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)
Glad to be back, and even more delighted to have seen my friend Kepik rise the ranks to the level that he is now opening for Seven Lions. Great job Kepik!
Plenty of people showed up:
they even had costumed performers
Glad to see plenty of friends:
kandi masters :)
Of course, I didn't arrive naked either :)
One special treat indoors is you could get tatoos:
The party also had DJs playing in the main room, so you could hop back and forth:
Gem & Tauri
And before long, Seven Lions took mainstage outside and closed the day party:
After the day party was over, the afterparty continued inside Midway until 02:00, good times for all.
Video Summary:
It's glad to be back, my first show in the bay area in months after being gone travelling for festivals.
I'll be honest that the anjuna lineup felt a bit random, lack of cohesion in the type of music, so some I really liked, some I had a hard time enjoying.
Lovely running into a lot of friends I hadn't seen in a while:
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:
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.
While looking for transmission pre-parties, I found that there was a boat party, but unfortunately it left too early in the afternoon for my flight in on Friday (had it been announced earlier, maybe I could have gotten things to match, but by then it was too late), but when I looked around the other option was indeed Techmission, happening in the same arena than transmission the day after.
I'll admit right now that I'm not much of a techno guy, so my experience and opinion here is not going to be worth much. I'll also admit that I didn't know any of the DJs on the lineup. If you're a techno lover, I apologize to you in advance for my ignorance and lack of taste :)
The night was a good rehearsal night, and made sure my outfit, that just came out of the luggage, was working correctly:
Despite being late due a long as trip from California and the 2nd plane being late, still got to catch the end of the first DJ, Philipp Straub:
Next came Goom Gum:
My guess is the first 2 DJs were probably supposed not to out-stage the main DJ of the night, Paul KalkBrenner, but I'm sorry to say that I didn't find him very engaging. Some tracks, he didn't even mix, he just finished the previous track, then blank and then played the next one. But eh, I'm the wrong person to appreciate this kind of music anyway, and plenty of people in the crowd were delighted, so that's the important thing:
probably the most lights I saw during that set for a brief moment
glad to run into friends along the way :)
I'll say honestly by then I was quite disappointed with the visuals, I knew how good they could be and how good the would be the next day, but up to then, the AV guys had shown a lot of restraint (likely by request).
Anfisa Letyago was next and played techno that was more enticing for me, and the visuals started being cranked up by then, which was nice:
getting better
nice!
The night then finished with Broken Robot which was also a nice set, but not the most useful name to find since there were too many hits on google and instagram for it:
nice teaser for the next night
And that was it for the night, while not my favorite music, it was a fun evening nonetheless and good warmup for Transmission the next night.
Video Summary:
Back at Audio SF, this time for Arty. Glad to see some friends again:
I unfortunately need to point out the sound at Audio made things harder to enjoy, it was quite loud, and even my newer camera with sound gain turned all the way down, was totally overwhelmed. Our ears were too :-
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..
Just like EDC 2023 only had 2 days of trance this year at Quantum Valley, EDC 2024 on, it was nice to have another Dreamstate Pre-Party at Area15. Area15 was better this year than last year, they worked out some of the kinks from last year, which was good.
This year, we got to get in via the normal area15 entrance, which is prettier and more fun:
cool entrance
This year had a great lineup, and some very interesting B2Bs:
Great to see Daxson again just a few days after just a few days in Malta
Miyuki!
lovely to see thorgodofbass again
good crowd
Rinaly!
:)
Then we had cool B2Bs:
Then the night ended with a unique B2B between Blastoyz and Infected Mushroom, I have most of the set recorded below:
And here is a video summary of the rest of the night:
