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)
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 detecttor, 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 I know of.
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.
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:
