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)
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:
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!
It was great to have Solarstone back in SF, this time for a day show, which worked out just fine for me as I had just gotten back from Texas Eclipse Festival less than 24H earlier, and was kind of jetlagged in the wrong direction :)
The 2nd good luck is I'm not a fan of outdoor shows, especially in SF where weather is unpredictable, and sure enough it rained that day, so the show was brought indoors, which was perfect for me, I much prefer dark anyway :)
Solarstone did a lovely OTC from 15:00 to 20:00, starting nice and easy, and ending with a long list of bangers:
Great to run into friends again:
We had a fantastic time, and Rich was nice enough to stay for pictures until we all go kicked out:
I had planned for the so called Great American Eclipse of 2024, and thanks to my friend Marc Antoine who lives in Austin, I did indeed pick Austin as a destination, and at the same time, he told me about a big festival. I was invited to join NAPF, North America Psytrance Family, and we had a great group camping spot just next to the psytrance stages, woot!
I was able to bring my outfit and find a way to charge it nightly without external power (more on solar below):
As a one off festival, I found it was reasonably well organized, at least from what I got to experience:
- ok, tickets were weird, you had print at home tickets that told you they were good enough to get in, but that was not true, they had to be swapped for actual car stickers at will call. Thankfully there was a convenient will call at the airport baggage terminal with virtually no wait when I arrived a day early (thursday)
- early entry on thursday wasn't bad, by then they worked out the kinks of stupid pointless searches trying to take people's vitamins and other personal items that are more than reasonable to have in your vehicle and campsite (like tools to fix things), but I was specifically very annoyed with them feeling they had the right to go through people's personal drugs, over the counter, or prescription and take everything away that wasn't prescription in original bottle (if you have pill boxes, you're screwed). Thankfully by thursday they had less time to search people's stuff, but still, not acceptable
- My wait in line for search was less than 15mn and the search of my car was 5mn, at most.
- The drive in to the NAPF camp was long and slow on a very dusty road, took over 20mn. All in all from the outside road to camp was a bit less than 1h, not too bad
- I've been told that of course the next day (first official opening day), it took longer to get in, and for people with RV who had paid for and reserved a spot with power/hookups, didn't get them, either because they were partly oversold, and/or because some people who hadn't paid for the spots, took them :(
Setup
I was able to bring a reasonable tent in my check in luggage to austin, as well as enough of a solar system to use the rental car battery as a power station that would get recharged by the panels I bought. It was a bit last minute, experimental, and rough looking, but it worked well enough. The couple of times when I didn't get enough sun, the car came with a free generator ;) (external generators were not allowed in camping):
please don't judge, it worked :)
charging the LED outfit batteries from the car batteries, in turn recharged by solar panels
North American Psytrance Family's (NAPF) camp
We had a nice little setup:
Venue/Grounds
Pictures from arrival:
car search line
many camps, reasonable signage
pretty dry and dusty overall, but a few places with water
the nature looked pretty nice in places
The venue
After getting to camp with early arrival on thursday just before sunset, setup camp and went to check out the venue. All the stages were not open yet, but enough things were running:
festival grounds had several entrances with a pretty quick somewhat pointless looking search
it wasn't burning man, but there was a descent selection of lit art
Lots of vendors of hippie gear :)
And other misc things:
A reasonable number of food options for all tastes:
They had multiple water refill stations and lockers, although the water refill stations ran out at times, which was not ideal, and I'm told they were turned off (no more water) on monday afternoon after they asked people to evacuate, not great...
multiple first aid stations, but apparently they were underequipped (more on that below)
the general store I went to was reasonably equipped, but the prices were hidden and very high
the better VIP area had an IV station where you could pay a lot for some fluids
A few "art cars"
The grounds were quite big and had multiple areas:
There was even a nice river and a makeshift beach:
To pass the day, they also had 2 stages with talks, some were pretty interesting:
great to see Rick Doblin again to talk about his work
The festival had close to 10 stages, 6 of them were pretty big. Honestly they were impressive given that they were indeed in the middle of nothing. The only downside was that the map was pretty poor and it was not too obvious which stage was which from the symbols. But yes, the stages were pretty:
NAPF was adjunct to the Ether stage, so we had our own party:
A highlight was to see Oakenfold's day set:
People
Like each festival I go to, I always enjoy the party that other people bring, with lights, costumes, and more:
glad to see the same friends across different festivals
TFSF represent
Videos
Drone show:
Samskara show:
Small summary of the event:
Nice Lit Display:
A minute of my outfit:
Eclipse and Evacuation Day
Early Departure
Monday morning, with barely a shred of a bar on one of my 2 cellphones, I got an urgent message that said bad weather was on the way, that everything left was cancelled (including the main party monday night and the DJs I really wanted to see), and to evacuate as soon as practical. I was weary that the traffic to exit would be terrible, especially from the southernmost camp, about as far from the main road as you can be, so I packed everything in 15mn and got on the exit road. Thankfully I beat most people to it, and was only delayed an extra 25mn or so by the people closer to the exit who had had more time to pack up and get in line too. All in all, I was out to the main road in 45mn, which wasn't bad. While I expected burning man level exodus lines and many hour long waits, I heard most people got out in fewer than 2h, which wasn't bad.
By then, the weather forecast was such that we wouldn't be able to see anything, so I figured I might as well leave early, but most others chose to stay until after the eclipse and some had renegade parties and stayed until tuesday anyway. The very bad weather that was forecast and caused the organizers to cancel the rest of the event, ended up not happening, but after a statement made by the organizers later, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and that they acted reasonably given the forecast they had at the time. It's true that if hail had come, or even just a lot of rain, the whole event would have become a muddy mess with potentially many cars stuck, getting everyone else, stuck there.
my early departure plan worked out pretty well
obviously not the only car in line, but we got out pretty well
Eclipse
I had looked at the weather forecast enough to have 0 hope to see the eclipse, as the forecast was for a solid overcast and then some rain, but with the evacuation I got out about 1.5H before totality and figured I'd go drive to my friend Marc's ranch about 1h away to spend the rest of the time with him.
Sure enough, the weather did not look good:
from time to time, the sun poked out for a minute or so
made it in time to Marc's ranch
and as we got closer to totality, the sun became visible more often
yes!
and yes!
not bad for a handheld camera
and before long, it was over
and the sun went hiding again, that was close!
Thoughts/Conclusion
Medical Facilities
There were concerns with the medical staff, they had plenty of it (good), when I got bitten by a big spider, I was able to see someone quickly enough to make sure it wasn't poisonous (also good), but for at least one person who needed more serious help, apparently they didn't have a defibrillator at most stations (causing one person not to get medical care for over 45mn), or even a more simple blood pressure monitor, which was suboptimal.
Apparently at least one person died, most likely due to lack of timely medical care, but it's also fair to say that when you have so many people in one place, by the sheer law of numbers, someone is likely to die anyway.
I'll also add that prompt first rate medical care was not included in the ticket, when you're in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a field, more than 45-60mn away from a hospital, expectations should be set accordingly.
Other things
The map in the app was not very useful as it didn't show you where you were on it. An attendee nicely made a pretty good web based map with location dot, but unfortunately it mostly didn't work for me and wouldn't show me where I was. Getting around was somewhat harder than it needed to be.
Water locations were not well indicated on that map either and were not easy to find at night
The festival did have a wristband money scheme, but thankfully it was not required and all vendors also took contactless credit cards, so that was the best of both worlds. I happily ignored the wristband money scheme and used my phone to pay without issues
The security started wrong (taking people's vitamins on their campsite location, totally not ok), but they loosened up over time. Honestly the perimeter to the inside festival was mostly to keep honest people honest as they say. It was trivial to get past the fence in many places, but at the same time, who would travel all the way there just to try to sneak in? I think it was just enough for good measure
I'm not entirely sure what was meant to be disallowed between the campgrounds and festival ground. Once a security person was trying to take a can of mixed drink I had (which did contain alcohol), but that's about it. You could take food in as far as I know
The water points were not 100% reliable, which was a potential problem, but I brought enough of my own water that it didn't matter
There were no official showers included with the price, not even for VIP, but there was a spa built not too far from my camp that offered showers for $16, a reasonable enough price considering.
VIP was a bit of a ripoff in my opinion. The "expedited" VIP entry was totally pointless, there was no wait ever between my camp and the festival grounds. One VIP area had a couple of interesting things and better toilets (although still no place to wash yourself), the other VIP area was just a few toilets and shade, nothing much. I definitely regret paying extra for VIP.
Conclusion
Honestly, given that this is not a yearly festival in the middle of nowhere in a place that wasn't used for that before, a lot of things went right
The stages themselves were actually pretty good considering it was the middle of nowhere, I was pretty impressed.
I'm told the organizers spent several months getting the site ready, including adding the dirt roads to get around and making all of this possible, just once, for only a few days. My impressions were actually "not bad at all".
Price may have felt a bit high, especially VIP that offered very little for its added price. The add ons like group car camping (around $250 extra), early entry (another almost $100 extra), did add up.
The cancellation on monday was very unfortunate, I think it was the right call, but it really damaged the event. The organizers promised a partial refund, still waiting for it at the time of this writing.
All in all I still had a good time, the eclipse itself was fantastic, especially since we were some of the few people in Texas that actually had enough clear sky to see the eclipse when it happened.
It was not my first Beyond Wonderland, but definitely the best one yet, as Insomniac made it even bigger at NOS this year, adding more rooms and more stages. They definitely went all out on the decors, and it totally sold out.
The small lake looked even better this year:
Festival Grounds
As I said, even bigger this year, especially a new Factory93 techno stage in the back:
Chesire Woods in the middle had dreamstate on day2 and was beautiful
The pond was split in two with a big bridge in the middle decked out with LED patterns
about as beautiful as it's been
their LED guy did good work
A fun thing was the half useless maps and directions, to help you get lost:
the map was very approximate, but pretty :)
Queen's Domain VIP (aka mainstage) was nice:
Plenty of nooks and crannies to find fun stuff:
Passport was very nice:
And the usual fun vendors:
And the part my non night festival friends sometimes miss, is how different (and not as exciting), festivals look during the day without all the lights:
the calm before the storm
big chairs to sit in ;)
People
The insomniac performers were top notch again:
And people brought very nice costumes too:
led2rave4 backpacks are awesome
Great to run into friends again:
pixxie.poly was easier to recognize this time :)
Ulrich, in his official work outfit :)
All the way to the Trancefamily Meetup
Day #1
Anyway, let's not get to the two days of festival. This year, beyond started earlier, 14:30 with a pre-party before everything else opened at 16:00. We did arrive too late for that on the first day due to pretty bad traffic delays at SFO airport, which is worse than usual right now, but arrived just in time for sunset, which is the magical time for beyond anyway:
new factory93 techno stage this year
cheshhire woods was a beautiful stage
After the event was over, went to check out the after party, but it was 2 guys playing basic EDM that wasn't too exciting, so it felt like a better idea to try and find an uber to get back to the hotel that was not walking distance ($70 with tip for a 10mn ride, that was not fun...)
Video of Day #1:
Day #2
Day 2, came back early to check out the grounds before they got mobbed, and see the Trance DJs:
nice!
Gareth played a nice classic set, I liked it
Bryan Kearny closed the trance stage
Video of Day #2:
Should you go? Would I go Back?
I was supposed to go to Miami Music Festival/Ultra this year, but it didn't happen in the end, and they ended up getting a lot of rain, which dampened the event somewhat. Still, I do want to check athat out too. Hpefully next year.
Back to Beyond:
Honestly it was cold this year, and the light rain in day 2 didn't help. Maybe it's time to consider moving the event a bit later in the year?
Decors were fantastic again, and the event was even bigger this year. Best one yet.
The many theme appropriate performers were still there, maybe more even, and it really added to the event.
I'll repeat other insomniac festivals, like EDC and Dreamstate, all the staff truly cares and goes all out. Many small details that get sometimes missed elsewhere, are usually flawless
Security was more than reasonable as usual, thank you
San Bernardino still worked out for me. I definitely preferred the bigger venue compared to the more limited footprint of Queen Mary where Dreamstate got moved last year
It was extended from 17:00 to 02:00 to 14:00 to 02:00 plus an afterparty until 06:00. That's more than you can do :)
8 stages this year? Definitely a lot...
There was only trance on Day #2, but that gave me a chance to go explore all the grounds and see other kinds of music.
Like last year, I'll respond to: Is it worth flying across the world for? I would go to EDC first, and then Dreamstate for the music (despite lesser decors and costumes compared to BW), but if you are able to fly there, it's definitely a fun festival to attend. If you cannot afford EdC Vegas, as it's not cheap, BW is probably the 2nd festival in the world I'd recommend after EDC if you're not looking for a trance only festival. It is really good and just a beautiful atmostphere.
