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)
Dreamstate of of course the happy place for Trance Lovers, Dreamstate Socal in San Bernandino is just totally awesome, but it's only once a year. Insomniac fixed that for us by adding a new Dreamstate also in Socal, but a different location. While I'd love to have had it in the bay area somewhere, Socal wasn't too far and it was another great event.
And so great to meet all my friends and DJs again (thanks Anna for the pictures):
Since I re-made all of Giuseppe's T-shirts, it was fun to take another picture :)
and it was so great to finally be able to enjoy Astrix's set and meet him
Thank you to Killed with Kindness for covering the event and all the pictures again, including this Trancefamily meetup:
Dreamstate Harbor, New Venue, Impressions
The event was at the end of a pier, away from people so we could enjoy plenty of noise. The venue wasn't huge, but just big enough, and looked great at sunset/night:
One downside of the venue is that it still had a midnight curfew apparently, which is surprising given that there wasn't much nearby. As a result the event started early (15:00) which meant plenty of punishing sun that got a fair amount of us sunburned despite sunscreen (one contributing factor was the breeze which made things cooler and caused people not to feel that they were being burned, it also made things kind of cold at night for those who didn't have layers). Hopefully the event can start and finish a bit later in the future to limit the harmful sun.
The good thing is the 2 stages were so close and it was easy to move from psytrance to trance, and speaking about psytrance, what a treat. It's rare to get good psytrance, and we got lots of it. Thank you!
Random notes on the event:
single GA bathroom location, but the venue was small enough that it was fine
food options were fairly limited, but enough not to starve :)
decors were nice, especially at night
free parking (thanks), although it was a somewhat long walk to the venue for some, but no worse than EDC
no sound interference between the stages and yet they were close enough for easy stage hopping
VIP facilities were maybe a bit limited compared to the much higher price, but at least you got the nice bathrooms (which didn't have lines) and it was easier to be closer to the front of the stages (albeit with a side view that wasn't great for pictures)
The lineup was solid with a mix of DJs from around the world, including some locals from california
Less can be more, I do love dreamstate san bernandino with its 4 stages, but that also means I'm missing out on 3 different DJs every hour. Here it was much easier to be able to enjoy most of the music.
Like many I put on sunscreen, but didn't put enough and got sunburned anyway. Ideally the event can be at least 2H later next time (17:00 to 02:00).
Day #1
Got there bright and early, 15:00, and did my best to hide from the sun :)
Craig did such a killer set, loads of fun
GO delivered as always, thank you
psytrance loving me was excited to see Liquid Soul again, and he always looks so happy, can't blame him
After Astrix was unable to attend EDC, great to have him, another killer set
By then, it was time for a great sunset:
And back to the Djs:
JoC did another fire set
Markus Schulz
Nice to finish with Whitenoise for some psytrance
Day #1 video summary:
Day #2
Day #2 video summary:
People
One of the things that makes trance special, is the people, all the smiles and great positive energy. Trance family is truly a family, and for many it is well needed therapy that gives us energy to cope with daily life :)
Many of the DJs were super nice and came to take pictures with their fans, thank you
and a huge thanks to Craig Connelly for this lovely gift
And just lke that, it was over, after 18 hours of trance and psytrance, thank you!
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