was brutal, EDC really wipes you and it's another multi flight 16H trip which I can't do in coach and survive, so it was expensive. I'm super happy I did it though, and hope I can do it again. Also, I have to admit I also had a great time at Rong Malta which is 2 weeks prior, even though it's a bigger more mainstream festival, but also with lots of trance, and it's not reasonable to go to both plus EDC in the middle, so I'll have to pick 2 out of 3 no matter what. Decision, decisions :)
But for people with fewer life problems than me, haha, absolutely, please go and be part the family!
Huge thanks to Rich and Steve and all the DJs who played for us:
it's not enough to run the event, he also DJed multiple sets!
So, I probably should start with the price, to put things in context. It was $516 for 2, which, well, is not exactly cheap. The menu looked good on paper, and to be fair, they technically delivered, but I had imagined a bit more for that price, although it's also fair that delivering a multi course dinner in the middle of EDC is going to cost more, and they could not keep us that long since they had more servings coming after ours. I think they were actually pretty late given that it was the first day, so it took us a while to get in, which for the first serving that was supposed to be at 18:00, was a bit more complex since they had to bus us in directly inside EDC before it was officially opened. That part took a while, but we eventually got here with a skydeck bus (although 30mn late or so).
Getting to the welcome point was a bit tricky since it was a fair distance from the rideshare dropoff and the normal EDC shuttles would not get you there in time, but we made it and were eventually welcomed:
made it! (18:25 to be precise)
Given the pricetag, I should give the menu. They did absolutely deliver on what was promised, but indeed I was hoping for a bit more food given the price :)
first serving
second serving
One thing that was above expectation were the performers who entertained us. There were plenty and they did a great job:
The price did include all you can drink, alcohol :)
While enjoying desert on the 2nd floor, the next people were in line, and that was also our exit towards wasteland:
So there you go, hope it helps you decide, I'd say it was a good experience overall, but somewhat pricey.
This was my 10th EDC Vegas, time flies! And in these 10 years, EDC has become bigger every year, to the point that the 2026 edition fully sold out in less than 3 days. I'm not going to repeat what I already wrote in the previous EDCs I've been to, except that this year again, they've done a good job mixing things around and keeping things fresh.
The one thing I have to mention for trance lovers, is that in the last years, it's been clear that Trance has been shrinking slowly world wide. This is to the point that it's gone from Untold, which had the best Trance lineup of any mainstream festival, it stopped being relevant there several years back at Tomorrowland, and when I went to Parookaville, there wasn't much trance either. The list goes on...
So, even I'm a bit stuck on classic trance and I'm a bit sad to see it slowly disappear from many festivals, it wasn't very surprising that similar things are happening at EDC. Last year was the first time that the 3 days of classic Trance at Quantum Valley, were dropped to 2, and this year, depending on how you count, there was maybe 1-1.5 day combined (although day 1 did have half a day of lovely psytrance, which I believe is new). So yeah, we're not getting the 3 days of non stop Trance at Quantum Valley anymore, but Dreamstate is still a thing, just with evolving sounds, some are classic trance, some are psytrance, and newer sounds like Maddix. Also, let's keep in mind that:
I'm not counting psytrance as trance, because to me they are different. I actually like psytrance quite a bit, so I'm not sad at all to see more of it.
we got 2 2-day dreamstates this year, one in SF and the Socal one still coming up (plus some other single day ones across the US), so we can definitely be thankful for that, and that's not even counting some extra special dreamstate events like another one coming in SF in July
EDC itself did have more trance at other stages, so you had to walk around to go find it :)
And let's not forget that Tiesto played Trance for 1.5H to close EDC. How huge is that?
So while it's evolving and it doesn't have the 3 days of classic trance at QV anymore, there was plenty of other music to check out, which is not a bad thing actually, that's my best place to check out other EDM genres in one location, and for the mere wow factor and spectable, I'll repeat that EDC is the best night festival in the world.
This year, as something new, I tried the Salvage City Supper Club that was located by Wasteland. It was an interesting idea and fun, but ultimately it felt somewhat expensive for the end experience and food. But if money is no issue, definitely worth giving it a shot. Read up on more Salvage City Supper Club here
The Grounds:
Let's start with the grounds, which change a little bit every year, but no reason to get lost this year ;)
The insomniac folks aren't lazy, they come up with different stage designs every year. Here are some pictures from this year:
Of course, lots of fun areas to visit, especially in the VIP areas:
trinket trade got way too popular since last year :)
the VIP concierge area at Kinetic field was way too crowded
Kandi stations and Casino:
kandi stations
kandi casino was even more popular this year!
Passport was nicely setup like each year:
And because people get confused when they see this picture, this is not VIP but Skydeck, an uber VIP for people with too much money and trying to find creative ways to spend it :)
And all the lit up areas of course:
enjoying the new downtown EDC
Pixel Forest was moved this year and looked different:
A few vendors, like every year:
EDC still has the most rides of any festival I've been to. Fun!
And the many side quests:
Elevated views are of course very enjoyable:
Other views:
Fireworks and Drones
The drones did more work this year, that was nice:
The fireworks were great like every year:
Day 1 Fireworks:
Day 2 Fireworks:
The People
One of my favorite things of US festivals, are the costumes people come with, and EDC is one of the best for that:
this looked not comfortable to walk in, dedication :)
winning totem :)
bad ass!/
haha :)
funny, we found the same animation independently ;)
this is the way!
And we did our usual Trancefamily SF meetup:
The Insomniac Entertainers were great, as always:
And of course, it's always a good excuse to take pictures with friends ;)
Unfortunately, right after Miyuki's set, the wind picked up and Quantum Valley was somehow not built in a wind resistant way, which was slightly puzzling given that high winds have been semi frequent at EDC. As a result, QV was shut down for multiple hours, and we unfortunately missed a few sets as a result:
But other stages kept going:
thankfully QV was reopened later that night, in time for Maddix B2B Ben Nicky
Finished the night with TDJ at Bionic Jungle
Video Summary:
Day 2 Fireworks:
Day #3
One more night, night 3!
le youth, I had never heard before, interesting dreamy set
then, more techno with Miss Monique
Then came time for Armin at Kinetic Fields:
got a good spot, right in front of the uber VIP skydeck (the ones with the half million packages)
Back to Quantum Valley:
And then it was time to end the night with Tiesto's In Search of Sunrise Trance Set!
sunrise coming
And just like that, after a beautiful sunrise with Tiesto, the 3 days were over:
Video Summary:
Should you go? Would I go Back?
One thing I have to say about this year, is it felt more crowded, even the VIP areas were quite busy. It was not a huge issue to watch the sets, but the amenities in VIP were quite full with long waits. EDC is becoming popular, maybe too popular. This does not mean you shouldn't go or I won't go back, but it's probably reasonable not to expect to enjoy some of the more popular attractions, since they may require long lines to get in.
At this point, note that the text below is mostly the same as last years, since it's still valid :)
EDC Vegas is probably the most impressive EDM Night Festival in the world. Tomorrowland is a rival but it's not a night festival as more challenges I'm not as much a fan of (never mind of course the distance for me or the fact that you mostly can't buy tomorrowland tickets, while you can for EDC, although as of 2025 you have to be fast since they sold out in 3 days).
Like previous times:
Decors are just fantastic, along with so many performers. That's the best part about EDC. Even better now that I know and recognize some of the performers (Hi Pixie)
Like other insomniac festivals, all the staff truly cares and goes all out. Many small details that get sometimes missed elsewhere, are usually flawless. I'll even add that actually they are the most detail oriented, over achieving people I have seen. The amount of small details I absolutely do notice, how every corner of the racetrack is used for decors, the amount of light strings and LEDs, across ridiculous distances, and it just works all night, every night (nothing seems to ever break)!?!? I have no words. And seriously, if you know anything about LED strings and wind and moving them, you should know how amazing it is that they don't break!
This year again, security was more than reasonable as usual, thank you. Enough police onsite to help keep things safe, I personally like that.
19:00 to 05:30 is 10:30h of partying for 3 days, lots of fun! Actually first day does start at 17:00 (Cosmic Meadows only), and the next 2 days that used to start at 17:00 do not anymore, but I'm sure that for those at Camp EDC, there are plenty of parties there. The one sad thing is that shuttles start 30mn later (18:30), so it's near impossible to get to EDC by 19:00 and see the first DJ anymore.
So many free carnival rides, lots of fun, but the lines were too long for most, wasn't able to justify spending the time in line to enjoy them.
Still so many stages (around 15 if you include art cars, and passport)
Is it still worth flying across the world for? Yes, absolutely, there is nothing else like this on earth. Then again, maybe I should tell you not to come anymore, as it's getting full and sold out in just 3 days this year.
Conclusion/Other thoughts
Thoughts about this year:
Not fixed this year: please give exact GPS pin locations for the projected shuttle stops. Sometimes they are 1 mile away from the fake address given and it really makes a difference when picking hotels. Even if this cannot be given many months in advance, at least send the actual shuttle location (GPS pin) to all people who bought shuttle passes, as soon as possible.
Not fixed this year: I'm sure you read the comments on people with a very bad experiences and serious medical issues (heat exhaustion) related in Camp EDC. Given the cost of those, please make sure they have proper shade, burning man style, or it's not going to work and continue to ruin the experiences of people who can't deal with that amount of heat in the day <= disappointing that shade structures were not added this year and people still overheated with AC units that could not keep up with full sun.
New this year: VIP and GA sold out in just a few hours and went to tier 9 very quickly. Sadly the frontgate queuing system did not seem to work on cell phones (you got kicked out and never seemed to be in queue), nor did it ever show you what number you were in line. I hope they fix it.
Cell phone service was actually worse than previous years, it was easy to get 0 signal for hours in a row. Given how many people are in the same place (150K?), clearly EDC needs some portable emergency cell sites. I'm sure that costs a little bit, but can't be a huge percentage of the overall budget. And before you ask me why I can't enjoy the show and why I need cell phone, try meeting with friends that you have lost or trying to reconnect with. Good luck with that. I realize this is the "burning man way", but I wouldn't consider EDC burning man :)
WIFI was unfortunately worse than previous years. VIP wifi mostly didn't work for any of the 3 days. I make no claim that providing wifi is easy with that many people, but given the right IT folks and equipment, it is very possible to do a lot better.
first it was password incorrect
and then this for most of the time
also this
I loved Quantum Valley this year again, very nicely done, even if there was a lot less trance this year. The only slightly puzzling thing was why it was so vulnerable to wind when the Insomniac crews are well aware that EDC often experiences high winds, which have caused shutdowns in the prior years already. Hopefully this can be kept in mind for future stage designs (most other stages were not affected, thankfully)
But I also have to mention that Quantum Valley is not the 3 day trance stage anymore, sad but these are the present times. Still, overall QV had an enjoyable mix of music, even if it had more techno than it needed in my opinion since the next door stage was already supposed to be the techno stage.
I'll repeat that all the insomniac staff and insomniac entertainers were top notch as always. I mean seriously they were jumping and smiling all night each time I saw them. I know it's their job, but kudos to them for having so much positive energy for so long.
Thank you to everyone at the insomniac team, all the performers, all the volunteers who put so much effort into making so many details right all over the place, with the great result that we all got to enjoy..
As you probably know if you're reading this post, I like attending EDM events (mostly trance), and been to over 250 events so far as well as attended around 70 festivals around the world by the time I write this, and have written a report for each and every one of them.
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.
Why EDC Korea? No, no, it's not quite a case of "collect them all", although, is it? :) The actual answer is that I enjoy travelling the world through festivals and getting to meet fellow EDM and Trance lovers around the world. Every country has their own customs and flair, and it's nice to see PLUR around the world indeed.
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?
So let's get this out of the way first in case that wasn't already obvious: nothing in the world compares with EDC Las Vegas, as far as "wow" factor goes, and that includes the other EDC editions, that are lovely, but simply not as big. I haven't been to every EDC location, but I do believe EDC Mexico, which I did go to, is the 2nd largest, and this one probably ranks 3rd in size, just a bit ahead of EDC Orlando. No idea about EDC China since I'm still not sure about going there, and if anyone has been to EDC Thailand this year, I'd also be curious to know.
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.
Kinetic field looked a lot like EDCLV!
beautiful
Stereo Bloom:
Circuit Grounds:
Bionic Jungle:
Boom Box:
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
So I need to admit that the event wasn't packed. It ran from 17:00 to 03:00 and few people were there before sunset despite the weather not being vegas like and already cold during the day (for Vegas, you don't really want to go before sunset). I have no idea if enough people came to cover the costs the of the event, but if so, it was close, at best.
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:
The shuttle situation was not ideal. At the time I bought tickets, or my hotel, there were no shuttles listed on the frontgate website. Maybe the shuttles were on the other korean only website, but I never heard about any until a few days before the event, by which time it was too late to matter. It was unfortunate that there was no shuttle going around the local hotels close to the venue. They were only a 5 to 10mn drive away, but it was a 30 to 45mn walk in frigid cold. Using taxis/ubers did not work well as there were not enough and once the few that were available, drove away to a farther hotel, people left over without one, were kind of screwed. I personally chose to leave early and miss part of the show not to get stuck, which was not ideal either. The fireworks at the end of the last day were really nice, but I only saw them a little bit through the taxi window.
Korea law on tickets is a bit unusual (for instance it's somewhat illegal to resell tickets), so it's probably because of that that EDC had separate ticket selling sites for Koreans (interpark) and foreigners (frontgate). Not an issue, really, just interesting. The one downside is that it was difficult to resell a ticket if you couldn't go since you had to go pick up your bracelet in person and only could resell it to someone else, there, and that was maybe not even legal:
VIP didn't really feel worth it. There were viewing areas for most stages, but they were off center quite a bit, and I didn't really see any other benefits. For instance, it was disappointing that they didn't have a bunch of gas heat lamps in VIP, huge opportunity lost. For the most part there weren't any places to sit either or a VIP concierge with cool trinkets, or nice bathrooms in most VIP areas. This is probably the first insomniac festival I went to where VIP really didn't feel worth it.
Security was reasonable outside of taking people's unopened packs of gum, and a few things like that.
Food options were good and took real money (credit cards). All good on that front. Drinks worked the same, no issues outside of water, see below...
No water refills? This was both surprising and disappointing for an insomniac event, but apparently the only water source was a single plastic bottle vendor, which claims that they are recyclable, but given that we've been lied too about plastic being recycled for the last 20+ years and most of it ends up in landfills or the ocean, I'm not going to take their word for it. More generally, what happened to water refills, especially in a 1st world country where tap water is drinkable?
This next comment is not just for this EDC, but also for EDC Vegas and others. I realize the line is fine in which advertisers and sponsors to allow. This is the same problem google had and eventually settled with Sergey's "don't be evil" motto and google not allowing any advertiser that was considered to sell evil things. I'd like insomniac to consider the same thing, and a quick search returns "No, Google Ads does not allow advertising of vape products, including e-cigarettes and e-liquids. Google classifies these products as "Dangerous Products or Services" and prohibits their promotion on Google Ads and other platforms it owns or controls. This policy also extends to Google Shopping listings." as well as "Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords), Facebook Ads, and most other major platforms do not allow electronic cigarettes and vape products to advertise on their site". Now that some vape vendors have even been caught adding even more addictive synthetic chemicals in their vapes to make them even more addictive, does Insomniac really want to be linked to this?
As mentioned above, the entire festival went well, was well layed out, production quality was good and things went well for an event that was first time in that location (the last EDC Korea in 2019 was in another location). The one thing that felt short in my opinion was the VIP experience, but everything else was quite good given again that it was pretty much a "first time" thing.
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)!
π
2025-04-04 01:01
in Clubbing, Dreamstate, Festivals
I cannot believe it's been 7 years already since our last 2 Day Dreamstate in San Francisco. There was a DS SF NYE last year, but that was while I was with my family in France, so I couldn't attend that. So happy this one worked out.
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
After Blur opened (sadly in the dark, so I don't have any good pictures of him), Anthony from Xijaro and Pitch, was next:
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
This was of course a great time to meet fellow trance lovers:
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
Honestly, for a new venue, even for an experienced team, many things went right. As I said earlier the production value was amazing.
Of course, nothing is ever perfect, especially in a new venue. Things I noticed:
The event was close to selling out (or barely sold out) on saturday, and it was a lot of people. Enough people that the main floor access got closed multiple times, which is understandable, but it was more vexing for people with VIP tickets to also be denied access to the VIP platform, because it filled up multiple times. I guess it was tricky to get the capacity numbers, right, and they oversold VIP somewhat (since any VIP ticket holder should have guaranteed access)
Security at the entrance, was a bit too thorough and too slow, causing long lines to get in for many. Also, they did not allow totems or many things that would have normally been allowed at a festival, including Dreamstate Socal. Transparent backpacks were allowed though, and so were LEDs, at least.
if you knew where to go, there were bathrooms available, but some of the obvious ones got mobbed with very long lines, at times. This was not ideal.
Vision also had good production value for the smaller room, but too many times, the DJ wasn't lit up at all, and you couldn't tell who was playing. A bit unfortunate for them.
Too much techno for me, but some liked it. Pryda/Eric Prydz however did not seem like a fit for the event and I didn't hear anyone say they really enjoyed his set.
On the flipside, Armin who has been playing way too much techno in his sets for my taste, including at a State of Trance, did an actually quite good mostly trance set that I quite enjoyed. Goes to show, you never know ;)
The event was a success and clearly the best one we've had in San Francisco, yet.
Before I start, I fully expect some who mostly, or only goes to Ultra to want to tell me how wrong I am, but if so, can I invite you to look at my other festival reports and try other festivals like EDC Vegas or Beyond Wonderland Socal, or Dreamstate Socal, and then come back and tell me what you think? And if you have been to many other festivals (good for you), if you feel my review is blatantly unfair or incorrect, please send me feedback (DM on FB or IG) and I will definitely hear what you have to say as well as take fixes/corrections.
Let's mix things up for fun and start with the end :)
So, let's start with the end ;)
Should you go, Would I go back?
I try to be positive and look at the bright side, I can't say Ultra was a bad experience like Creamfields, or Lumi, both in great part due to terrible security teams, but overall it was on the disappointing side for a top world festival that's been around for so long. Why is that?
They are stuck in a place that's too small. I'm told they did try to move to the island across the bridge, but that did not work out.
I actually feel they did about as good a job with the footprint they have, clearly they had many years to refine it. Sound bleed was limited, at least 3 stages were quite good, but the other ones were ok-ish at best, like the psytrance stage on day 2 that had two big trees in front of it and blocked most pictures of the DJs and LED board with their name
Ok, except for mainstage. It was borderline a death trap if you were on the wrong side and were hoping to get out during a bit set. Getting around was almost impossible during the bigger sets at night. Worse, if you were in the middle and you did secure an ok spot, there was a constant stream of people crossing and pushing in all directions, pretty much 0 PLUR on that front
I do want to give thanks to all the fine folks who did spread PLUR and smiles, but there weren't enough of them.
And back to the mainstage problem, there were 2 stags on the other side, and they were almost impossible to get to or out of without getting past mainstage, which was super hard at times. There was no path around or behind that could get you across (or at least none that I found).
This is where you'd tell me I should have paid for VIP, which given it was over $1000 felt unreasonable given that Ultra is nowhere close to EDC and does not warrant prices like this, I've read that the experience in VIP was also not great (too many people) but I didn't get to check for myself.
oh, did I saw $1000 for VIP? It was actually between $1500 and $2000, a complete joke
The ASOT stage was actually ok and easy to get in and out, although the entire dancefloor was quite slanted which can be an issue if you're actually dancing
The techno stage (Resistance) was quite decent and the only one that survived during the terrible rain storm on sunday
Yeah, the rain, it's florida, the stage I usually avoid because I'm not a fan of unpredictable terrible weather and hurricanes. Despite Ultra being early in the season, as weather is worsening and becoming more unpredictable worldwide, last year had torrential rains during the event, and this year was even worse, 4H of very heavy rain, rain that was so bad that all stages shut down but one, and the last one was only kept running thanks to the heroics of the tech steams that were literally dealing with enough water to collapse the entire structure and flood the DJ booth
So the sunday lineup was greatly impacted, many DJs never got to play their sets, and unfortunately Ultra never pushed schedule updates to their own app (apparently you had to know to go on some website that did have an updated lineup somewhere).
Speaking about the app, it was plain bad for a festival of that caliber. It had one job, to show the schedule and let you save what you wanted to see, and then just show that. It failed miserably at that one job on both Android and IOS. Worse, on Android the app really completely did not even show Armin playing mainstage at all, despite multiple attempts on several days. Come on Ultra, you can do better
just to show I'm not joking, notice the hole at 1750 after Morten, that's where Armin was...
Another thing I was not overly impressed with was the security at the entrance. They were not creamfields bad, or lumi bad, but the security line on Friday was pretty ridiculous (almost 1h30) probably because they were too thorough until they were told not to on the 2nd day, but come on, it's not the first time they do this. At the same time, there were not enough lines for a festival that big, hence the ridiculous lines with no fewer than 4 helicopters hovering and recording this entire line barely moving, probably for local TV news (but with 4 different helis, just to make sure). Kind of pathetic, really.
I got lucky with security on day 1, but day 2, it got down to "why do you have 5 USB cables, you need to leave some behind" as well as "you have too many safety pins (aroudn 10) in this tiny plastic bag, you need to leave half behind" (barely paraphrased). They were nice enough to let me in with my 2 phones, 2 handheld cameras, and multiple USB battery packs, as well as the LED outfit (unlike creamfields and lumi), but they made me leave behind LED shoelaces, a backup small raspberry pi microcomputer (size of a matchbox), and other semi expensive gear I had to abandon in a plastic bag outside and hope it would still be there on my way out. Of course, my brand new LED outfit I was testing, broke during the day and was super hard to fix without all the things I was forced to leave outside (I then had to leave early that night to get them back before security left and got lucky it didn't rain), I totally understand security guidelines are not trivial and I bring random looking unusual stuff :) but they sure acted very random and confused about what to do. I used the opportunity that I had to get my bag back on night 2 to show them why I was carrying that stuff (i.e. my outfit working at night), and after that they were cool and nice the next day. Thanks to them.
always good to make friends :)
but earlier that day, I really struggled to fix my brand new LED outfit without my tools. Not fun...
and I still need to re-state that the tech teams did a pretty incredible job given all the challenges they have to deal with, including massive rain.
as for the money machine part, it feels that they could be more generous. For starters, a few DJ'ing at the event only got a single day wristband. Not even a wristband to go to the other 2 days. That feels petty :-
But yeah, unless you live in Miami, you should go to Beyond Wonderland instead, it's not even close ;) (hell, even if you live in Miami, unless you can't fly, you really should consider Beyond, it's so much better on about all levels). And seriously, if you don't find $2000 insulting for VIP tickets for an overcrowded show in a small park, I'm not sure what to say...
