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.
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:
π
2024-11-20 01:01
in Clubbing, Electronics, Festivals
Tech specs:
32x16 flexible LED rgbpanel (displaying scrolling Dreamstate Logo)
2 strings of Ray Wu P15 WS2812 both for layout reasons and for backup if one string breaks, the other one will keep working.
Lipo battery checker (but the lipos are protected, so they will self shut down)
flexible 16x32 RGBpanel
found a hat big enough that it mostly fits on it
of course, it needed a few LEDs :)
what it looked inside and it worked with a small 1S 700mAh lipo (although not long enough)
bigger battery upgrade, and BTW those batteries lie, they are only 1600mAh
testing battery draw, a bit over 0.5A which is a bit too much
So, why 3-4V lipos instead of USB battery packs with 5V that is expected by both the panels and neopixels/WS2812? Well, space is limited, USB battery packs are kind of big, and carry extra hardware to recharge that isn't needed inside the hat. There is also a side byproduct that powering both the panels and the LEDs with a lower voltage, limits their brightness and the amount of power (watts) they need, which means that a 16Wh lipo inside a USB battery pack stepped up to 5V, makes everyting brighter, but only lasts about half as long as powering directly from the lipo at lower voltage.
bigger 4Ah 1S lipo worked for 8H at full power and LEDs worked all the way down to 2.8V!
panel worked all the way down to 3.4A before colors went wrong, 16H on a 1.6Ah battery
of course now I had to find a buy a faster 1S lipo charger with the right connectors (had to get JST adapters)
quick test that a smaller 700mAh battery would last around 5H before things got dim
After testing, I was able to confirm that both the $7 amazon controller (SP002E from https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09Y8SWJ77 ) and the RGBpanels, work fine with lower voltages (which is not a given since both run a microcontroller that was originally meant to be powered from 5V).
The RGBPanel controller is a bit more picky about voltage and reboots around 3.5V, while the neopixels tend to drag the battery voltage down, causing the RGBPanel to crash and reboot when a single battery runs both, so I gave it its own lipo.
Pixels still take 0.3 to 0.5A (I use a potentiometer to dial them down as the cheap controller I put has no dimming control) and the RGBPanel takes less than 0.1A, so that's nice (it actually goes all the way down to 0.05A or just 50mA) when the voltage drops.
The combined tricks should give around 18H of runtime with the 2 batteries (4Ah and 1.5Ah 1S lipos), which is enough for 17 hours of dreamstate (they are not screwing around this time, 17H !!!)
About the neopixel controller, I used a cheap $7 amazon controller that only had 3 physical buttons but sadly no dimming control, mostly because I wanted something very small, and while pixelblaze micro is also small, it doesn't have the pattern I want, and I didn't see the point of programming a pattern I already had on the other controller, so I just put a potentiometer to lower the voltage. It's obviously the wrong way to do it, but it works :)
Here is the end result:
After a busy summer festival, and a previous and first time in Malta for Rong Open Air Festival Malta 2024, I had one more summer festival: Captured Festival, back in Malta. I definitely enjoyed Malta the first time around and was happy to be back.
This event was co-sponsored by TrancefamilyLA, so a few of us were there:
It was just 1.5 days after burning man, flying home from burning man, unpacking everything, getting all the dust off (and that's a lot of work), and packing for the next trip to Europe. Unfortunately, for my LED outfit, it means taking out all the LEDs, washing it with vinegar first, then we washing detergent, and carefully re-installing the LEDs, which is especially tricky on the shirt. Long story short, I didn't have time to rebuild the pants and shirt, so brought the spare parts and tools to put everything back together in Malta:
My LED shoes have also been a hassle of unreliability, so I brought my last spare modules and used my portable battery soldering iron to make one last working set before I come up with better LED shoes (you have some, really? please tell me which ones)
I brought some of last spare LED modules and soldered battery connectors to triple their meager battery life
After fixing my shirt for half the boat party (at least I got to enjoy the music), it was working again for the night club party (excuse the terrible dirty club mirror):
Malta, the new Europe Trance Destination? Rong Malta vs Euphoria Malta vs Capture Malta
I'm not going to talk about Lumi here again, you can go read my past reports from this year for more details, but the only reason I mention it in this Malta heading, is that more people have been looking for alternatives to lumi, for a combination of reasons ranging from pricing (honestly I don't feel lumi is terribly overpriced for that it offers, but lodging nearby has gotten more expensive for sure), the security team (will leave it at that), too many party people who aren't true trance lovers, especially on saturdays, and probably the most visible change has been the loss of small festival feel as lumi has been becoming bigger, more commercial (sorry, but the 6E water thing is insulting) and more expensive every year.
I have to say that this happens to many festivals as they become more popular, unless they take steps to prevent growth by limiting venue size and capping ticket sales, most festivals tend to grow until they feel big and commercial.
So why am I saying all this? Well, because this in my opinion created these new festivals in Malta this year (2 out of 3 were new), from Rong Festival Malta, Euphoria Festival Malta just a few weeks later (unfortunate calendar timing and just a few days after EDC Vegas, making it unreasonable to attend for me), and then of course this Captured Festival also in Malta
So I hope I won't spoil anything by answering the question now of which Malta Trance Festival do I recommend, and honestly I would say all 3, but since that's not really feasible for most, including me, I'll describe all 3 so that you can choose, with the understanding that I have never been to Euphoria so it's just my understanding, not personal experience. I will go from cheaper and least commercial to more expensive and more commercial:
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 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 attended, but just couldn't. Please send me corrections on IG or FB messenger if needed.
Captured Festival Malta would go in the middle, it had more of a mix of DJs between lesser known, cheaper to book and easier to meet before/after their set, to bigger name DJs that cost more, come with riders (a list of expensive alcohol bottles to provide before/after the show), that are less likely to mingle in the crowd. Since this page is about captured, depending on the day, it was 1 to 4 stages of music. This was the only one of the 3 to have psytrance (on day 3 only). You could pay with regular money, except on the first boat and the club on the 4th day, so that was a plus compared to all those festivals that require buying fake money credits (except day4 that definitely required them :( ).
Rong Malta was also a first timer in Malta this year, and they had a bigger lineup of more expensive DJs, as well as well as more means in lighting, lasers, and a few fireworks. It was also the only of the 3 that had more expensive VIP tickets. They sadly also required fake money you had to buy beforehand. Outside of the fake money/token nonesense, I also had a great time there, but it's of course a slightly bigger festival vibe without being a mega festival, or even feeling as big as lumi.
For comparison, Lumi would fit here as bigger even (4 stages for all 4 days and 11h/day), and most DJs (too many for me) in that amount of time.
Verdict: you will have fun and great trance at all 3 of those 3 Malta Festivals:
So even if I had been able to all 3, I wouldn't tell you that one is clearly is better choice. I think I'll be pragmatic and maybe point to your time off calendar as well as your budget. All 3 are fun in their own way, and none of them are a bad choice, and by that I mean no showstoppers or things that really would turn you off like some of the stuff at the trance festival that shall not be named anymore :) If some of you think I might be hard to please, actually I'm happy by default, and you have to give me clear reasons to be unhappy with unnecessary BS (and yeah, fake money/tokens goes in that bucket), over the top security, and/or petiness (figure out how much money you need, charge us the correct amount in the ticket price, and then no nickel and diming once we are there).
So honestly, all 3 festivals did well on that front, and I think you'll have a good time at all 3. Also now, you hopefully know where to lean if you prefer small and intimate vs slightly bigger.
The People
As always, people are what makes those events that much more fun of course, and glad to see the same friends around the world:
Ferry Tayle had the winning shirt
I used his idea :)
Airwave suggested we modify it, slightly :)
Had a bit of fun as usual.
