Ok, so I like electronic dance music, more specifically Trance. When I started in the 1990's, the US was a bit behind in that department.
Still, with San Francisco and San Jose nearby, I've had some opportunities to see some great EDM/Trance DJs. Back in the early 2000's, they sadly played club music in the US that was nowhere close to the hits they had composed and were known for, but over the years, as Trance started becoming more popular, those DJs finally started playing their good tunes in the US too, and maybe from 2004 on, it's only been getting better. Popsicle Halloween 2004 was really the beginning of great music parties in the San Francisco Area, and thankfully things have gotten even better since then
As a matter of fact, after another 10 years (2015 and beyond) the good news is that Trance has grown quite a following in the US, and places like the SF Bay Area, and while Trance has been declared dead a few times in the last 10 years, it's still going strong here.
Trance Family SF is definitely strong in the area, we've been getting more big trance parties every year, including many top DJs that come visit us what feels like every other week now (as of 2018-2019), and through those events, I made many friends in Trance Family SF. Thanks to you all.
Over those years, I got the chance to meet a few of my favourite DJs, including Armin more than once, and my last hobby has been to work on lights for my shirt and pants (version 3) and (version 4)
Well, festivals had been cancelled for over 1.5 years now, and that weekend there were 2 to choose from, ASOT 1000 and ABGT (which itself was a reschedule from an earlier data), but ASOT got cancelled, so that made the choice easier.
So, I did:
I have to give a big thanks to the Drumsheds staff for allowing me in with my LED backpack (which was oversized), and LED outfit, which was within the rules, but because wires and bombs and scared people, could have been denied (like it was at Creamfields where the security staff was much less nice and didn't give a rat's ass that they were pointlessly punishing customers):
plenty of drink options and some decent enough food
So great to see my friends again, ironic that we have to go around the world to meet :)
Natalie came with a lot of dancing energy :)
The ABGT favorites of the year opened the day:
oh no, I have bad news for you :)
trancewax, not really trance, though
tony means business :)
genix was not really my favorite
Ilan did a nice set again
better gear than me :)
And then it was finally time for the trio, ABGT is the only time you don't get a random 2 out of 3 :)
and the signature wave off
We sure had a great time:
Video summary:
Natalie and I made it to the live stream a bit:
This was obviously not ABGT350 Prague scale, but given the travel restrictions (and the UK sure made it a pain to travel there, not counting the required additional covid test required for foreigners as their vaccine cards were not recognized), this was a good party, plenty of people were still able to attend.
Those who know me, know that I've become a bit wary of Above and Beyond shows since they include more and more random EDM genres that I don't appreciate as much (yes, that's on me), but this set was enjoyable overall, not too much 'deep' which really isn't my thing (indeed, that was kept for the next day).
Thanks to everyone, including again Drumsheds for letting me in with my outfit and LED backpack, which sure wasn't true of creamfields.
And yes, getting up at 06:00 the next morning to catch a flight to Romania for untold festival, was a bit rough, but it's all worth it in the end :)
If you'd like to follow future posts, you can subscribe to this blog with an RSS reader (atom.xml), or you can follow me on IG: https://www.instagram.com/ledtranceguy/ and you can also DM me for feedback if needed.