All that said, let's get back to reviewing the Ultra Festival itself:
Grounds
as mentioned above, getting in sucked. Almost 1h30 in line to get through security, unacceptable
finally through, but took so long that we missed the entire first set plus half of Ruben's set
the park is otherwise pretty
it's fun to party in such a location with such a background
People
as I mentioned, Ultra could use more PLUR, but there were still some folks who were wearing fun outfits, and kandi trading opportunities ;)
The Torrential Rain on Day 3
Day 3 was a complete clusterfudge. It was raining hard, and I mean hard for hours in a row. We were denied entry for 30mn or so while lightening was going on, and then they did let us in, but only one stage was running, and barely given the Noah's Ark levels of rain:
yeah, you don't say...
'friday' was a mistake, it was sunday
that's the amount of water in the air
eventually water got in and was trying to flood the DJ booth
the ASOT worldwide stage was actually quite decent, but it was sad to arrive 90mn late and miss
missed half of Ruben de Ronde due to the very slow security, but the 2nd half was very enjoyable
Nifra went more into Techno, as she has been doing recently
Miss Monique was playing at the real Techno stage, next door
live stage
then, back for Maddix
the visuals were not bad
ending with a b2b2b
The next day was psytrance day:
unfortunate stage location with trees in front of it
mainstage earlier in the afternoon, was bearable, and honestly the only time it was worth being there. After that, it was so overcrowded that it was unbearable:
randomly found Armin playing at mainstage, which was not announced at all in the android app ("you had one job, ultra...")"
Didn't stay that much longer that evening since security had half my stuff (hundreds of dollars worse) at the gate and were going to leave at 22:30 from what they said, so I left early to get my bag back, but that was a plus since the afterparty at Otra was loads of fun
After the Day 3 rain I described above, many hours later, the rain subsided, but it took a while for the stages to re-open:
We still got a few fireworks at night:
the drone show was not fully visible unless you were at mainstage, which was flooded and crowded
Ended the night with Above and Beyond, but left 15mn before the end to avoid being left with no ride out at all (not enough ubers):
And that qas it for Ultra!
Conclusions/Suggestions
Honestly, Ultra has been running for long enough, I doubt that they care about feedback. They have a money machine like tomorrowland (except TMRL is actually not overcrowded in comparison and the footprint is many times better), the place is small enough that even by overselling it, it's not really that many people, so if they lose a bunch, more will come. That said, if I have to list just a few:
the current location is too small for the amount of people coming. It's a disservice to people who buy tickets to sell that many for that location
more security lines to improve flow and maybe a bit of extra training for them on what true threats are (and that's not an easy topic). Taking USB cables or replacement LED shoelaces from someone to prevent risk of strangling (and I mean, come on, how many people have been strangled by shoelaces in festivals) is utterly pointless if they are wearing shoelaces already and those shoes are allowed in.
waterproofing more stages?
offering a lot more covered areas given the very obvious chance of terrible rain.
For attendees, as I said before, the obvious answers are to go to Beyond Wonderland Socal and EDC Vegas instead.
But how about WMC, Winter Music Conference
Well, half unexpectedly, as much as Ultra was not bad but not super enjoyable either, the parties before/after were actually a lot of fun. It was nice to be able to hang out with all the DJs that were in town anyway due to WMC. I wouldn't say it's worth for me to go back to Miami just for the out of UMC, but if going to Miami is easy and doesn't conflict with snowboarding plans ;) it's a fair amount of club parties all in one place over a few days.
Sunday night had another party, but I had an early flight monday morning to go directly to tahoe to catch a snow storm :)
The parties were definitely fun, maybe not flying across the US or the world, for, but if you're already there, absolutely worth going to, and in some ways, they were more enjoyable than UMF itself.
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:
Watching other videos, I also found out I was randomly visible in a few of them, fun :)
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.
Props to Trancejesus who is responsible for me coming after all these years:
I used his signup code to thank him for encouraging me to go :) If you like this report and it inspires you to go, or to go again, you can use my signup code for a discount of up to $200: "ledtranceguy"
As I write this, barely a week after the cruise is over, the 2026 cruise is close to being sold out (it felt weird that it went on sale before the 2025 one even left, but now I know why). If you are interested in going, don't delay :)
This looks like the canonical page to sign up for 2026.
Wait, after it being around 20 years, you only went on groovecruise this year for the first time?
Yes, Groove Cruise has been around for a long time (20-ish years), but I had never been so far, because:
lots of festivals, can't be everywhere :)
I've been avoiding festivals in the winter because winter is for snowboarding :) (but realistically January has often been dry in CA, so not a terrible month to lose)
Most years until recently, I was going to Australia for linux.conf.au at the same time, and that was not something I wanted to miss. These wonderful 20 years are however over for me, now
Going all the way to Miami is not exactly next door for me :)
Yes, there was a 2nd yearly cruise leaving From CA instead in summer, but I heard that one had no trance, and if no trance, not really interested :)
Last year it conflicted with 6 days of Unkonscious, so both were not possible
And I'll also admit that I have mixed feelings about cruise ships, as I find them pretty wasteful, especially in a case where quite frankly if the ship were anchored to a parking lot, and connected to the electrical grid instead of having to burn ridiculous amounts of fuel in the middle of the ocean, most attendees would probably be just as happy (let's be honest, the fact that it went travelled 4 days to go to to Labadee for a few hours, was probably not the most important part of the cruise)
I'm on a boat... I'm on a boat... Take a good look at me, I'm on a motherf'ing boat :)
Now that this is out of the way, and you probably think I'm a killjoy :) I did obviously end up going this year and had a fantastic time. Yes, I would have had just as much as a good time if the cruise ship (Alure of the Sea) had been sitting in the middle of a parking lot somehwere for those 4 days, since it's really a small city with all the fun happening inside and the mere 3.5h in Labadee were fun but didn't seem essential. That said it's a cruise ship, so it's somehow supposed to boat somewhere, and it did :)
The ship was the 4th largest in existence as of today if I read right, and was pretty impressive. It did lack waterslides, and the kart racing track I saw on some ship commercial ;) but it had:
2 flowriders (wave makers to surf)
I'm not that great at it, but I tried :)
2 climbing walls that didn't seem to get used
minigolf
promenade that was pretty
game room and room for kids that went unused for that cruise
many pools and jacuzzi
some levitating platform you could drink on, this thing:
many restaurants and shops of course, including a yummy Teppanyaki. The regular restaurants/buffet were below par unfortunately, but the specialized ones were good:
good food and presentation
casino:
running track:
yes, it was legit :)
very many theatres and rooms that were turned into night clubs or stages
outdoor theatre that became mainstage, except when it was raining, which it did (also the first day was very cold due to highly unusual weather)
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.