Steve was having a good time, as always:
he actually requested that we take this picture :)
And now I'm also lucky enough to have pictures with both Vini Vicis :)
my first one from 2021
I also had an updated graphic for Andy Moor
As well as Sean Tyas
Plus plenty of friends and people with fun outfits:
Day 1
A bit like Rong, it was different things on different days. The first day was kind of chill with an optional extra cost boat party, which turned out to be the exact same boat I had been on months prior for Rong Malta :) The one nice thing Captured did was to rented 2 similar boats to allow more people to experience the party, and as extra bonus, the DJs were able to swap between boats during the night, allowing both boats to get mostly the same music.
The only small minus was that the boats left 1.5h late (took a long time to get everyone checked in), so the cruise was mostly sunset/night, which wasn't a bad thing after all
Solarstone
and Ferry Tayle
After the boat party was over, there was an after party at a club that got changed last minute (you had to know to follow the FB group to stay updated with multiple changes), so I went there for a short while, but having barely slept the previous nights and having just gotten out of burning man 2 days prior, I was totally exhausted and went to get some sleep
on the plus side, while my outfit came in pieces in the luggage, after the boat party I had it assembled and fixed again
Day #1 Video Summary:
A few sets I was able to record
Ferry Tayle:
Solarstone:
Day 2
The organizers were ambitious and had planned day parties starting around noon for the remaining days, but had to communicate that they got cancelled due to last minute issues with the venues. Honestly that was not an issue for me, the weather was honestly hot and sweaty as balls and it was not fun to party in those conditions. It was so much nicer when I went to Malta in May, this time around, it felt like Thailand, which was not a good thing. Until sunset, the weather was pretty unbearable all those days. I'll also add that Malta has a lot of cool things to visit, so it was not a bad thing to have some morning and early afternoon time to visit attractions.
Everything for days 2 and 3 was at Gianpula Village, a clubbing destination in the middle of Malta with multiple independent clubs inside:
and finally the sun went to hide and weather became a bit more bearable:
room 2 was upstairs with a nice top view and swimming pool
Back to mainstage, now that things were finally dark:
great to see FactorB again
and Thrillseekers
If you got hungry, basic food was available at reasonable prices. Tap water is drinkable in Malta, was available, and no one cared that I brought water in my camelback (contrast with lumi obviously):
we did get some lasers
Day #2 Video Summary:
And a few sets I was able to record:
Thrillseekers:
JOC:
Factor B:
Giuseppe Ottaviani:
`
Day 3
Day 3 was also at Gianpula Village, but used different clubs inside it than the previous days.
Day 3 was the longest day/night with 4 different stages, so plenty of music. The rooftop location was all vynil mixing, old school:
Orkidea
Sam Mitcham was one of the organizers and also mixed vinyl for us
great way to enjoy sunset
Back at mainstage, Paavo was there playing his new music as P.O.S: (initials of his name, if you didn't know :) )
The cool thing was underground, which played psytrance all night. It was a very cool looking cave venue:
Back at mainstage with a lovely set from Solarstone (partial recording below):
the main room had legit lighting
The big surprise for me was Emma Hewitt who came to sing live on stage. Not all the songs were hers, but I'm a sucker for live singing trance, so I had a great time (full set below):
Vini Vici was next on mainstage for some great psytrance (full set below):
The main room was banging for the rest of the night:
Bryan was nice enough to take pictures with fans
Bryan Kearney:
Lostly:
And more trance vinyl classics at the same time, stage hopping:
Day #3 Video Summary:
Day 4
Sunday was the last day, home stretch! The last venue was another club, slightly that last venue had a stupid token policy, with a minimum spend, no less. WTF is that? You have to spend 30E if all you want is a drink? Well, as usual when they have ridiculous policies like that, I made sure to not spend a dime, and I wish more would do the same to tell them how not ok this is.
plenty of ways to spend your tokens, a $30 tequila bottle for 219E :)
I found out the night before that my LED panels grew a fault after some post burning man damage, so I brought enough to do panel surgery and replace the broken panel while enjoying some trance :)
Burning man unfortunately damaged the chips on my board, creating green lines
so I spent time at the pool listening to music dealing with the ugly parts of my outfit, I try not to show anymore ;)
old panel out, new panel in (I have 6 panels total)
The venue had 2 rooms, both playing lovely trance:
nice swimming pool
not everyone got thirsty :)
and Paul Oakenfold was up to no good ;)
So happy to see Andy Moor again, got the full set here:
Paul did a banging classics set, 30y of perfecto (also full set):
And then, very glad to have Sean Tyas again, it had been a while for me, full set below:
The party went on for a little while longer, but I had an early appointment the next day, so I ended things there to get a bit of rest
Day #4 Video Summary:
Conclusion
This festival was similar to Rong Malta in many ways, multiple venues, 4 days, lots of fun. Glad that I was able to attend.
Mpre photos:
Here are sets from one stage I recorded. The video quality is not great, but I figured it was still good to have a nice souvenir and be able to re-enjoy the music:
Day1:
As mentioned at the top, there is a fair amount of competition on Malta Trance Festivals. While I only went to 2 out of the 3 possible, honestly all 3 are fun, and it may be more whether this one fits your work/vacation schedule
Everything wasn't perfect, there were some location changes, the day parties I probably would not have gone to anyway, got cancelled, but they did a reasonable job communicating with us about what was going on and making alternate plans where appropriate. I'll note that Rong also had some similar challenges, which goes to show it's not easy.
The one thing I wasn't quite ready for was the weather which honestly was hot and humid, as in Thailand level hot and humid, and it was not fun until after sunset. From what I've been told, it was worse than expected for that time of the year in Malta, so hopefully next year will have better weather in Sept. But it's true that Rong in May and Euphoria Weekender just 2 weeks later had much nicer weather.
I will say for this festival too, thanks to its more limited size, that you could meet the organizers, and they cared.
security was more than reasonable at all venues, which again, I was thankful for. I just brought my camelback with water every day and it was not an issue.
For this festival too, it being smaller in size (not in length) allowed for chatting with some DJs more easily, which was nice. Some bigger name DJs came and went without you being able to ever see them, but so be it.
For my pet peeve of stupid fake money and tokens, it was mostly ok except the first boat that had tokens, and the 4th day venue that had ridiculous tokens with a 30E minimum spend. Organizers, please tell venues not to do this, or select other ones that don't do this BS.
In the good surprises, I personally really appreciated having P.O.S. playing his new music, as well as Emma Hewitt live, those two were special treats for me. Let's also not forget the 30 years of perfecto set that Paul Oakenfold played, of all the years I've seen him, that was by far my favorite set of his.
Good crowd of trance lovers, thanks to all of you.
So thank you to everyone who made this happen, for a first year event in this new country, things went quite well considering.
As an end of my EU festival tour, I was able to attend ASOL, Anomaly Summer of Trance in Birmingham, which was a lovely local trance festival. While it is a fan organized festival from trance lovers to trance lovers in a local park, I didn't expect all that much, but I was pleasantly surprised and it was much more than what I expected: it had 4 stages, including proper psytrance.
The park was cut in 2, half was for campsite, and the other half was for the festival. It ran from 12:00 to 23:00, and while the footprint wasn't huge, we were only a few hundred people and it worked out just fine. On top of that there was virtually no sound bleed between the stages, and two of them were covered, allowing for nice lights and lasers before the sun set (although there was also 3 hours of actual night.
ASOL Compared to Others
So since people say I compare lumi to everything, when I'm not even trying (like Lumi vs EDC Vegas which would be a ridiculous comparison), in this case I think it's actually fun to compare ASOL and Lumi, so there we go (yes, this comparison is only half serious :) ):
Lumi: 4 stages, 4 days, 11h/day, sunset stage usually packed too much to be useful and with terrible sound and soundbleed
Asol: 4 stages, 2 days, 11h/day, all stages had room, little soundbleed
Psytrance?
