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)
π
2021-11-19 01:01
in Clubbing, Dreamstate, Festivals
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!
so glad to be back!
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:
As always, it's not EDC Vegas level eye candy, but it's still quite good, nothing to complain about :)
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
Of course, what makes Dreamstate and EDC magical, is not just the eye candy that Insomniac brings, but what the attendees bring too, from good vibes, costumes, and totems:
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, let's start with Day #1, I got there bright and early, 17:00 when it opened:
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
After just enough sleep, I had a bit of time to write some extra code for my LED outfit, including adding some DJ faces (see bottom for Craig, Liquid Soul, and Blastoyz), and an extra trancejesus has it on vynil screen (see above). I then went a bit early to check out the grounds before everything started for 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
And I have to thank, you know who you are, for expanded access and being able to meet so many artists. Thank you!