The crew was very amused by the GC crowds (who wouldn't), and put up with the decorations people brought from LED walls to a wall of hanging dicks you had to walk through to cross the corridor :)
cabins with view on the promenade
this display was fun to read :)
Boat Policies/security
The boat 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, since some can be crap and unsafe, but I didn't hear that it was much of an issue
they did scan all check in luggage, and that caused delays in getting your luggage of up to 8H. That was no ideal
as mentioned below, the line management and arrival slot times that were handed out, were a joke and it took 2.5h or more to get in. That was disappointing.
the restaurants had non festival hours, so getting food after 22:00 was challenging, at best. At least food did not seem to run out in the few places that still had food at night
speaking of food, they took my half open bag of chips at the entrance because it was open. ooops :)
overall I think the cruise company and definitely the staff, were very very good sports dealing with all of us. 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).
I did not hear about major issues with theft, which is good (better crowds to start with, and I guess you can only run so far on a boat, haha)
Actually a lot of people returned lost items, thank you
I was worried about the lack of plugs, but with 2 big multichannel USB chargers (10 and 8 outputs) plus a 4 port one, I was ok :) This also answers the question of how many batteries I use and have to charge (a bit too many, haha):
People
Ok, so I've been to many festivals (over 50 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:
bringing a full LED wall, great job!
and let's not forget the dick wall from deck 14
[rigimg:1024:3128*|the elevator rides were "fun" :)]
Kudos to this couple for the fantastic LED costumes:
the same folks again
And then this guy, impressive tech but it must have been fragile and with inadequate batteries because I only saw it once for 20mn or so:
A good amount of nice LED outfits, well done!
Of course, I had fun taking pictures with existing friends and new ones:
as odds are, Daxson was the first person I ran into :)
anjunafam
Nadine and Robert Nickson
of course Thorgodofbass was there, and I was ready for him :)
also ready for Nilsix :)
and great to see Maddix, he said 'you again' :)
had fun with my new hat :)
Groovecruise Days 1-2: Strong Warmup
The arrival was not that great. They gave us arrival slots just to ignore them and round robin people between 5 lines independently on when people arrived. That was a very bad move. The poor line management and respect of peoole's time (ignoring when they arrived and their timeslot) caused a completely needless 2H+ wait before being able to enter and get ID verified and scanned :(
even when you got inside, and that was after more than 1H wait already, it still took another hour or so
finally upstairs, ready for security and luggage scan
once up things were finally good, but it sucked to have arrived 2h30 early just to wait 2h30 in a slow line to get in
finally!
welcome!
Aqua Theatre
Promenade
Eric Prydz/Pryda
crossdresser lunch
it started raining on day 2, it was nice for lights and lasers
it got pretty
poor Mark Sixma got rained out as the rain became more severe
Labadee, Haiti
Yes, the boat did go somewhere, I mapped it and checked :)
While I will note that it felt a bit weird to boat 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, at the same time I'm sure it would also have been weird at least for some, to be on a boat that went nowhere (it would have been fine by me, haha).
Haiti is a troubled country that is kind on the "do not travel" list, but we went on a private beach in a way that we never really entered the country (so no need for passports and so forth, which was nice). They did a good job sheltering us from all of this, and making it a welcoming party island with some fun rides when we came to visit.
I'll admit that getting up to make it to the island was a tad challenging when you had been partying all night the night before, but we made it :)
welcome!
they had a market but the sellers were way too aggressive, that was a turn off
Zipline:
Rollercoaster:
Beach Party:
The beach party was fun, but way too short (barely 4H)
Groovecruise Days 3-4: Peak Partying
Back to the ship, for lots of partying and a very long night until sunrise:
When 6 lions is not enough, and 8 lions is clearly too many, seven lions!
Abraxis with Dimibo and Blastoyz!
then Blastoyz took over
great job with the decors, confetti, lights and pyro!
After good times at Amber Theatre, went to see Daxson on the 8th floor until sunrise. Not much of a trance set, but lots of energy:
Then it was try for sunrise, although it was cloudy:
Day4 started a bit later when you go to bed around 07:30 :) Going to catch lunch somewhere before lunch closed, was work enough :) After that, trance night was by the swimming pool on deck 15, but it was pretty cold and windy as the boat was sailing back towards Miami:
Then back to Amber theatre for some lovely base, DnB, psytrance, and epic B2Bs:
Groovecruise Days 5: Rough Trip Back to Reality
By then, it was far enough in the night that it was really Day 5 already. While the party was still going strong at 03:00, knowing that we'd be rudely woken up around 07:xx and kicked off the boat, made it less appealing to stay much longer (even as is, and as fantastic as the entire experience was, monday morning was very rough).
Sadly it didn't matter whether you stayed on the boat (some booked the next cruise to stay), everyone got woken up by a "good morning Vietnam" message from I believe John, who runs GC, and as lovely as the message was, I was so not awake and shaken by the wakeup that I struggled to find any way to turn the room speaker off, and didn't find any.
From there, it was a suite of announcements on how to get off the boat, as soon as possible, while I was struggling to pack and vacate said room as quickly as possible (as it had to be cleaned and made ready for the next trip leaving later that afternoon).
The line out was long but not as bad as the way in (maybe 30mn?) but it was challenging since I opted to drag my full luggage since it was simply not going to be ready that previous night by 22:00, deadline for luggage pickup. On the way out, we had to go through US immigration again, but since they have our IDs and pictures, it was a quick glance at a face recognition camera before being waved through.
I was able to find Adam Scott/Adam Levine to thank him for the great music just before leaving
Thoughts and Conclusions
I'll start with a few random things as a first timer, aka virgin:
This was the first time GC was going to use this new boat, and they did a beyond fantastic job getting everything decked out and getting all the stages festival quality with very little time to setup and teardown.
For those who like alcohol the pre-paid drink package was the way to go, but sadly they forced you to get it for all members of a given cabin, which was not fair to those who don't drink, and probably cost the boat some amount of such sales
The all you can drink soda package for around $90 for 4 days was still overpriced but simple enough to get as an alternative. They had cups with RFID tags that got recognized by the soda machines before deciding to dispense, or not. Places that had bars would just serve you soda by request when showing your seacard.
The internet package, also around $100, I can't say if that's expensive or average, but of course there is no competition. I did get it, but the wifi on the boat was totally overwhelmed in multiple locations, so you couldn't connect to either the ship wifi to talk to other guests, or to the internet if you had it. Obviously I still posted a bunch of IG stories, but a fair amount had to be done "blind" and were uploaded a fair amount later when wifi/internet became available in some other boat location.
As mentioned earlier, given how little time we spent in Labadee, I would have been fine if the boat went nowhere and was plugged into shore power, but that's just me :) (and yes, that's to say that the GC did such a great job with parties on the boat, that the outside didn't matter much)
The food in regular restaurants/buffets was on the disappointing side, but honestly I didn't care too much. I didn't really need to get fat on this cruise :) (but many attendees noted this and did not love it). Also, lack of food options between 22:00 and 06:30, was indeed an issue for people partying all night.
checkout was very rough (getting up after very little sleep and being strongly and repeated encouraged to leave the boat for the poor staff that only had hours to clean everything and get rooms ready for people coming for the next cruise later that day). I would have loved to be able to check out peacefully end of day on monday evening.
Should you go? Would I go Back?
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
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.
The morning announcements while really lovely were also very painful if you happened to be sound asleep. I think it it would be crucial to tell everyone how to turn off those speakers if they really need to sleep.
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 :-//
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.
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 about 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.
food, it was not fantastic food, but it's right there and included. Again, convenience was great.
island excursion was nice, even if short
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).
If you'd like to sign up for next year: canonical page to sign up for 2026. And you get a small extra discount with ledtranceguy
And if you wanted to compare with DS at QM vs DS at NOS, you can go read this Dreamstate Socal 2022.
If you like this report, and want to see others/future ones, you can go on these pages:
Passport (for insomniac event subscribers) was back:
they had meet and greets
Passport was actually the 6th stage with a secret lineup for both days
Dream VIP lost the covered area, but still had nice booths:
Lots of booths:
this time offered heli rides from not somewhere not that far. I'm not sure if they saved any time or were worth it. Please leave comments in the links at the top of this page if you used them
The Void: Still Across the a street, not that easy to get to
Getting to void was the same as last year (and by that I mean inconvenient and 'too far'), although the tunnel was prettier;
boring during the day
nice at night
tunnel to get back, people said it felt slippery and tough to climb when you were tired and altered
So, before people accuse of me #firstworldproblems, the tunel and bridge were a real mental "too far" thing that many reported to me, and that I felt myself.
Some different art this year:
Views from the boat, were great:
what it looks inside
And if you were wondering about sound inside the boat, it depends where your room is, but there you go:
Nice to see the venue late at night/early morning:
People
As always, a big part of what makes US insomniac events so much fun is the people who are part of the party.
it was nice and sunny during the day (until it got very cold just hours later)
Props to Jose, barefoot photographer for all his shots
and also Thorgodofbass, our favorite videographer
Ulrich!
TFSF crew
More fun at night, as always:
And of course, fun totems:
So, due to my LED outfit and the tech I carry/wear, things break but I'm also a McGuyver, so I carry spares and repair tools. Funny thing was a totem that got damaged, the owner asked me "I heard you have a soldering iron", and I had to reply "I'm sorry, I don't have one, I have two" :)
we got it fixed
woohoo, it's working again
We took some Trancefamily pictures:
Big props to the insomniac entertainers, always adding to the party:
oh no, they didn't have batteries for their lights this year ;)
Thanks for taking pictures with us:
Also shout out to ground control:
As always, it's a great opportunity to meet DJs:
JoC
Miyuki and Richard Durand
Astrix
Craig Connelly
Allen Watts
Armin!
RAM
first time meeting Darude!
Fadi after his wonderful set in the rain
Mark Sixma
Orjan Nilsen
Paul Oakenfold
OMG, got to meet Judge Jules from the Essential Mixes I used to listen to in early 2000s from napster
Sean Tyas, having such a great time
Also great to see Alex Morph again
Day 1
DS opened a bit late on the first day, Queen with Mr Brooks was a bit empty
Xijaro and Pitch
nice visuals at vision
Craig Connelly
Sequence was pretty packed
Because Astrix ;)
GO debuted Octagon at DS
Armnin was next (which sadly meant missing Blastoyx b2b Infected Mushroom, my biggest regret of the night)
thank you for adding the lasers
Day 1 Summary Video:
Day 1: Queen Mary Afterparty
TDJ!
