Marc's Public Blog - Clubbing and Trance

great to see Rochelle again

thanks Ilan for the great music

so glad to be back!

2020 was obviously the year from hell for lots of things, including festivals. EDC had a 2.5 year gap, and Dreamstate ended up with a 2 year gap, but despite probably losing a bunch of money during the pandemic, Insomniac did a great job putting a quality show as always, dealing with all the extra difficulties (artists cancelling due to covid, other artists unable to get visas to enter the US), and yet they went back to 4 stages instead of 3 in 2019.

Of course, many of us had fun at EDC Vegas a month ago, read more here: http://marc.merlins.org/perso/clubbing/post_2021-11-22_After-a-2_5Y-wait_-Our-next-EDC-Vegas.html , but while EDC has trance, it's not about trance, Dreamstate of course is about trance!

Unlike creamfields where some of the extra stages were honestly shit visually and audio quality-wise (and their security was dicks), insomniac made sure all stages were as good as could be, even the smallest one (void).

The lineup was solid like I said:

Pictures libraries:

The Grounds

The decors were great and the VIP areas were shiny:

If you didn't bring your own lighting, they had you covered:

The stages were as follows:

The dream stage was quite pretty, well done

The sequence, psytrance was ok-ish but the DJ booth wasn't lit well, so you could barely see who was playing

vision was good enough, but still had the annoying line to get in

even the smaller void, was good too

The People

TFSF's Katie-Ann did a great job with her psy outfit :)

That's not counting Afik's LED totem entourage, an ever growing list :)

Of course, we had our local trancefamily groups:

For the LED/tech nerd that I am, it was great to see more people with LED panels, some were able to use some of the code that I published online and make their own improvements on top:

really cool totem with 12 RGB panels (more than me, but less resolution than me), run by an FPGA card, well done!

of course Afik's trusty totem was here

and I had fun with my outfit :)

Day #1

so great to see Haliene again

also great to see Thrillseekers again

life is always better with lasers ;)

it was special to see Emma Hewitt, it's not every day

I've seen Fadi 6 times in the last months, but still love him each time :)

for those who don't know him, he is literally the nicest guy on earth

And to save the best for last, after Paul Van Dyk, was Ferry Corsten's Gouryella which was truly a religious experience for many, myself included. I still remember hearing it in what turned out to be 2016 at EDC at Circuit Grounds after consulting my archives :) Thank you so much Ferry for playing this again, albeit an updated version:

just seeing the lyrics brings the tunes back in my head :)

what a finish

Thank you Ferry.

Wait, you're saying you missed this? Well, don't worry, I recorded a bit over 2/3rd of it in my video summary of Day #1 (starting at 59:43):

Day #2

the calm before the storm :)

Jorza

Excited to see Xijaro & Pitch

Anthony pointed out the irony that as a blind man he got to play at the 'vision' stage :)

the costumed dancers were very good as always

Got some triplets from Whitenoise

absolutely delighted to see Alpha9 again, I enjoyed his set each time

FactorB again

Definitely enjoyed seeing Zero Gravity Arts again:

truly dope ass outfits

Super nice to see liquid soul, always smiling and happy with the joys of psytrance :)

Gareth back on mainstage

But I went to see Craig Connelly, because well, that was not even a question :)

Definitely enjoyed Blastoyz's set

Yoji Biomehanika

went to check out Aly & Fila's UV set

and finished the night and festival with Reality Test

And just like that, the 2 days, 18H of trance, were over. Thank you to insomniac, all the artists and everyone who brought in outfits, smiles, and good vibes.

Video summary of Day #2:

Conclusion

'till next time:

woohoo!

so glad to be back

The Grounds:

On day #3, I went early (before sunset), I was able to talk myself into the big ferris wheel and got a special ride to the top when it wasn't opened yet. Got some great shots of course:

Too bad most people missed sunset due to the opening times:

the calm before the storm

I later got a ride on the 2nd ferris wheel as soon as it opened at 19:00:

this one

a few things moved, a bit more ground was used

this was a cute addition

favorite burning man art as always

firmament

always a crowd favorite too

nice parking job

sure, I went for a few rides, even more fun when you're not sober :)

Downtown EDC was well setup:

Lots of stores too:

great to see Pixel Forest again

unfortunately the pixel forest tunnel didn't have the fantastic music/visuals combo it had in 2019

Fireworks

Fireworks of all 3 days:

The People

kandi meetup

And great to see more LED totems, even if I'm still the only wearable LED outfit:

this totem was nice as it allowed taking pictures, videos, and replaying them

And of course, got to meet an ever growing list of friends:

normally we have more folks. We will next time!

so great to meet trancejesus in person

Triode and Kifi

Mark Estes who wrote some of the animations (like this one) on my outfit

But let's not forget my friend Afik I first met at EDC, and turns out we live close enough to one another. We became good friends, along with all of Afik's friends, a dedicated group in TFSF and TFLA:

are there more beauiful people?

also met Rory first on the internet, helped him with some code now running his furret totem

And there are so many performers that get ready for us:

I feel so thankful that we were stll able to have some of my favorite DJs:

Fadi totally slayed, and he's such a nice guy. 'You again' indeed, 3rd time we met in a week :)

Lots more people of course:

damn, respect!

And yes, people waited a long time!

And of course, the party within the party:

But anyway, let's get on with the festival:

Day #1

lots of busses waiting at mid strip to take happy ravers

no line when I got there around 17:45, but the busses weren't going yet

Happy to see Khromata, even if it was only for the last bit of her set:

Quantum Valley looked nice, but the atom bar in the middle blocked the screen for many pictures

So good to be back:

I spent most of my time at Quantum Valley, trance head that I am, but tried to see a few others too:

Ciaran Mcauley

So great to see Haliene live again

This was my beef about the atom look of QV, it messed up the screen and pictures:

Paul van Dyk

Paul Oakenfold was next, he was a complete mess, totally coked up, a disaster with the microphone when his buddy didn't take said microphone to make things worse. He even totally messed up a mix, reset a track from the start and played it twice, because 0 fucks given. So sad, he's such a pioneer and truly one of my idols. This is why you shouldn't do drugs, kids, or pick them carefully :)

so happy to be here :)

yes, I see you :)

but really, I'm bored out of my mind

I spent some time to check out Kinetic Field with special access just in time for seven lions:

I used my prototype code that lets me send custom messages from my phone

I then stepped back a bit for a better overview

it was then time to come back for some good psytrance from reality test:

she was nice to see her fans after her set was over at 05:30

Video Summary:

Day #2

Great to see Alessandra Roncone again

After randomly discovering Say My Name at the last EDC, I went to see him again:

Seeing Vini vici for the 3rd time in 2 weeks :)

I was excited to see Pendulum Trinity again after seeing them at Creamfields, good show.

Video Summary:

Day #3

Z-Trip did slay, so happy to have seen him in person. It's a shame that he played so early, which caused so many people to miss his set:

Z-Trip did slay, so happy to have seen him in person:

I also took the time before the main festival opened to see the calm before the storm:

And then the gates opened and everything else started:

And back to the trance stage for a lot of great sets:

Went to see Eric Prydz with my friends. Interesting visuals but too techno-ish for me:

So back to the trance stage to catch the rest of cosmic gate:

Holy shit did Aly and Fila's Fadi slay. It was funny, it was my 3rd time seeing him in 7 days, but loved it

Also had a bit of fun, took pictures, saw people:

nice view from the passport grounds

And I finished the last night with a B2B between Saymyname and 12th planet:

Video Summary:

It was literally my first time staying until the end of EDC (my flight at 08:15 was just late enough that I could stay until 05:30, catch a shuttle back to my room, arrive at the hotel just before 07:00 and take an uber to the airport to catch my flight out: The ending ceremony was underwhelming, not a big deal that I missed it in the past:

thank you, come again :)

The different security staff that day had a quick look at my stuff, but again was nice enough to let me in without issues, although they didn't allow people to come in with even an empty bottle of water.

Back at Panama, Panama, I missed you, and your 20cl glass bottled municipal water, as well as 2 euro fee to go use the toilets (but they are nice, you only pay once per night, and I didn't first have to exchange my money for worthless tokens, so it could be worse, haha. That was my fee to go refill my bottle of water)
It's not a huge venue and it was packed to the brim, so it definitely gave for a more intimate feel. Everyone was having a great time. Actually I wondered if anyone was sober at all, and by that I don't mean beer, haha. The crowd vibes were just amazing:

the VJs did a good job with lighting and lasers

Paul Thomas opened at 15:00:

The Thrillseekers was next, Steve did another enjoyable set again:

Factor "I can't believe I'm getting paid to have this much fun" B was next, OMG, he was on fire:

bring it on!

Good to see John O Callaghan next, as always he's more calm and composed, but that didn't stop him from another great set too:

Did I mention FactorB was having a lot of fun? :)

Aly and Fila was back again, and we didn't mind :)

FactorB went to enjoy that said in the crowd, with us

The studio had Road Kahan and then Suncatcher & Exolight, happy to see them again after Untold in Romania:

Back in the main room, Bryan Kearney was next, and played trance that was less hard as usual. I enjoyed it more as a result:

And Manuel Le Saux closed the night:

It was also great to see the newlyweds Robert and Nadine Nickson for a group picture:

Manuel nicely played a song for them:

And after 9H the night was over, so much fun, one more picture with Suncatcher & Exolight, it was cool to meet again after Untold:

Video summary:

Panama was not as full as the next day, but still pretty packed

Fadi was super nice with the crowd as always

Video summary:

the T-Shirts were ready :)

I did my best to represent TFSF

The show started at the ASOT studio and was migrated live to AFIS:

Mark Sixma was next:

Then, Armin took over for a 2H set, I had my outfit ready for him :)

we even got some live singers

great to see Susana again, singing her new single with Armin

The last hour was Vini Vici, both of them this time (so funny that I literally was with one of them a few days prior in SF):

While it was only 5H and really a warmup for the real ASOT 1000 rescheduled to feb 2022, given that we were all hungry for parties again, it was great to have this night:

It was also cool to be on the official stream quite a bit, like here:

Full Stream, I'm visible during these offsets: 3:07:45, 3:17:09, 3:40:21, 4:07:59, 4:09:39, 4:20:06, 4:20:17, 4:23:37, 4:39:51, 4:48:29, 5:04:48, 5:13:44, 5:21:40, 5:47:11, 5:50:54, 6:16:27, 6:18:58, 6:25:08, 6:25:57, 7:14:01, 7:14:57

My Video summary:

AFIS Life was nice enough to let me in with my outfit without issues, overall the Dutch are more pragmatic, so I wasn't overly worried (except for that Luminosity incident in 2019). I was there 15mn before it opened, so I got in quickly, but made the mistake to take a few pictures before heading for the rail, so I never made front row during the night, but I still had a great time :)

security was quick and painless

The lineup was 6H and very varied:

I had never seen Christina before, she played some good trance

Mariana Bo was also full of energy, good show

Armin won the 'highest trance award', haha

Then came the top 10 DJ results:

Armin got #3 again, not bad

And David still at #1

AFAS Live was a pretty big venue:

they had lasers, but they were fixed, could be a better setup I think

from a distance, it looked nice though

It was a good night. The only downside was AFAS had pick pockets, which thankfully would have struggled to get things from my weird pockets, but that's not cool. That was a first good night, 3 more to go :)

Video summary:

Pretty Pink started at 18:00:

It got dark, went to see friends for pictures:

Andrew Bayer took over after an hour:

And by 20:00, Above and Beyond took over:

It was a bit short (only 4h), but a good night. Definitely a good night:

good crowd on saturday

Video Summary:

It was 3 hours of triplet bliss, thanks to all!

Video:

Bright at early in the afternoon due to a 02:00 curfew

friends from arount the world, re-united

nice TFSF kandy :)

Hi Ryan :)

And it was picture night, woohoo!

great to meet Somna

I recently added that for Sean Tyas :)

so nice to finally meet GO, he's a bit crowd shy :)

even M.I.K.E. and Sean at the end

Time to party :)

did I say the lineup was stacked? yes, it was

vynil classics

So many sets happening at the same time. I saw a good part of Somna's set, but wish I had done the entire set

Findtherabbit doing an excellent job with visuals, Somna's set was so much better with them

Jumping back and forth between stages:

Sean Tyas, great set too

Somna then handed over to Alessandra Roncone, I think it was a first for her in SF

But there was more, things just didn't stop:

Did I mention lasers?| Life is better with lasers, isn't it?

But it wasn't time to stay in one place, if you did, you missed out:

fuck you MF :)

M.I.K.E. finished the night on mainstage:

And that was it, the night was over, so much good trance, absolutely the best event TFSF has ever had. Ulrich, you outdid yourself, thank you!

Ulrich and Sony

Video Summary:

And after party at Afik's, thank you;

By 05:00 it was finally time to go home, after such a great day, thank you to all.