Lumi: no psytrance, why don't you like trance, are you a terrorist?
Asol: nice little psytrance stage, even if it was for only 20 to 30 people there (thank you for them)
Sunset?
Lumi: yes, and nice ones most nights (as late as 22:15 or so)
Asol: not really, but you don't have to clean sand from your socks and shoes :)
Crowds:
Lumi: overpacked, especially on saturday, too many party people who barely know the music
Asol: just trance lovers, plenty of space
Crowd Size:
Lumi: at least 10x bigger than aosl (maybe 50x bigger on saturday?)
Asol: smaller, more cozy.
Note that for actual ground footprint, ASOL is not that much smaller than Lumi, if at all. It was also flat, no sand, and much more comfortable as a result.
How much night/darkness:
Lumi: 45mn of night (longest day of the year, curfew 23:00), barely any lights, no lasers, no covered/indoor-ish stage (Lumi at its old location, Bernie's had indoor stages, but the new location does not).
Asol: 3.5h of night (curfew also 23:00), 2 stages covered with lights and lasers that were usable half the day
Lockers/In and Outs:
Lumi: lockers that got sold many times last year, causing thefts, and in my case I can't prove it, but I'm pretty sure actual staff emptied my locker overnight thinking it was a one day locker (they were wrong) and then kept all my stuff. As of 2024, partial in and outs were allowed.
Asol: no lockers, but for most, campsite was just across the fence. However I believe in and outs were not allowed, so basically you had to bring all your things in. I brought my festival backpack and left it by the stage from time to time, I didn't feel too worried about theft. Actually the bar did have a coat check and could keep your stuff if needed.
Bathrooms:
Lumi: basic porta potties that were in the way of a stage and made it smell bad
Asol: actually the best, cleanest and best maintained porta potties I've seen at any festival. Not in the way of any stage, no smell issues.
So, since I'm now doing more festivals than I have time to do reports after the fact near realtime, posting stories on instagram is important to me since I least I can contribute something on the fly, as opposed to weeks later. As a result, internet connectivity is useful:
Lumi: cell connectivity was good enough, no wifi
Asol: cell connectivity was good enough, no wifi
Lodging distance and price:
Lumi: nearby lodging was 15mn away or so (by bike), and around $200/nght unless you found shared properties, no onsite camping.
Asol: nearby lodging was 15mn away or so (by foot), the mercure was also $200/night or you could camp onsite for very cheap
Drinkable water and food:
Lumi: no drinkable tap water (well there is, they won't let you access it), overpriced bottled water and drinks, a fair amount of food vendors but not great food
Asol: no drinkable tap water, reasonably enough priced bottled water and drinks, they let me in with a camelback full of water so it didn't matter. They were two food trucks, which is not a lot but was sufficient for the crowd and food was ok enough.
Security rules and staff:
Lumi: tie for worst security guys with creamfields, looking for a fight, and not giving a rat's derriere if attendees have a good time
Asol: best vibes, totally cool folks, and really the fence was mostly honor system, we all wanted to pay so that the organizers could pay the bills and hopefully make a small profit (unfortunately I read the profit was meager)
Let's talk about security a bit more. First, I need to start with saying that Holland is otherwise a chill an sensible country. They are not constantly worried about being attacked. UK however is very worried all the time, you get metal detector, body scan and X-ray machine searched almost everywhere, including even just an aquarium in London. Similarly when I was travelling, most venues would not allow me to stash my luggage somewhere when I didn't have a car, and my previous hotel was 2 towns away while my next one was 2h train away, because "bomb risk". So yeah, definitely not something I like about the UK. And yet, this is still what happened:
Lumi: over the top security search, up to last year prevented TSA approved small liquids, still prevents sprays like small hair sprays, and plenty of other things that could maybe be used for an attack that that never happened in Holland that I know of. That's another way to say that Lumi is applying ridiculous and unnecessary levels of security.
Asol: mostly honor system security, they were very nice and friendly and maybe they were just making sure no one would bring an axe or actual weapon. It couldn't have been more welcoming and friendly than that.
Now, this is where I need to state that in both festivals, it was trivial to throw things inside under or over the fence, but Asol didn't bother making your life miserable for no reason when things could be smuggled in anyway, while the fake security lumi team tried to save the world at the gate while it was trivial to bring anything in past the fence, including of course the water they tried so hard to prevent.
I've lost faith on Lumi ever getting a properly festival trained security team that is actually there to maximize attendee enjoyment while keeping things safe where there is really a need, not calling bomb alerts on an LED outfit, potentially stealing from lockers at night (unconfirmed, but it's the most likely explanation for what happened to my stuff there) or letting them be stolen from by reselling lockes many times, and now by literally grabbing attendees' genitals during entrance searches. So Bo, if someone sends you this, please show me wrong, fix this, and I will happily eat my words and credit you for this change. Hell, if I can finally get assurance that it's safe for me to go back to Lumi with a new a more reasonable security team and rules, I will seriously consider it. In the meantime, Asol has shown us all what security can look like when the crowds are the best crowds (and aren't trance people, the best?). Trance lovers don't do barfights and don't need bar bouncers looking for a fight to get a boner, we need the "boner check supervisor" :)
Free massage/sizing of your genital package at the entrance:
Lumi: included in some security lines as of 2024 (there is apparently an equivalent option for women, they are not sexist)
Asol: not included by default, but I'm told you can call the erection supervisor, and he will likely help you out :)
And to summarize my paragraph above:
Lumi: Security seems to get a boner when they got to rough up attendees and drag them out by show of force, including a friend of mine I'm pretty sure, never attacked them for caused physical trouble (and even then a good security team uses their mediation skills to de-escalate)
Asol: Security was there to check everyone's boners :)
The Grounds:
The venue was a short walk from the mercure hotel, which had nice beds if you didn't want to camp in the grass:
nice walk with blackberries
campers onsite were right there
medical staff on hand
food was 2 food trucks with decent enough options
bar prices were reasonable
one stage was a fun stage in a truck and worked well
there was a nice psytrance stage
cool decors
The People
What was fun is both days had a theme, water/ocean the first day, and disco the 2nd day. Lots of people came with costumes and it made the event even more fun:
Day 2 was disco:
got to meet Ben Elliott, and many other TFUK folks
Meeting DJs
Day #1
Day #1 Video Summary:
And a few sets I was able to record:
Ciaran McCauley
Alex Morph:
Alan Watts:
Jordan Suckley:
Day #2
Day #2 was disco outfit day!
Day #2 Video Summary:
And a few sets I was able to record:
Alessandra Ronconne:
Lostly:
David Forbes:
Ben Gold:
John 00 flemming:
Should you go? Would I go Back?
Decors, lasers, and lights were actually more than I expected, well done for a small festival!
This year again, security was more than reasonable, thank you.
22 hours of trance on 3 to 4 stages, that's a lot
Is it worth flying across the world for? Ok, maybe not, but if you are within Europe and short flight/train away, please do.
I loved the vibes and the crowds and would love to go back. This is also where I would tell you, just like Rong Malta, that is really sucks and you shouldn't come with all your badly drunk friends to f it up :) Unfortunately the organizers have for now said that they won't be doing the event again due to the amount of work and slightly negative profits, which is a shame but understandable. I feel lucky and thankful to have been able to attend this special event, and my heartfelt thanks to them for making the event happen these last years, and so happy I was able to attend this year.
Here are sets from one stage I recorded. The video quality is not great, but I figured it was still good to have a nice souvenir and be able to re-enjoy the music:
Day1:
After going to Boom in Portugal last year, Ozora was the other big psytrance festival I had to check out, and thankfully it didn't conflict with Untold this year, so I was able to attend just after tomorrowland. I would say it is indeed the biggest psytrance focussed festival in Europe and likely one the biggest ones in the world.
Getting There and Grounds
Getting ready before the festival, barely enough time to recharge my gear before going to Ozora:
Flight to Budapest
More last minute charging at the bus station to Ozora :)
waited 1h30 for the next shuttle, nice bus
Here's the map of the main things, as you can see, once inside it's not too much of a walk, but if you zoom out, you'll see it is bigger, and the road you have to walk from and back to if you don't have a car, is far!
Finally got there, but they dropped us a long walk away from the real entrance when you have heavy luggage, no idea why. I got lucky on the way in with a tractor ride that is only there randomly, so timing was good. On the way back however, I waited over 1h for the tractor that was supposed to get around, and it never came. Dragging my luggage back out was absolutely terrible since it was more than 50kg total, and of course it broke the wheels after being dragged in pebbles and dirt for too long.
Also, you'd better know where you are going since there is almost no cell once you go in, so you won't be able to find any maps or easily know where you are.
don't fall off :)
long ride up, I can only imagine how terrible it would have been without the lucky tractor
If you get lost:
cool signs, but the first time, it's confusing
After strategizing for an hour and walking around, found a good place for my tent:
view from my porch
many stores and dining hall
Charging was tricky, I had to use a nearby store's back plugs but my things were not secure and some of the store owners were not super happy. There wasn't a very good solution to this:
Power was non trivial, vendors and eating locations did have some power plugs, but of course leaving anything to charge was at your own risk, and theft was reported to be an issue. Honestly only people with a car they could lock up, were safe. Everyone else was taking risks and I heard people who had their entire luggage including passport stolen from their tent, not good :-/
But back to lights, kudos to all the people who brought some, including fancy ones
For most people, they had to hunt for a plug:
Now, you would say, why don't you just go use lockers, well, lockers were not really that but just a bunch of numbered holes that someone was kind of watching. I honestly don't think I'd feel that comfortable leaving my passport anywhere but a locked car, so I kept it on me the entire time, along with other things, which wasn't too convenient.
this was the 'lockers', would you leave your wallet, or passport, or computer there?
I had a massive failure of my LED strings, thankfully I had just enough tools to barely fix it:
There were basic stores close to where I camped:
prices were very reaosnable
Camping was everywhere and some things were far:
There was even a farm:
Middle Earth
One thing I really liked about Ozora, was the middle earth feel:
very cool
Interesting set list:
Also very nice at night:
row of food and drink stores with reasonable pricing
Also another row of random stores, mostly clothes and trinkets:
Mainstage
But of course, everyone was there for the music. There were multiple stages, but mainstage was the main one, and by a lot...
Of course, night was the best time:
yes, it is a bit crazy at times, yo have to live it
can be enjoyed from almost anywhere :)
I was pretty impressed by the amount of LEDs and lights, considering it was not easy to charge
things got crazy late at night, BPMs went higher and higher, reaching almost 200 :)
yes, it's real, this was captured by my phone
Other Stages
There were 5 or 6 stage depending on how you counted, one was not far from my tent. Yes, it was warm during the day, but they had you covered:
Lots of stages and lots of DJs, definitely a lot more variety than Boom:
People
Some people came with costumes, but not too many, and not too many LED costumes
this guy brought his bed at mainstage
found some friends
ok, and that too I guess:
Enough people brought shiny stuff, thank you:
nice outfit
DJs
Compared to boom, I liked the music better at Ozora, there was more variety, and more kinds I was able to enjoy. It was exiting to see some of my favorite psytrance DJs in their natural habitat :)
Electric Universe!
I was excited to see nice psytrance and Astrix of course:
Similarly, Flemming and Lawrence were loads of fun:
they found me for a picture :)
My last day before departure, I was super excited to see Man with No Name, whom I had never gotten to see before:
so thankful to have a picture with him
Would I go back? Should You Go?
Soon after that seeing Man with No Name, I had had more than plenty, almost a full week and it was intense, so I packed my tent, and did the long and painful walk back out to the shuttle back to the airport.
In theory there is a tractor that's supposed to do rounds and bring you back to the exit, but after 1H of waiting, no such luck. I had to do drag my luggage out a very long distance and partially destroy it in the process.
And it's now that I'm supposed to give you all my wisdom on Ozora :), so let's see what I can do:
it was a unique experience, I'm glad I did it
it was also rough and obviously far, getting in and out without a car and with luggage was unfortunately the worst experience of any festival I've been to.
specifically, going without a car to drive your stuff to your campsite and lock things securely, was difficult, I'd even say very painful if you were carrying all your gear like I was, including electronics, lots of batteries, chargers, decent size tent and all.
being dropped off not even at the real entrance, and the very long way in, if you're carrying any luggage, was punishing, especially if you aren't lucky enough to get the tractor ride. Maybe it is worth to rent a car for the week?
Yeah, you're going to tell me to travel light, but with all my LED gears, a proper size tent, clothes for a week, camera and laptop gear, and batteries, many batteries, it's not possible to be light. I really wish they had better help for people who have to carry stuff and can't be expected to drag it on a dirt path for several kilometers.
I arrived late monday, festival opened on friday and most people came early. I read about huge lines that backed up the main road, due to how inefficient the check in process was (thankfully not an issue by the time I arrived).
Check in process was manual ID verification before they would carefully put a wristband on you in a way you could not take it out. Honestly I'm fine with festivals verifying tickets, but when it's to that level (and Ozora is far from being the only one), it's not great.
the stories of theft I heard were not good, that included people losing all their luggage and belongings. That made me quite nervous for the rest of the week since you can't really lock a tent
for the average person, finding a plug to charge your phone will be fine, but if you have more gear like me, it's a lot less trivial (maybe again, a car would help)
the weather is uncertain, and it can rain a lot on some years, be ready
the middle earth village and decors were absolutely awesome and worth seeing. Let me actually say that it was truly unique and in some way worth by itself, going to Ozora to experience.
there was a good variety of psytrance and other music that did not feel as experimental as boom, so that was a plus. Actually to be more clear, there was enough variety of music at Ozora, that at all times there was something I could enjoy, so that was really a good thing.
cell phone service was close to non existent (boom had much better coverage).
there was some wifi close to vendors, but it was extremely poor. This means that meeting up with others via phone would not be easy.
the food options were varied and well priced. Similarly true for drinks.
few vendors took credit cards, but all of them gladly took Euros despite it not being legal tender in Hungary. I'll give a thumbs up for not requiring any fake and unreliable wristband virtual money. Real money worked great, thank you!
The only security was to make sure I had a valid ticket, nothing beyond that. That was nice and refreshing, outside of the theft issues.
Many folks, including most vendors, spoke little english but it was not an issue unless you really needed help with something specific
But would I go back?
Honestly, probably not. A few reasons:
some of the crowds were pretty far out for me, very hippie like to a level that was a bit difficult for me at times (and I've been to burning man 14 times, so I've seen a few things :) ).
I saw a few folks being very messed up on no idea what drugs it was, but it wasn't good. I remember one guy being dangerous and aggressive.
I saw demented parents taking a small crying child around the front row and looking like it was good when clearly the child wanted out
it looked cute, but the child looks very unhappy :(
I believe I heard someone ran into a big fire and died :-(
I got reasonably lucky with minimal rain, some years it's a lot lot worse
Overall I felt like I had a hard time fitting in and belonging, I can't blame others for that, I guess it just means it was at the edge of what's a good fit for me, hence my "probably not" answer. I'll admit that the poor transport options inside to carry luggage over long distances on foot, and the not feeling at peace due to the theft concerns, did not help.
I'm happy I got to see and experience it, I'm super happy I got to see some DJs and music I wouldn't have seen elsewhere, but otherwise it felt kind of rough, at least at times.
I hope this lets you decide whether you should go, or brings fun memories if you went :) and if you were wondering about Boom vs Ozora
Ozora vs Boom
Sure, I'll play :)
Boom is one year out of two, Ozora is every year
Ozora is 2-3 days longer than Boom technically but honestly you'll already do a lot with 6 days at each.
When you took the shuttle at Boom, you were prechecked and could enter directly without another line
Boom got you in much closer to your campsite. The Walk from the road to camping at Ozora was punishing
Boom is hot and dry, Ozora is warm and can get very rainy
Boom offered tipis and cardboard tents with matresses you could rent, that was a big plus for visitors. Ozora offered nothing, you had to bring your own gear. Many apparently buy gear after arriving in Budapest, and then discard it :-(
More stages at Ozora, and more music types at Ozora. I definitely prefered the music variety at Ozora
The bus ride to Boom was much longer and the line to leave boom on the last day was ridiculous (many hours) while Ozora has reserved shuttle slots without any wait
Cell phone at Ozora was mostly unusable, while it worked fairly well at Boom
Boom required unreliable wristband money to pay for some things, Ozora was cash only
Prices for food and drinks were very reasonable at both
Boom had better stores than Ozora from variety of food to camping and cooking gear
Boom had nice decors and art, but Ozora had overall much better decors atmosphere that sure felt like middle earth
This was the biggest show and festival that had ever been held at Midway in SF, so that is to say it was an impressive setup. A lot of new things that could have gone not too well, did go well, so kudos to everyone that was involved in the setup and made sure it ran smoothly. Honestly the only thing I noticed was that at some point there were enough people (the most Midway likely has ever had) that all the bathrooms were a bit insufficient for the crowd (and they brought extra), so I will call this a success :)
It was one of the longest days of the year, so we only had 90mn of darkness, and as usual, I made the best of it :)
But let's go back to the beginning, lots of sunlight, and thankfully it was actually quite nice and cool.
huge stage got setup in the street with daytime visible RGB Panels with holes to let the wind through
the inside of Midway got decked out
nice custom poster
a lot of anjunafam came early, and thankfully the weather was actually cool
hahah
Great to run into lots of friends as always:
The event also had multiple dancers and costumed performers:
and yes, this qualified as a festival, 3 rooms going at once:
We got a nice selection of DJs that played lovely trance for us, starting with Blur:
Next was elevven:
Ilan Bluestone was next:
Mor Avrahami came from Israel took over before above and beyond:
I tried to go check out the other rooms too:
And then Jono and Paavo from Above and Beyond finished the day, which hadn't turned into night yet (one of the longest days of the year):
After the regular party, there was an after party from 22:00 to 06:00, so plenty of partying for anyone who had the energy :)
Great job to everyone at midway who got this event running pretty flawlessly, thanks for the event!
Video Summary:
Transmission Elysium Prague 2024 was simply outstanding again, and even topped my "this was the best show I've seen, ever" from Transmission Prague 2019 (and with that ending from Kobi Blastoyz I will simply never forget, that was hard to top).
While, I did miss the psytrance ending this time around, the show itself was amazing on so many levels, all the way to guide wire led fireworks shot above the crowd and towards VIP/golden VIP (above our heads) during the storyline rocket scenes.
I was a bit worried that after such great memories of transmission prague 2019, I had over hyped those memories. Due to covid shutdowns, and then tranmission losing access to O2 arena for a few years, it had been 5 years since I last went. It's also true that I've seen epic shows like Gareth Emery's Laserface at Bill Graham, San Francisco which was the best laser show I've ever seen, but Transmission still did a better job laying out their lasers plus many other lights, giving an even better show in the end.
So yes, 2024 was just even better than 2019 and 2019 was already the best indoor show I had ever seen, and note that I'm saying this when I just got back from EDC Vegas, and to me (because I prefer night festivals and love lights), EDC is the best festival I've been to in the World, but as an indoor show, Transmission wins.
Transmission 2019 vs 2024:
the lighting looked similar enough, stellar for both
lasers were similarly stellar for both
the between DJ transitions and storyline was equally epic for both
2024 had wire guided pyro rockets that shot just above the crowd, simulating rockets in the storyline, sweet!
golden VIP still has no better viewing than 2019 (VIP was better), see below for more details
both lineups were really enjoyable, although this year used 2 DJ duos maybe to get more names in for the fixed amount of time?
transmix was much longer in 2024 and OMG was it pure joy. Seriously that transmix was fire!
So let's start with the pictures, arrived bright and early, unfortunately tixbase, one of the ticket providers, completely failed and no one was able to get in for over 30mn, which was super disappointing. I'm a bit surprised that no one in the staff said "f'it", and didn't just let people get in with barcodes that couldn't be scanned, that part kind of sucked:
the poor VIP ladies were stuck smiling at us while we were stuck outside, mssing the first DJ :-/
Thankfully security was very nice like last time, and getting in was no issues after the ticket issue was finally fixed. It was great to meet many people I had seen around the world, plus plenty of locals that were happy to take pictures :)
It was also great to find Craig and Daxson after their set, and enjoy some of the show together from the VIP viewing area (the best location in my opinion):
Putting that pretty disappointing part aside, especially since it apparently only affected VIP ticketholders who had paid a lot more to get in, and didn't get to get in while regular ticket holders were already in for 30mn... still got to catch the end of Dusk's warmup set:
Thankfully despite the long delay, we did get to see all of Craig Connelly's set, which I sure didn't want to miss:
After Craig's great set, came Daxson, who also threw a great set:
the AV guys didn't wait long before pushing all the buttons :)
Next, came Cosmic Gate:
Then came Markus Schulz, who amongst other things, played a track spelling out PLUR and its meaning, nice!
The transmix from Driftmoon was pure gold and the visuals were all out at that time:
Driftmoon was so good that it was hard work for Paul Van Dyk to play next, but of course he delivered!
After that, we got Digital Culture, RAM and Richard Durand:
And the night ended with Nilsix, Orjan Nilsen, and Mark Sixma:
But the worst part of the night was when the music ended and all the lights came back on. Oh no, 9H have passed already, the dream is over!
Transmission Prague: The best visuals I've seen on this planet, bar none!
So, you tell me where else you've seen this:
the light columns are one of my favorites
let's mix in a few lasers for good measure
And it takes a "few" people to run all this, the most AV guys I've seen anywhere:
I was able to find this partial picture of the team involved (i.e. it's not everyone who worked on it, but still a good subset). That was more folks than I even imagined...
Should you go? Would I go Back?
So I did put this event in the festival category, but given that it's a single day, single stage event, I'm not sure if it truly qualifies for the festival definition. And yet, I don't actually care, transmission prague is so good that I'm happy to put it in that bucket.
At this point, I do not travel across the world for a single day festival. It just doesn't make sense for me to spend more time travelling across the world than time spent at the festival itself (and that's not even counting about cost). In the case of transmission Bangkok, it was technically a single day eent I flew for, but it was really a 4 day festival with the pre pre, pre and post parties. It's true that Transmission Prague was a bit light on pre/post parties that were trance related, there was techmission the day before. but AV-wise it was nowhere close to transmission itself. I would say it's totally worth going to Prague just to also visit Prague as it's truly a beautiful city that you can visit for multiple days, and in my case I simply enjoyed transmission in 2019 so much that I was happy to brake my own rule and come back for transmission only this year again. That's a lot of words to say the event is definitely unique.
Security was more than reasonable
Bars took regular money (credit cards/phones), no fake festival money wristband BS. Thank you! (transmission BKK required fake money and whatever you loaded was non refundable, which sucked. Also tap water was not drinkable there so you were kind of forced to use the wristband money which makes me unhappy).
You could refill drinkable water in the restrooms if you wished
Suggestions for improvement
I found out too late after asking in way too many places that there was a boat pre-party the day before (with trance), but it was not announced on time, left too early in the afternoon and before my flight arrived that afternoon (long ass trip from san francisco), so I didn't make it. Still, there was techmission, but understandably, for a trance lover, it's not quite the same.
I heard others saying they had issues getting in the past due to ticketing failures, don't have details on this, but tixbase totally failed this year. This is obviously not transmission's direct fault, except an opportunity to choose more reliable ticketing platforms and have heavy fines in the contract if they fail to work the day of. And if they do fail, just let people in without scanning the barcodes that can't be scanned. It's simply not ok to have people wait and miss the show while waiting outside in the sun if they showed up early to be there at the beginning set.
I bought golden VIP instead of VIP last time, and while the food and drinks were great, the vantage point was very disappointing. What happened then and still happened this time around is that some uber uber VIPs had tables taking all the platform space, and you pretty much ogt no middle view, had to stand in the stairs or chairs on the side, after paying all that money. You are not allowed to go to the VIP platform with golden VIP tickets :(
So this year I only bought VIP tickets, and honestly it felt like a much better choice, the viewing platform was great and people with tables did not block our view. I'd have happily paid more for golden though if transmission offers a guaranteed good view from the top or access to the VIP platform.
Definitely have at least a pre-party in a local club the day before and maybe a post party the day after, like Bangkok. By that I mean with trance music (techmission didn't really count). Of course, I'd love for transmission to be a 2 night event, but that's maybe asking too much?
Conclusions and other thoughts
As per the prior point, the visuals are the best I've seen in any indoor show anywhere in the world. I do believe transmission prague has better visuals than all other editions. I'm told the Dutch one was good but not quite on par, and the one I saw in Bangkok, at the end of the day was a very good show in one room of a convention center, the lineup was great, but the AV was simply "Good". Visuals in Prague were "outstanding". As I'm writing this and asking others for their thoughts, I just heard back that transmission did officially post they had more lights in the NL show, but the venue was a lot bigger, so that's why it felt more impressive in Prague. That makes sense and I'll take "impressive" because it was :)
Part of me is sad that all this AV firepower that likely took days to setup, was really used just one night (most was not used during techmission), and that transmission is a single day event.
I personally enjoyed the lineup. Of course some DJs were more to my liking than others, but the show was so good that honestly even music I didn't love as much, still felt great.
The driftmoon transmix was 1H long and pure joy!
The Sci-Fi story shown as transitions between DJs, was still a lot of fun and unique to this event. If you want to see the preview to the show:
Needless to say that putting aside a couple of unfortunate things that happened, I had a great time and the show was still as good as I remembered it, youtube doesn't quite do it justice, you have to see it in person.
So this year is a bit special, 2 EDCs! I indeed went to EDC Mexico as a last minute thing, and it is a pretty good scaled down version of EDC Vegas. It was a lot of fun, but of course it doesn't really compare with the real EDC, honestly I think nothing in the world, does.
In the last years, a lot of people are now camping by EDC, which helps the traffic somewhat:
That said, I've heard the shiftpods in CampEDC, are a joke, and that the heat is unbearable in them despite some AC that can't keep up with the Vegas sun. To be honest, it always felt like a bad idea to me, and I guess RVs are probably the only thing that are somewhat reasonable and indeed save you the daily 1h+ commute in and out. I still went with that using the premium shuttles which kept the travel time to 1H or less, but they are not cheap ($250-ish per person). The regular shuttles are half price, but the lines are much longer...
Great to start with this reminder:
yes to plur and good vibes!
This is what the craziness looks during the day:
but of course that's nothing from the magic at night:
So, let's go back and look around:
The Grounds:
Few people can ever say they saw all of EDC, because even if you try there is a lot, and if you count Passport that few people have access to, all the VIP areas, or the big Skydeck area for Kinetic Fields, with its own grounds and attractions, or the Artist/DJ Village, few people have access to all of it. And even if you do, it's easy to miss some small corner somewhere or even something not that small like No Man's Land by wasteland:
The VIP areas were cool:
this rain/water maze was definitely fun
nice raised area by Kinetic Fields
Passport is also a nice area as always and good vantage point of the craziness:
great views from there
Of course you'll also find random stuff like video games:
Downtown EDC was moved, but the square area in the middle is lots of fun:
kandi casino was awesome again
More nice areas:
And more:
Plenty of vendors. Most were fine, but I wasn't a huge fan of the vaping one looking to hook more people to nicotine, and I don't overly mind the pot vendor(s) since honestly at least that provides some benefits to some and isn't nearly as addictive:
So many rides again, too bad the lines were so long...
yes, you can get help :)
As always, a good way to see EDC, is from higher up, and the ferris wheels are the best way to do it:
Fireworks and Drones
Of course fireworks are one of the best things from EDC, 01:41 every night this year:
Fireworks video here:
The People
I often tell people, especially in Europe, that one of the things I really enjoy about US festivals, is the amount of costumes and other cool outfits. Obviously I do my best to participate to that trned:
TFSF Group picture:
Of course, running into friends is a good part of the fun:
and fun totems, 'this is the way'
I've made some great friends from EDC/Dreamstate shows, some are engineers like me :)
Hi Ulrich! :)
TFSF Crew
Kandi is serious business :)
More TFSF Crew
The Insomniac entertainers were fantastic as always:
check out the costumes!
Pixie again! Much love.
And it was so much fun to be able to meet favorite DJs as always:
Got to see Daxson 4 times in 2 weeks :)
haha, normally I clean my lens better than this :)
Kepik, the new 7 lions!
But anyway, let's get on with the festival:
Day #1
Just like last years, took an uber on the first day to get there early since the shuttles get stuck in commuter traffic on fridays, and went to enjoy the grounds. The shuttles were nice, but I don't understand why the first shuttle got moved to 18:30 instead of 18:00. Taking the 18:00 shuttle allowed to arrive for 19:00 and not miss the first set, leaving at 18:30 guarantees arriving late :-
interesting new church design for Kinetic Fields
Quantum Valley was again fantastic this year
Paul did a nice set this year
seeing GO again just a few days after Rong/Malta
Video Summary:
Day #2
Day #2 was almost mostly spent at Quantum Valley, because trance! :)
Great to see Miyuki rise all the way to EDC, congrats!
seeing sunset is always lovely
Video Summary:
Day #3
Day 3 was time to roam around and go check out everything else. 15 stages total counting the art cars, that's a lot! (actually I think there were more stages if you count passport and others).
Made sure not to miss Seven Lions at Circuit Grounds, epic set!
Then Cosmic Meadows:
And finished the night all the way to sunrise at Quantum Valley:
Stayed mostly until the end, always nice to see sunrise on the way out:
Video Summary:
Should you go? Would I go Back?
At this point, note that this text 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).
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.
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.
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.
So many stages also, 15 if you count art cars this year!
Is it worth flying across the world for? Yes, absolutely, there is nothing else like this on earth.
Conclusion/Other thoughts
Thoughts about this year:
Insomniac: 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
Insomniac: why were the first shuttles moved to 18:30? Please put them back to 18:00 so that you can take that and not miss the first set.
Insomniac: 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.
Insomniac: Quantum Valley was absoutely gorgeous this year again, way better than all stages from dreamstate queen mary combined. Please bring back upside down U megastructures for dreamstate.
I got used to the 2 day only trance lineup and going around to enjoy everything else on day 3. All in all that's actually a good thing.
Moving Quantum Valley next to Kinetic Fields and the shuttles entrance/exit was sooo convenient for me. I'm of course biased about my own preference there, but loved that :)
EDC continued to add new art installations, removed a few, moved stages around, kept things fresh. I liked that.
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.
The toxic waste depot in the tunnel where pixel forest tunnel used to be, was a very cool new installation
The visuals on all stages were top notch again. Nothing beats EDC there.
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..
Rong Events is not new at festivals, but it was their first time organizing one in Malta, and it went really well. I think the best way you can summarize the festival is that it's a Malta version of Unkonscious in Thailand:
mostly by the beach/nice weather
some regular clubs and some beach clubs
multiple locations (4 total)
optional boat party
more intimate, easier to meet DJs smaller, scale festival, more cozy (like lumi used to be, but less today as it has grown)
2 stages at most. No major fomo of missing lots of sets every hour :)
plenty of partying at night with cool lights, lasers, fireworks (unlike lumi which is over 90% during the day in blazing sun and often with insufficient shade)
this is not a competitor to lumi, this is what lumi likely used to be when it was still small an more intimate, and before it became the maybe over big event it is today. Some will prefer the craziness of 4 stages 11H straight at lumi (puting aside the sound bleed and other issues with 2 stages) at lumi, while others will prefer 1 or 2 stages and less running around. To each their own.
Unkonscious was 6 days and more spread out (longer distances, up to 2H between places), Rong Malta was only 4 days and places were 30mn away at most (from Cafe del mar to Uno or the boat party pier).
Was 4 days not as good as 6? Oh boy no, 4 days was plenty. I had so much fun and was so dead at the end. Honestly 6 days of Unkonscious was almost gruesome, no I was good with 4. The 2 festivals of course do not compete that much because of how far away they are. Even for me in California, Thailand is still farther away by plane than Malta, and for Europeans Malta is of course a much easier hop.
The one slight downside of both festivals is it's a bit harder to figure out where to stay or whether to change hotels. In the case of Unkonscious, you had to move at least once (from Pattaya to Bangkok). In the case of Rong Open Air Festival Malta, things were close enough that you could stay anywhere and use bolt to get around within 20 to 30mn at most, not bad. The festival did come with a hotel package (Bora Bora hotel), but in hindsight it was probably not the best choice as most things happened at Uno, and I found the $150 "booking" fee in the package (added to the hotel price) a bit steeper than necessary.
Malta Day 1, Thursday: Bora Bora Hotel Pool Party: 15:00 to 22:00
Day 1 was easy if you stayed at the hotel, it was right there. If you were lucky enough with your room (I was not), you could see the stage and just enjoy the show from your patio, but either way you could just open the sliding door and enjoy from your room for a while if you wanted. The stage was simple but worked, and we narrowly avoided rain (just a tiny bit), so it was a good time up to the 22:00 curfew (not everyone in the hotel was part of the festival)
reorder closed that evening at 22:00
Video Summary of Day 1:
Malta Day 2, Friday: Uno Malta: 16:00 to 04:00
Day 2 was a combination of day party and night party at Uno, about 20mn away from Bora Bora:
the bars were well equipped
Our new swiss festival lover friends
Daxson threw a great set
finally got to see Alex Morph play again
and finally got to take this picture with him with an outfit I had gotten ready years ago
Always nice to see Lange, I've listened to him since the ASOT 100 days
Paul Van Dyk went next
and he graciously met the crowd after his set
Rob and Anna both from Dublin, got re-united after some 20 years :)
last time I saw Dave Pearse was 20 years ago in Ibiza
Scott Project ended the night
Video Summary of Day 2:
Malta Day 3, Saturday: Cafe Del Mar
Malta being the new Ibiza, they have all the famous Ibiza clubs, including of course Cafe Del Mar. And their Cafe del Mar is also absolutely gorgerous
surviving in the sun :)
our lovely new swiss friends
Woohoo, we got 2 more sets from Ruben
don't laugh, so many pictures, so many festivals, I have to keep up real time, or there is no way I can keep doing these reports before it's 3 months later and no one cares ;) I actually finished writing this festival report in the shuttles to/from EDC Vegas 4 days later ;)
And finally came the magical time of sunset
magical!
and to finsh the day party, a few bonus fireworks!
Uno had 2 stages, and easy to stage hop. Metta & Glyde were on stage 2:
And then, got so lucky to get another performance of gouryella, I was in heaven:
I wasn't prepared for it, so the first 10mn were hand recorded, and then I managed to do this for the last 50mn
the visuals are always the fun part for me
So, I really really love Gouryella and recorded the whole set (shaking goes away after 10mn):
Next, was key4050, John O Callaghan and Bryan Kearney:
Maria Healy on stage 2:
and the night went on until 04:00, but for me it was time for a bit of sleep :)
Video Summary of Day 3:
Malta Day 4, Sunday: Boat Party
The boat party was hard to get to, each time I looked for it online, it wasn't for sale, and then it got sold out quickly. The boat was not super big, so space was limited. It was nice and cozy and enjoyable to boat around the island and see its forts:
Anselli opened
Markus Schulz played most of the trip, nice set
nice views along the way
Liam Wilson took us home after Markus
Video Summary of Day 4 Boat Party:
Malta Day 4, Sunday Part 2: Uno Day Party
After the boat, the party was supposed to be at our hotel, Bora Bora, but when we got back there, we found out it had been moved to Uno. To be fair, Uno was a better club, but it would have been nice to have the party at our hotel and watch it from our room and hear it while we were packing our luggage to promptly get out sunday night/monday morning for an early flight out. Packed all the luggage and took a cab to Uno to catch the end of the day party (unfortunately missed some sets both due to the boat party and then the party being moved away from our hotel):
hi Craig!
Sander Van Doorn
To be honest, it got nicer as things got cooler, and at 22:00 the rest of Uno opened for the followup night party.
Malta Day 4, Sunday Part 3: Uno Night Party
So technically it was supposed to be part 3 (from Bora Bora to Uno), but ultimately it was a Uno for both. Liam Wilson whom we had just seen on the boat, opened the evening party:
Christina Novelli took over after that for a banging set:
she took time to meet many fans afterwards
FactorB, OMG, what a set. I wasn't ready for it, didn't get to record it outside of a few clips, not sure it was recorded, but pure joy it was:
he also went to meet the crowd afterwards
Then Aly and Fila did a lovely melody and dreamy set:
he also nicely met his fans afterwards
Giuseppe Ottaviani took over:
And I had just missed Maddix in SF because I had alrady gone to Europe but got to see his set in Malta:
And Will Atkinson closed the night. I was only able to stay for half his set due to having to run to the airport and catch the flight back home. As always, he was full of energy:
And boy, just like that, it was over. It went by so fast, but at the same time I was *sooo* exhausted at the end, of course with a huge smile on my face. Barely made it to the 2 planes home, and caught up on sleep there.
Video Summary of Day 4:
Pricing
The festival itself was reasonably priced, a few other things, less so. Random pictures that will answer your pricing questions:
merch was not cheap
alcohol was 'festival priced' :), water half the price of lumi
food was mostly ok, only downside is you couldn't buy any food anywhere without wristband money
How about the festival price? $188 for 4 days and all the parties (not including boat party) was honestly a very good price. The bora bora hotel package was overpriced in my opinion though. $250/night for a room here that ultimately wasn't well located for most parties except the first day, was not the best in hindsight, and I was not impressed by the additional $103 booking fee for the hotel only, which was totally non refundable or changeable (I booked the package early trusting that the hotel was the place to be, and when I realized later that not so much, I was told I was stuck with that package and no hotel refunds were possible, not even after losing the booking fee). That is honestly the only thing I regret getting, but the festival itself was super well priced, definitely fantastic value.
General Admission Festival Tickets 2024 - GA | Second Release: $188.28 ×2
BORA BORA HOTEL - Superior Triple Balcony Urban View May 8 - 13 2024: $1,035.52
Subtotal $1,412.08
General Admission | Second Release - Booking Fee $18.82
Superior Triple Balcony Urban View - Booking Fee $103.55
General Admission | Second Release - Booking Fee $18.82
Total: $1,553.27
Other Thoughts
Even though it was the first year, the festival sold out VIP and things like the boat party. Even regular tickets, it felt that they couldn't have sold a lot more without getting into capacity issues, so all it all, that was great: they sold plenty of tickets, hopefully made money, but not enough to have it packed and uncomfortable for us. I also give them credit for not selling more tickets than they had room for for things like VIP and boat party, that shows they care about the experience first, not making more money at all cost.
I do realize that after telling you I had a great time, if you all go and the organizers don't cap tickets, the event will get over crowded and less fun. I however do have reasonable hope they will do the right thing if this happens, and the good news is how many trance festivals we can choose from this year, so hopefully it will spread the attendee load and allow them to stay reasonably small and intimate.
Parting thoughts:
I went to this festival because after my terrible experience at lumi last year (I totally understand most people did have a good time there last year), I asked you all for suggestions and you gave this event, thank you. I had so much more fun than at lumi, loved the better variety, a lot less sun and more night, better food options, better organizers and much more. Sure, it didn't have 4 tracks every hour of plenty of music I would miss since I can only be at one stage at once anyway. Also, lumi had at least one stage that was terrible due to small size and sound bleed (sunset) and another one that was so so depending on the direction of the wind and the smell of the bathrooms right next to it. Honestly, I didn't miss any of that, one of 2 stages was a lot easier, and not dealing with the lumi "the customer is the enemy" bar bouncers security team, was very refreshing.
tap water in malta is supposed to be drinkable, but locals seem not to trust it somehow. There were no water fountains or refill stations at the festivals, just bottled water for sale. I know we are spoiled by Insomniac and all its US events for this, making sure everyone hydrates and limiting pointless plastic bottle waste is honestly a win win. You could refill water from bathrooms if you wanted, but given the uncertainty of the water safety, official water fountains would be better. That said, bottled water was half the price of lumi, and you could get other water if you really wanted, or get in and out anyway.
yes, in and outs were allowed at each venue every day, which was much appreciated and not true of many other festivals. Ok, maybe for the boat party, in and out required swimming in the ocean :)
The required wristband money was unfortunately the only big minus for me. While some festivals call it cashless and for our convenience, the ones that truly mean it take contactless credit cards and phone tap to pay (all US festivals I've been to, including eclipse festival that had optional wristband money, but also accepted contactless credit cards. Other festivals like lumi also do it. Even lumi, for all the issues I have with it, does do the right thing and take contactless credit cards and pay by phone. Unfortunately this one did not and required loading money on a wristband and trusting them to be a bank, which I don't really want to trust any festival to be. Being a bank is hard, and pretty much every festival gets it wrong in various ways. Getting money back was apparently possible but requited special work and only if it was more than $5. This is just extra work and worries that are not needed for a festival.
Security was top notch, more below...
Let's talk about security. The security staff was not a bunch of untrained bar bouncers. They looked like commando style military and I'm not saying this in a bad way. They looked highly trained and did a great job looking over the event, making sure people were safe and exercising restraint if they had to get involved. They looked friendly and were always helpful. That was about as good as I've ever seen anywhere. As a bonus, they didn't have pointless over the top searches focussed on stealing your sunscreen or beauty products, or tampons (yes, you probably know what other festival I'm referring to)
If you think this is a small deal, it's not. Security is a huge part of whether festivals are both safe and enjoyable. Achieving both at the same time is no small feat and the Malta team used by Rong was stellar. Thank you!
A comparison against every other festival wouldn't be warranted or useful, but I hope this helps you decide how to use your time and money since neither are infinite:
vs Unkonscious Thailand: they are not identical but they are similar in many ways, go to the one that is closest to you and matches your vacation schedule. Thailand is cheaper once you are there, but flying there from outside of Asia will obviously cost you more.
vs Unkonscious Croatia: hard to compare against a festival that hasn't happened yet, but my guess is that Unkonscious Croatia will also be an enjoyable smaller scale festival like the Thailand version, and going to either would not be a mistake :) I can't go to that one, it conflicts with another festival I'm already going to.
vs Euphoria weekender: it's happening 2 days from now as I'm writing this. I wish I could go but after 8 days of festivals in less than 2 weeks, my body really really needs rest :) From what I've seen Euphoria is lower key and a bit cheaper even, and should also be a great time. I think people look at it as "less commercial" but honestly rong malta didn't feel commercial unlike let's say Tomorrowland that was all about the money and where they apparently mostly stopped carrying about the festival goers and turned into a big money machine
vs Captured Malta: that one hasn't happened yet either. My guess is that Captured will be some place between Euphoria weekender and Rong Malta. I'm going there in September.
vs Lumi: you can't really compare them that much, you can read the lumi bits I wrote above already. Lumi has a lot more trance, many more people (too many at times for my taste) and unfortunately made some very questionable choices in the last years, I'll leave it at that outside of saying that I absolutely do not feel welcome there anymore if you don't know the details.
vs dreamstate socal: they are just way too different for me to even compare them, I love both for difference reasons. Dreamstate wins for the way more lights and costumes if you like that, but you cannot call dreamstate intimate
Should you go? Would I go Back?
First, I need to state that Malta is a very cool country to visit. If you can, spend at least an extra 3 days to learn about the country's history over the many years, and its central location in the mediteranean, which is the cause for its rich history. It's a very unique mix of a population that speaks an old arab dialect that is written with roman characters, and is mostly Christian. If that's not unique, I don't know what is :)
Malta is not the same level of cheap than Thailand, but overall it was reasonably priced. Cheaper than Ibiza which it is aiming to be a competitor for.
it was a day and night festival, and had plenty of night hours with pretty lights and lasers. Night owl me was happy.
It's a smaller festival, not meant to be compared with the big ones, and that was totally ok with me. It's a nice change of pace to have something smaller where you don't walk so far every day between many stages and miss many sets every hour. Don't take me wrong, I'm writing these last sentences from the plane back from EDC Vegas 5 days later, and nothing compares to EDC Vegas and the insanity of that experience, but you can only take that once a year at most ;) I really do welcome more chill festivals, EDC is as awesome as it is really gruesome and takes a long time to recover from :)
Just like Unkonscious, the organizers care and it shows. As I write this, they already sent a survey link. It may seem like a little thing, but festivals that do not also say in that process "we don't really are if we did well or could have done better" and a few I won't name even give the feel of "you should feel thankful that you even were able to attend our festival". Obviously Rong did the opposite across the board, it doesn't mean everything was perfect, it never is, but they sure tried hard and want to continue to do better. Good on them!
I hope they will read my report and consider my suggestion to drop the wristband money requirement. If they allow contactless credit cards and pay by phone, it will honestly be perfect.
And if Alessandra Roncone came, you know it's a good party :)
Alessandra!
Left around 03:35 (25mn before the end), went back to Bora Bora to pick up luggage (hotel totally in the wrong direction for airport, as stated it was a mistake to stay there), drove back down to airport and arrived around 04:30 for a 05:55 flight out. Lufthansa as always managed to be terrible and after refusing to assign us seats on the phone for 2 days, also had a 48H computer outage (yes really) that prevented online checking, so we had no seats and got the last 2 random middle seats on the plane while being told we should be lucky to have seats at all because the plane was oversold again (same deal as flyoug out of Cluj after Untold last year). F you Lufthansa, this repeated incompetence and total lack of respect for the customer is unacceptable (they couldn't care less if we missed our connecting flight to SFO after that or that we could at least get a window seat to lay our head and attempt to sleep a bit until the longer flight FRA-SFO leaving at noon, that one with Condor). Ironically while Condor is kind of a new long haul Ryanair, they were much better than Lufthansa on this trip...
Thank you all of you I met there, came to say hi, all the DJs, and the organizers. You made this time fantastic, thank you!