And that was it for Day 1, headed back to hotel around 04:00
So if anyone wonders, lots of lights means lots of batteries and things to charge every night:
new bigger 1S lipo batteries for my hat
and more
Ah yes, and did I mention re-soldering broken LEDs, and hot glue gun? :)
Day 2
Back for Day #2, it was hard to be there at 13:00 ;)
thankfully made it to Khromata
it was early for most
Also got to see my friend Triode
Aly and Fila in the light rain, was majestic:
So much joy to enjoy Ferry Corsten - Gouryella, again:
the super tall flags were annoying, they messed up a lot of my pictures
finished the night with Above and Beyond
Above and Beyond:
Day 2: Queen Mary Afterparty
After 01:00, it was time to migrate to the boat:
Ruben again!
Finished the night with Ferry Corsten, who even finished his set with some drum and bass ;)
f
Day 2 Summary Video:
Weather concerns with QM vs NOS
So, I am biased and I still prefer NOS once you're inside the venue (San Bernardino is not great, but once you're inside NOS, it's real wonderland), but the weather aspect is a concern for QM. Both years, QM had rain, NOS did not. NOS is inland in a somewhat arid area, QM is by the water, and even when it wasn't raining, everything was kind of wet due to dew (very high water concentration in the air that would condense on chairs and so forth).
this is what I meant, by dew, almost fog to the ground
So, the relentless light rain that fell mostly all day on day #2, made the lasers on dream look dreamy indeed, but at the same time I was soaked by the end of the day, and my gopro literally had water inside and was barely rescued after several days in rice. Water and electricity aren't friends, this can't be easy on all the gear (although I didn't see anything that failed due to water).
yes, it was pretty :)
The rain was manageable this year, but I need to state again that last year got pissing rain in the middle of the night while we were on the boat party, and if that rain had been just a few hours earlier, it would have ruined the event. This just makes me nervous, Interstellar was entirely cancelled for freak weather, I honestly would prefer for DS to be back at NOS, if only for the more reliable weather.
If DS is to stay at QM, I hope Insomniac plans for full covered spaces to deal with heavy rain if it happens. Of course, this is already present at NOS for 3 out of the 4 stages (2 with megastructures and one indoors)
Aftermath and Conclusion: Should this not be 3 days and with a bit more sleep?
Haha, I just realized this is the same thing I wrote last year. Since last year was too much music with 4 stages and music from 17:00 to 01:00 and then until 06:00 on the boat, Insomniac heard this, and fixed it by:
still two days
added a 5th stage, the art car, with very good trance :)
well, if you could passport, it was really 6 different stages. Insane!
now started at 13:00, making it 12H plus 5h afterparty, 17h per day, so there you go, it's fixed :)
like last year, the long days created casualties :)
So yeah, suck it up people and your FOMO, here's even more music you won't all be able to see and even less sleep, haha :)
It was literally 34h of music, which is usually what you get from a 3 day festival with 3 to 5 stages, a lot indeed. I would personally still prefer 3 shorter days to have more of a chance to see more artists and not miss as much (especially for all the sets that were not recorded), but it is #firstworldproblems :)
The afterparty on the boat helped seeing some artists if you had missed them during the day, but even then it was 3 stages that were not that close from one another, and honestly how stayed up until 06:00 both nights while having started at 13:00? I barely made it for the first sets on the 2nd day :)
For completeness, I did a survey, got 580 responses, and about half the people would like 3 days at QM instead of 2. That's a lot, but not the majority, just half
While I was at it, I also asked about QM vs NOS, and while many people like me prefer NOS for the better footprint, the megastructures, and so forth, more people prefered QM for being closer to them (traffic in LA), and feeling safer outside.
Notes / Thoughts for this year:
This year had more daylight hours, which was a bit rough on DJs who were opening, and made costumes/outfits a bit more challenging (it was pretty warm during the day, but got very chily at night, including wind chill). Sure, it would be nice to have more hours at night, but with a curfew of 01:00 on the venue (vs 02:00 for NOS), the options are limited outside of making this a 3 day festival, which I'm surely down, for ;)
Void unfortunately was still "so close but yet so far" across a bridge that was dicey for some, or an underground tunnel that was a bit of a detour when going from dream to void.
I didn't feel it was easier to get to Void, the venue is very challenging layout, only so much can be done with that location
I missed the animated burning man LED art from last year, there was still art this year though
Dream VIP was shrunk somewhat and lost the covered spaces, which was unfortunate given the rain
As stated above, if DS is to stay at QM, I hope insomniac adds covered spaces to deal with rain.
Sound at Vision was much improved despite the challenging location. Not sure how they did it, but it was better
I still miss the NOS megastructures, but dream got improved a fair bit this year. The added lasers were beautiful
Dream was just beautiful
beautiful front and back
I still wish we could use the passenger terminal dome, looks like a sweet venue:
Should you go? Would I go Back?
Don't let some of my observations/suggestions confuse you from the fact that this was another fantastic Dreamstate and I had so much fun, and so did everyone I talked to
I missed so many sets I wanted to see, I don't know how many sets were recorded, but I missed many I wanted to see and I was there almost every of hour
Insomniac improved some things at QM this year, not that last year was bad to start with ;) and continued to show that, within reason with layout issues (the street cutting off Void from the rest of the festival), they can do incredible things with a mere parking lot.
I'll repeat like each time, that the insomniac team has the most relentless overachievers I've ever seen. I'm thankful we have them.
Security continued to nice overall, they did ask for backpacks to be transparent this year, which is spreading and understandable. I guess we probably don't want people to walk around with big black backpacks that could have anything inside if somehow they made it past security
I'll continue to give the same answer to "Is it worth flying across the world for?" If you like trance and you want a better production value than many european shows (not counting Tomorrowland, but TMRL sucks for trance), yes, it is worth going to. Only 2 days, but it's really good and the night decors and costumes are much better than what you'll find in Europe.
As parting words, I made a summary video of over 100 Instagram Stories I took during the event, enjoy: