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.
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..
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!
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.
It was a bit of a last minute trip, and challenging to attend as all tickets (GA, GA+ and VIP, although they had different weird names), had sold out. In the end, although it felt risky, I was able to get some on stubhub, and thankfully they worked.
Just like EDC Vegas, it is also located at a racetrack in the middle of Mexico City, although I would say it is maybe only 50% of the size of EDC Vegas, but all the bits that mattered were there and I was quite impressed by the setup for what I was worried might be a lesser EDC. I was delighted to be wrong.
The one thing that may have been a surprise was the altitude (7350ft or 2240 meters) which will definitely get people out of breath. Thankfully I had just gotten home from a snowboarding trip at higher altitudes, so that was not an issue for me, but I could tell it was for others. The one surprise I didn't know about was a nearby volcano that has been constantly putting some amount of ash in the air, and that was affecting the air quality, making breathing harder, especially for those with allergies. Actually the ash was bad enough that it cancelled the fireworks on the first 2 days, and cancelled most flights a few days later as enough ash in the air will actually damage jet engines.
Back to EDC, arriving the day before helped a bit, and getting there via uber the day of, was not too bad (nearby hotels were booked or too expensive). The one downside was it was a very long walk from the dropoff point. It was so long of a walk that you could pay people on bikes to bike you part of it, but even then it took 15 to 20mn from the street to being at the security gate.
So, let's look at EDC Mexico. How does it compare with EDC Vegas? The venue definitely has room, although the footprint used is smaller than EDC Vegas. Yet, it was still big and all the things from EDC that I've come to enjoy, were there:
The Grounds:
lots of people getting in when we arrived on day 1
outside the venue was filled with unofficial vendors
after a long walk or hired bike ride, you got to the rainbows
nice owl during the day
and nicer at night, even :)
other nice burning man-like art
a much smaller pixel forest, but still nice
Many food vendors, including dicks :) but since they required that "stay in line to get some and lose anything left over every day" wristband money, didn't get anything, and vendors lost out:
Ah, one thing I need to mention is that smoking was prohibited across the entire festival, including vaping. One thing I read said "all nicotine containing products". Obviously nicotine is not great for you, but I personally don't mind if others vape. Not sure if it's over reaching or not, altough I personally didn't mind:
I already mentioned it looked like a smaller EDC Vegas, and it did. Electric Avenue was nice:
road to kinetic fields
definitely a good job decking out the place with lights
oooh, shiny :)
VIP area also had video games. Why not? :)
They had 2 very nice Ferris Wheels, which I always enjoy to get a view from higher up:
Let's have a look at the grounds from higher up:
stereo bloom
yes, it was in the middle of skateboard park, which made getting around awkward when it was full
nice LED art :)
The People
Great to see the insomniac performers, awesome team as always
the performers deserved extra credit for wearing costumes in warm weather and working in thinner air
OMG, and ran into pixies.poly, hard to recognize under that costume :)
Running into good friends, as always :)
and more :)
Also, finally got to meet Thor Wixom, videographer extraordinaire:
woot!
Day #1: Trance Day at Stereobloom. Mexico Love Trance!
Day 1 was mostly spent at Stereo bloom, as it had a great Trance lineup that day. While the stage was literally on top of a skateboard park, it was a bit weird from the attendee side, but the stage itself was stellar and the visuals quite good. They were not dreamstate mainstage or quantum valley good, but very close.
had just seen Rinaly weeks before at Unkonscious, but happy to see her again :)
Day 2, arrived a bit earlier (it also started earlier), but warmer air is more thin, harder to breathe and hot. Unless you're a local, it was definitely harder to party until the sun, until it set. No trance on day 2, so it was a good excuse to walk around and check out all the stages and other music:
kudos for wearing this in the sun :)
first time seeing kinetic field, it looked identical and as pretty as the Vegas one
Bionic Jungle was stellar, and used the beautiful jaguara from Burning Man, which was fantastic:
I have to give props to the visuals guys again, they were awesome
Went to check out VIP for kinetic fields for an OK-ish side view:
such a beautiful stage
Circuit Grounds also looked fairly similar to EDC Vegas:
Day #3: Another trance at stereobloom day, lovely!
Arrived just in time for some psytrance with Lumina
Interactive Noise
a bit of techcno in the middle
so went to check out Circuit Grounds in the blazing sun
Back for John 00 Flemming
John is always having such a great time :)
David Forbes barely made it (late plane), but did make it!
Then Will Atkinson came to bring the energy even higher!
By the time infected Mushroom arrived, the place was packed to hell, in an unsafe way (almost impossible to get in or out)
Maddix
Then back to mainstage just before Armin:
they did have lasers, but they weren't used enough in my opinion
finally, fireworks were allowed!
And that was it, end of day 3. Managed to get out in a dense crowd and catch an uber back.
Video Summary:
Security
First, I need to state that while some parts of Mexico need to be avoided carefully, the mexican government allocates security to keep big cities and tourist areas safe, so basically going to Mexico City (also called CDMX), is perfectly safe.
Security was impressive. They were *very* thorough, as apparently locals like to cheat, have fake wristbands and jump fences ;) and yet they did a fantastic job having the most thorough perimeter security I've seen, including double checks of tickets and thorough checks of wristbands before entering VIP areas.
More importantly I really appreciated that they focussed security on what mattered, while not being dicks at the entrance and during searches, unlike some other festivals I won't name, like one at a beach in holland :) I'm told that locals can be a hard to handle bunch, and they honestly did a great job without any unnecessary show of force, which I've seen in other places. This takes special training and restraint, and I was positively impressed.
The search getting in was thorough without being over-reaching, and yet efficient:
Should you go? Would I go Back?
After the flight to mexico city, it was easy to get to the festival or to/from hotels
Overall mexico city is way cheaper than vegas
Ah, but they had that bullshit wristband money that was required inside the venue. That is the one thing I was quite unhappy about as always. Not only forcing its use for people who already have contactless credit cards, is not ok, but worse, 3 day wristbands were 3 single day wristbands, and you lost the money you had on the previous day's wristband if you didn't use it. Absolutely unacceptable, but more generally while cashless is ok, forcing wristband money is not ok. I bought absolutely nothing in protest of this BS. I'm not standing in a long line to put money in a wristband to stand in another line to get what I wanted just to do it again forever unless I put a lot of money that I won't get back if I don't use all of it.
Festival was from 14:00 to 02:00 due to neighbors. I don't mind festivals starting in the afternoon, but the sun before sunset was punishing. It was quite warm and we went hiding in the shade until sunset.
that said 14:00 to 02:00 is 10:00h of partying for 3 days, so that's plenty, even the first hours under the sun, were be rough
I have no idea how they got away with going until 02:00 when people literally lived behind the stage blasting bass :)
Altitude and air pollution was no joke for many. Not a reason not to go, but keep it in mind
Like other insomniac festivals, all the staff truly cares and goes all out. MAny small details that get sometimes missed elsewhere, are usually flawless
Not as many carnival rides as EDC Vegas due to lack of space, but still a few and 2 nice ferris wheels
Smoking prohibited throughout the festival, was pretty cool, even if not 100% enforced.
Can't go to Vegas or afford EDC Vegas? If so, EDC Mexico is a very fine choice, you will not be disappointed.
Looking for a different vibe/atmosphere? Mexicans know how to party. The atmosphere was fantastic!
Conclusion
AMy first EDC Mexico, although it was sold out, it didn't feel too crowded. I think the capacity limit was probably related to the ability to evacuate, and except for stereobloom that was kind of a death trap with a big choke point if it was full, the rest of the venue worked out great.
Thoughts about the Mexico location:
it was easy to get to (10mn away from airport and enough hotels within 20mn drive)
Driving yourself may have been a mess, not sure how parking worked out, but while I was worried about not getting ubers on the way out, after walking 10mn away from the venue, was able to get an uber all 3 nights. Traffic was a bit gridlocked, so walking away from it also helped.
Kinetic field looks just like the Vegas one, honestly the whole thing looked like a smaller version of the Vegas festival while still feeling very well done, including lots of decors.
2 days out of 3 with lots of trance at Stereo Bloom (the local quantum valley). 3 day was used to go see everything else. It worked great.
Again, I'll repeat that lots of teams did a great job for this pretty flawless end result. Well done! But please stop the required wristband money bullshit, that part is not ok. Wristband money should only be for people who don't have contactless credit cards/pay by phone. It is not faster, it is definitely not secure, and keeping leftover money at the end of each day, is absolutely unacceptable!
I had heard about Unkonscious several times, but a festival across the world in the middle of my snowboarding season, wasn't super appealing for timing reasons. That said, FOMO kicked in and I was able to align a snowboarding trip in Hokkaido, Japan just before, making the "quick 7h plane hop" to Bangkok more appealing :) and jetlag less of a bitch :)
One big plus of Unkonscious is that they make your trip worth it, as while the main festival is really just 2x 12H days (or 2x 16H with the indoor after party on day 3 and 4), there 2 days with pre-parties and 2 days with after parties in Bangkok. That's a great idea and it made for a pretty intense 6 days, not for the faint of the heart :)
Travel, Where to Stay and Weather
As to where to stay, the first 4 days are not super close but close enough that I elected to stay at the main festival hotel for the first 4 days, and then downtown bangkok for the last 2 days, which worked out well enough. You can easily get rides with grab or bolt and they were plenty cheap by western standards. For that matter, Thailand is reasonably cheap for westerners, making the festival affordable overall.
Also, for those who haven't gone to Thailand, people are super nice and welcoming, although many have limited english, so having google translate on your phone is a must (and it works well). Also knowing how to use google maps to voice out a location and show it written in Thai (as you should not expect Thai drivers to know how to read Thai locations in roman characters).
Carrying my LED outfit and all the batteries through Japan along with my snowboards was extra work, but worth it. As expected every venue during Unkonscious was cool with it, no one gave me a hard time and honestly all the venues were happy to have extra party spirit:
If you ask, yes, it was hot as balls, and it was warm and uncomfortable to wear, haha. I wore more comfortable clothing during the day that LEDs would'nt do much good anyway (it got dark enough around 18:00, so that was 6 hours with more reasonable weather and temps):
We also got lucky that we didn't have rain, which is always a possibility.
So, 6 days, let's go for it:
after a little while, the sun set and it got dark:
The bar had plenty of alcohol, food was more limited and it took long enough that it felt like it came from a restaurant on land and was brought in via the next speed boat:
one Thai specialty is the 1.2L bucked of alcohol, saves time :) (and reasonably priced)
switched to my night outfit
great to see Richard Durand again
Video summary of the day:
Day 2: Pre-Party @ DAM Pattaya Beach Club
Day 2 was a different pre-party at a different beach club. Nice beach location and 2 DJs playing, one on the beach and one indoors:
light clothing to deal with the weather :)
The food options were good, but unfortunately required some fake paper money you had to buy in one place, then exchange it for a voucher, which finally got you food:
same thing with drinks although they were reasonably priced
buckers were popular
that's what the fake money looked like, and it could not be exchanged back or used from one venue to the next.
Before long, it was darker and cooler, so I was able to change and light up a bit:
brought a few lights :)
even got a chance to take that picture Ferry Tayle and I missed a few times :)
haha :)
Indoors was fairly decent for a beach club:
and we got an XXXL set from John 00 Flemming
Video Summary of Day #2:
Day 3 & 4: Main Festival Day 1 & 2: Alexa Beach Club
Finally this was the main festival. The mainstage was honestly pretty simple, it wasn't huge, definitely smaller than lumi mainstage and almost on par with stages 2 or 3 at lumi, but honestly it was big enough for the location and crowd. The entire event was not huge and that what made it nice, cosy and homely, I did like that.
Yeah, so it seems to be a Thailand thing, non refundable fake money you have to buy to be able to then buy things (which was still 2 or 3 more steps depending on what you needed, way too much work IMO). Not a fan...
note that the fake paper money from the previous day looked different and couldn't be used
hopefully contactless credit cards and phones will be allowed for direct pay in the future
Merch store that was reasonably priced:
The festival was then split in 2 each day: 12:00 to 16:00 was the pool party which was low key and easy to get in and out (security wasn't really there yet). Other bonus is you could order from the bar and restaurant from the full drink and food menu and pay with real money (which became not possible at 16:00 once the real festival started). Once I figured that out the first day with great disappointment of having lovely drinks on the menu being rejected as "not available until after the festival is over", I learned the lesson and got them during the pool party the next day:
nice to chill by the pool, listen to music and sort festival pictures :)
and a great time to chat with DJs too
nice and chill
nice beach too
pool party day #2:
working hard, or hardly working? :) Nice to relax for a change
haha, nice outfits :)
by day2 I figured out how to get real drinks
as well as very yummy food
By 16:00, the main festival started with mainstage and the psytrance stage on the 2nd floor of the building which had AC and that was nice because outside was definitely hot:
You could pay for VIP lounge areas:
The views sure were nice:
awesome sunsets
The psytrance area was nice:
And yes, it eventually got dark. It was super nice to just be able to walk by to the room and change:
Richard Durand did another killer set
a few of us brought kandi joy to the party :)
Craig Connelly was next!
And closing set by John 00 Flemming
Day 2 had more DJs and more fun:
yes, sunset again :)
fans were a lifesaving device, I can't describe how much I was sweating :)
But the big surprise of day 2 was the fire juggling which was stellar:
Festival Day 1 Video summary:
Festival Day 2 Video summary:
main festival afterparty
Both nights had an indoor afterparty from 00:00 to 04:00 if you wanted more. It was a nice indoor room:
main festival fun pictures
Many pictures were taken :)
wait, what happened here? :)
awesome to have met Katie Sirisinha, one of the organizers
Day 5: Post Party @ Venti Bangkok
Is 4 days enough? Of course not... After the main festival was over, 2 more days of after parties in Bangkok. After party #1 (day 5) was at Venti Bangkok, a nice club:
great to run into Somna who had just arrived
Rinaly did trance that night
and then Markus Schulz took over
Venti Bangkok Video Summary:
Day 6: Post-Post Party @ Eden Bangkok
Day 6! Last day! One last club, Eden in Bangkok:
Damn right, 6 days!
Rinaly was back for techno that night
awesome to have finally met Andy Moor
and that was it, finally over, 6 days!
Well, not quite over, Srangkun Sirisinha, Unkonscious co-organizer, went to play more tunes across the street, more trance still :)
And then it was finally over, time to run back to the room, pack, and go to the airport for a long trip back home to San Francisco
Eden Bangkok video summary:
Thoughts/Conclusion
Thailand doesn't have drinkable tap water, and no water fountains were provided at any of the venues, although none made a big deal if you brought your own water (or you could buy theirs of course, except for het first 4 days where you first had to buy the fake money)
Yes, those who know me know I don't like money or wristband credits that often fail and are completely unnecessary anyway. I hope unkonscious considers just accepting contactless credit cards, tap to pay, and phones.
As noted above, Alexa Beach Club (main festival) had a great food and drinks menu until 16:00 but those went away when the festival took over: the food and drink options went way down and fake money was required
It was a lower budget festival, and so what? People complain other festivals are too expensive, Unkonscious is definitely cheaper and we had heaps of fun with the DJs who came, even if a fair amount of them palyed multiple days (which honeslty I had no problem with). I loved the way it was, no need to change anything.
Should you go? Would I go Back?
very simply: yes, you should try to go if you can, it's definitely a unique festival and quite enjoyable in its current format. I'll admit that for people in the US, it's a long ass trip, but if you don't like winter, it's a good excuse to go visit Thailand which is a lovely country to visit anyway
organizers were super nice, do care, and it shows
security was more than reasonable at all venues, it was actually minimal and that was refreshing, it sucks to have to deal with airport or worse than airport security (that's you, lumi) when you're travelled across the world and paid quite a bit to have fun, have a good time, and honestly the risk level doesn't warrant over the top security
the festival being smaller in size (not in length) allowed for meeting the DJs more easily, which is always lovely
the attendees had a great vibe which of course made sense for a trance festival, but always feels great wherever you are around the world.
Thanks to the organizers, DJS and everyone who made the 6 days happen!
π
2023-11-17 01:01
in Clubbing, Dreamstate, Festivals
New year, new dreamstate, new venue!
beautiful
Ok, so for the first time readers who haven't been to previous dreamstate socals, please go read this Dreamstate Socal 2022 in another tab to compare and contrast. Then what's below will make a lot more sense.
Giving feedback/your own opinion/thoughts: please answer on:
So, the new Venue. Why the move from NOS to QM? Better or Not?
I didn't expect that this topic would be so divisive, so it was very interesting to read everyone's feedback over multiple forums. While I know some people at Insomniac and they've also been super nice to me, for which I am ever thankful, I do not work there or have any inside knowledge on what drove the move, the decision for this year, and the apparent decision to stay there next year that was made before people were able to send their feedback for this year.
So, I'm left to speculate and guess, like everyone, which I guess makes this a bit more fun :)
Let's start with the obvious reason:
"I'm on a boat, I'm on a boat, everyone look at me, I'm on an motherf'ing boat :)", SNL for the win :)
Haha, so now that we have this out of the way :)
(+3) LA people prefer going to Long Beach than San Bernardino traffic-wise. For people flying in, it didn't matter unless you're flying in to LAX internationally in which case the drive from LAX is shorter to LB/QM. I just changed this from +1 to +3 to account for the fact that traffic from LAX to SB did really suck on fridays, even if it did not affect non locals that flew in directly to Ontario or SB (see below)
(+2) Some people said they were getting tired of NOS and liked the new location just because it was new. I personally liked stages and decors they did at NOS so much, and those did change yearly, that I honestly didn't mind going back to NOS, it felt like a very happy home despite the ghetto-ish looking area outside, but I'l try and be fair and still give it a +2 in favor of QM as well as credit the insomniac folks for trying something new.
( 0) For people flying in, flying to Ontario or even a few direct flights to San Bernardino were about as good as flying to Long Beach
(+1) Overall people said SB was kind of a ghetto and felt unsafe. I feel that was over harsh, it doesn't look great, but I've walked back to hotels at night and never felt unsafe, never heard any gunshots, and honestly it felt safer than South Central LA that surrounds Banc of California. But most people disagreed with me, so LB wins this one
(-1): 02:00 curfew at NOS, 01:00 soft curfew at QM (it was really around 01:15 or so). People who pay attention will have noted that things started 1H earlier, and it was still dark enough to be fun for people like me, so we got the same amount of music at the main party, but especially on friday not everyone could get there as early at 15:00 to park, long walk or shuttle and get to the venue at 16:00 when it opened.
(-1) Hotels around the venue were not Cheaper in LB, probably more expensive overall. SB is not at nice and and more cheaper hotel options. LB has nicer hotels nearby, but they wre in the $300+/night range, which really adds up for people who aren't full of money.
(-1) People said it was far to parking lots/shuttles, SB was not much better. NOS has very closeby nearby premium parking, QM has none because the event took over the entire parking lot.
(+1): LB/QM has 2 good hotels that were walking distance in addition to the boat itself. SB/NOS had 3 hotels walking distance too, but they were very poor motels that are pretty ghetto, so LB/QM wins.
(-1) Staying on the boat is cool for those who were able to get room, but you couldn't park any closer than 2 miles away and had to take a shuttle to get to/from your car
(-1) Some people staying on the boat complained of non stop noise depending on their room location, since indeed the boat had 24 hours of music
(+2) for people on the boat, they were right onsite and could get in and out to their room during the event and after parties. I mean this is really a +100, but only for the few who could benefit from it, and with the caveats that in return they got noise when trying to sleep, had to park far away, and their luggage was subject to search before they could go to their room (long list of prohibited items, including not allowed to have certain foods or any alcohol in your room, which many cared about).
(-3) NOS in SB is just much bigger and has plenty of room for 7 stages or more as has been done during Beyond Wonderland. 4 Stages at QM really didn't fit well, the bridge to get to void was inconvenient and hard for people who can't do stairs easily, and the mandatory walk all the way around from void to dream was close to 15 minutes.
(-1): Due to the bridge to void, or the long long way around, LB/QM was less ADA friendly, unless there was some special ADA bypass in and out the event to get the short way across, but I didn't see one (actually I was told there was one, getting in and out of the event somehow, crossing the street in the middle, so I guess that's better than nothing, but the rest of us could not use that).
(+1) Having the real water in the background of the venue and the boat, even if it's ultimately an old tired boat, was still a better view than SB/NOS. At the same time I'm only putting +1 because the Insomniac crew can and does turn any venue into a magical place, so NOS really looks spectacular when they were done with it.
( 0): Safety inside the event was similar at both venues. It felt safe in both places, except for the unfortunate phone thefts at both venues. Everyone really should use phone tethers now. I hope insomniac finds way to put traps for those assholes that ruin the nights of people who get pick pocketed.
( 0): Temperature and Rain. Sure NOS was colder last year, but I looked up average temps for november in both venues, and they were mostly equal. I was also convinced that QM was more at risk of rain than SB, but I was wrong, for that time of the year, they are also mostly equal. The rain this year did suck though, especially in sequence that got deep puddles that swallowed my entire LED shoes, shorted them, and got my socks wet :-( It wasn't raining at SB when it was raining hard at QM this year, but apparently that was just luck or lack thereof and the tables could have been turned
(-1): Cell phone service: yes, different with different providers, but my own experience and anecdotal experience was that it was worse at QM. I do remember using group chats to sync and find people at NOS without issue several years back. Insomniac did offer wifi at some locations for VIP and Passport, but that coverage was limited.
(-2): NOS has at least 2 big indoor rooms (one was vision and another one I only saw used during beyond wonderland for a techno stage) that can be used for after parties. Those rooms are much bigger and better than the smallish rooms on the boat that were also quite hot and uncomfortable in m opinion.
(-1): Ghost stories about Queen Mary. It's not an issue for me, but some expressed concern about it, some think it's actually cool, and one person told me they had a not great experience in the boat related to that. That's all I'm going to say on the topic, but I guess I have to mention it for completeness
(-2): I'm sorry to have to say this, and I also know not everyone shares that opinion, so feel free to discard this point if you disagree: I really really liked the megastructure feel of dream and sequence at NOS. I don't have clear words to describe it, but that semi enclosed space with the lasers flying on to pf your head, and the sea of lights, people, dreamstate balllons and whatnot is such a magical feeling that I really missed this year. It could be brought back to QM in some way, but it won't fit as well as it did at NOS in my opinion, although I'll be delighted to be proven wrong. I'll also add that those exact words were given to me by multiple people, including DJs I asked, without my feeding them that answer.
(-1) I also missed the LED guys jumping on trampolines, it's an awesome show each time that we loved having at the end of the Dream megastructure
( 0): Not venue related, but yes there was a lot more techno and hardstyle this year. I'm not going to say I'm a huge fan of either, but if they are weaved in and out of trance that I do like, I can be ok with them. And according to ASOT and Armin, techno is apparently the new trance, right? :)
Is it ok to say that I missed this?
Winner? If you add my made up points, SB/NOS wins by 5 points. Yes, it's a biased and joke comparison, but I guess I was trying to show and pros and cons I found and heard. I understand that not everyone will agree depending on what they value.
I personally really preferred NOS because it's much larger, I loved the megastructures, the shorter walk between stages, and it has 2 much better indoor rooms that can be used for afterparties. This seems irrelevant to write though since DS has already been confirmed to be in Long Beach next year, and there may very well be other reasons that made NOS unsuitable that we're not aware of. The new venue can work better for next year and be improved, especially if it's taken down to 3 stages for 3 days as I explain in the conclusion at the bottom of this report.
I also need to be fair and point out that the Insomniac crew knows how to turn any space into something pretty. If it hadn't been for those leftover chargepoint chargers, it was hard to tell that you were in a big parking lot:
Even the bridge to void which kind of sucked and was only one way, they made it pretty and really cool. Actually I really want to make a point here, many of you know me as my IG tranceledguy, so yes I know about LEDs, I know how those things are programmed since I built in my own from scratch, and I know that some engineer or engineers spent a significant amount of time decking out that bridge and making custom videos and patterns to scroll on it. This is where the insonniac crews really go above and beyond, they really f'ing care and have a bunch of overachievers :)
For comparison, NOS may not be as pretty by default, but after the insomniac crew was done decking it out, it still looked stellar to me:
New Grounds: Long Beach by Queen Mary
Anyway, let's go back to the actual report.
Main Festival Feedback
New location, new backgrounds:
It's pretty:
While the venue was well decorated from an otherwise boring parking lot, and it was nice to have some pieces of burning man art:
Burning Man people will recognize this awesome piece of art, great to have it
let's note that those vendors were on the void side which felt so far that they didn't feel worth walking back to unless you really wanted to go to void
And yeah, the walk back from void to dream really sucked, including this tunnel that was crowded at times, and where people go their phones stolen :(
VIP was nice too, and had some of the sparse seating people said was missing elsewhere:
Security
It was a bit weird due to the venue, you could enter two different ways, towards the main venue, or towards the void. Once you were in, you couldn't take the short away across due to no in and outs. This really felt unfortunate.
Another point to note is that anyone staying on the boat did not have to go through security to enter the event. It was great for them, but that meant it relied on the boat to enforce festival level security, which was a bit weird (people staying there were rightfully upset they were not allowed to have alcohol or some other festival prohibited items in their rooms). I'm not sure what the right answer is on this front.
Queen Mary and After Parties Feedback
Queen Mary is realistically an old retired cruiseship, but it makes for nice pictures:
Insomniac did their best to help people figure the place out, it was not very obvious:
the map was needed, getting from Grand to/from Britannia was a long walk with many stairs
Nice views outside:
There were limited food options on the boat, no alcohol at night due to lack of liquor license after hours, but insomniac made sure that people at least got water, which was nice:
Bathrooms were more of a problem, in the worst case scenario (britanica), you had to go 1 floor up, across the entire boat, and then 2 floors down, and all the way back. That's over 10 minutes and a lot of stairs for tired people and some who had issues with so many stairs but didn't have an ADA wristband that would have allowed them to take an elevator. Something to improve for sure.
But yes, it did look cool at night from Dream:
Rain
Yes it rain, drizzle on day 1, then it poured in the middle of the night during after party, so much the the place was still wet and muddy, especially in sequence on day 2.
Day 2 was ok-ish until the last hour when it rained fairly hard, not really fun for most, but at least my outfit didn't short or catch fire :)
I'll just state here for the people who didn't like NOS and SB, that it did not rain there while it was raining in Long Beach
People
Of course, a big part of what makes Us insomniac events so much fun is the people who are part of the party.
It's also a good excuse to take Trancefamily pictures:
Dreamstate Balloon
Great to see my usual 4 dreamstate GFs :)
So many DJs, thanks for taking pictures with me
very cool chat with Boris from Electric Universe about his laser harp show
The truth is that Dreamstate is about the people, all of you! We would probably still have lots of fun in a safeway parking lot :)
Day 1
Anyway, this brings us to the Festival. Day 1 started bright and early with Miyuki at 16:00 and many of her fans made it to represent. It was impressive.
Miyuki had lots of fans
Day 1 Summary Video:
Day 1: Queen Mary Afterparty
it was awesome to see Blastoyz again, but sad that he had to play as 'secret guest'
Day 1 Afterparty Summary Video:
Day 2
After getting to bed after sunrise and having hotel breakfast as late dinner, plus repairs on my LED outfit that broke on day 1, arriving on time for day2 was more challengings and I totally missed the day parties. So, I started Day #2 with Somna, lovely set:
Richard Durand at Vision was loads of fun even it meant I missed Craig vs FactorB:
More psytrance at Sequence with Reality Test:
Then the laser harp show from Electric Universe was very cool, especially for those who knew the origins from Jean-Michel Jarre:
For comparison, that was Jean-Michel Jarre in 2017 at Berkeley with is laser harp dating from the 1980's:
Fun fact about the Laser Harp, Jean-Michel Jarre's version is different and older technology he has used since the 1980's, and the internet says "t was patented in 1982 by the French composer Bernard Szajner, but the Australian Geoffrey Rose claims it was his invention and that he had taken out a provisional patent in 1975-1976".
After that, it was time to see the end of Armin's set at Dream:
By 01:00 and change, the actual dreamstate was over, and for the lucky ones who were able to secure after party tickets, it continued on the boat until 08:00:
Day 2 Summary Video:
Day 2: Queen Mary Afterparty
it was starting to get late in the night, but great to see more from FactorB
Day 2 Afterparty Summary Video:
After almost 40 hours, it was nice to see the sun come up a 2nd time, and walk back to the room for some much needed sleep:
Sunrise!
Aftermath and Conclusion: Should this not be 3 days and with a bit more sleep?
For all the diverging opinions on the new venue, I think everyone will agree this event was unique:
Points to Insomniac for trying something new, whether it was required or not, and honestly a lot more things went right than what went wrong given how different it was for them, so thumbs up on the end result!
The lineup for what was supposed to be a 2 day festival, was absolutely insane
The after parties lineup alone was bigger than many main festivals
If you want to be technical, this Dreamstate was not a 2 day festival, but literally 40 hours long, non stop. It started Saturday at 16:00, ran until 01:00, after parties until 08:00, saturday day party until 16:00, main festival day 2 until 01:00, and more after parties until 08:00. 40 hours total with 3 to 4 stages during 32 hours out of those 40 hours, woot!
So yeah, people got tired, multiple complained about the lack of seating at the main festival, although it was easier to rest on the boat:
poor technicians got close to 0 sleep
I smiled shen I saw some FB posts and comment of people complaining they were already 30, so they were not that young anymore, and needed more places to sit/rest :) Let's not talk about the OG Trance Ravers who are closer to 50, including many of our favorite DJs :)
My personal opinion is that it was too much in too little time. I realize that extreme FOMO due to all the great sets you are missing every hour while being there and trying to see it all, is probably meant to be part of the event, but I'll also say that in my opinion it's too much and not necessary to that level. 3 days would make it better.
Sure, the after parties allowed me to see some of the DJs I missed main sets on, at the expense of even less sleep, and that only worked for those who were able to get the limited after party tickets, and let's be honest again that the after party rooms were not great (hot and stuffy, inconvenient to get to, and with limited facilities)
So I'm going to ask questions that are at the same time suggestions:
If Dreamstate is going to stay at Queen Mary where the 4th stage (Void) really didn't fit with the bridges and long way around, and just added more conflicts, why not have it 3 days and 3 stages only?
For anyone thinking I'm crazy for asking for only 3 stages if we're stuck at QM and its smaller footprint, I'd like to point out that Dreamstate Harbor only had 2 stages, they were 3mn walk apart and I loved it. I had so much less FOMO, felt I was able to see a lot more, and the main issue was the midnight curfew and lack of afterparties. Having only 2 stages that were both so good that I still had a hard time picking between them, was more than plenty. Tell me if I'm crazy, but hopefully in that context, my 3 stages 3 day proposal is not that crazy.
I know you guys are all overachievers and always trying to do better, we love you for that, but I don't think we need to many artists conflicts and so many hours with so little sleep. My friend Niko started the day party on saturday at 08:00. I'm told he had 5 people attend his set. It's both sad and understandable.
Can we bring back at least 2 megastructures (sequence and dream), and it's ok if we leave vision as is, or if it becomes the new void and vision gets dropped?
Bonus points with megastructures, you can put some mesh that will let some wind through but block at least part of the rain
More lasers please. Everything is always more better with more lasers :)
Find a way to nail the pickpockets, please.
Can the cruiseship terminal structure be used as an indoor stage for afterparties?
If we have to use the Queer Mary for afterparties again:
bathrooms on all floors
more ventilation/temperature controls in the rooms. We were dressed for cold weather outdoors and got into stuffy and sweaty rooms
more food options, they were very limited
all elevators for all, please.
I'm not an alcohol person, but people who were were disappointed to have none due to liquor license on the boat. There may not be a fix to that.
The lighting and general production quality inside the Queen Mary felt poor on multiple levels. I'm not sure how much it's fixable but also a point that this boat is not really a great party boat, it's really an old and tired cruiseship, sorry if I have to state that. I also remember lighting in those rooms that was basically flashing spotlights into the crowd and blinding people dancing. Not sure if that's the best way to do it :)
Should you go? Would I go Back?
Despite the challenges with the new venue, the event still went really well overall and was a lot of fun. There are so many great things about DS and all of you coming and making it what it is, that it's hard not to have a great time. So it's another "hell yes"
I'll repeat again and again that all the staff truly cares and goes all out. It wasn't perfect but it went quite well considering, and again stuff like the LED bridge was far out. The getting around to void was a mess, and they made the back path 2 way half way through the festival, which was still a real time improvement.
Security was definitely nice overall, hopefully the event is still secure enough.
It was an insane event like I wrote already, it may not need to be that insane, I think 3 stages over 3 days would be better if we have to keep using that venue, but either way it was awesome again.
I'll give the same answer to "Is it worth flying across the world for?" If you like trance and you want a better production value than many european shows (not counting Tomorrowland and arguably untold), yes, it is worth going to. Only 2 days, but it's really good and the night decors and costumes are much better than what you'll find in Europe.
Yes, night and lights and costumes make festivals way more fun, if you disagree, I'm sorry :)
I had only done one Transmission so far, and it was Transmission Prague 2019 in O2 Arena. I was beyond Epic!, so that set the bar high because it literally was the best indoor show I had ever seen.
The location felt a bit weird, inside a convention center, and at first, I was going to go to the wrong room with another show:
wrong place :)
After walking around the building, got to the right place. The show started at 15:00, but since it was indoors, it was dark enough for me:
swee lineup
Security was fairly thorough, and very intent on taking your unopened water so that you were forced to buy theirs inside, which is annoying to say the least. And not just that, but they also used some stpuid fake money rechargeable wristband system and they kept all the unused credits at the end. I honestly find that petty and insulting :(
WTF, guys, please stop this fake money BS
Thankfully they were not worried about my outfit, and I was able to secure a special wristband, just in case :)
Another local thing I saw in Thailand was VIP is for peasants. They have Very VIP, and Super Very VIP :)
Glad to run into friends and make new ones as always:
thanks Marie for getting me to come here
Anthony was surprised to hear my voice on this side of the world :)
And the best for last, Blastoyz!
The show production value was very good for what was otherwise a big empty room. Not to the level of the O2 Arena hat was much better equipped for this, but still about as good as you can make a show within such a space.
lots of phones were watching the show :)
The show started with Jonny B, a local who played nice trance at all the events I went to:
Daxon was next, I met him at Untold, and he did great for both shows:
Next Xijaro and Pitch played another great set with lovely remixes:
Stoneface & Terminal came next:
Cosmic Gate also did a nice set, different from their usual one:
After that, we got Ferry Corsten as SystemF, a great trip back in memory lane:
Marlo Tech Energy was a fun set, zero fucks given, and nice back and forth journey between Trance and Techno:
look at all the phones :)
did we have enough lasers? :)
nice fan club :)
After that, was Will Atkinson:
going to the front was challenging, but went from time to time
And saving the best for last, Blastoyz got to finish the show, just last transmission Prague, and we got to enjoy his high energy beats and triplets. So much fun as always:
And that was it, 9 hours, 15:00 to 00:00, lots of fun again.
Video Summary:
Should you go? Would I go Back?
Transmission is festival that is single day and single room, so in that respect it doesn't compare with bigger festivals. Single room can actually be a plus in my book if it's packed with the best artists you can get, and that you like them. I sure loved their selection, so I didn't need more rooms full of conflicts and something ridiculous like ASOT Utrecht with 5 or 6 rooms where you are missing great stuff every hour.
As for single day, if you could the pre and after parties, you could almost say it's 3 days, so that makes the trip more worth it. That said, is it really worth flying across the world, for (over 24H of flying for me)? I'd say probably not unless you have another reason to travel here, and that's easy to fix, I'm going diving nearby afterwards :)
Back to transmission:
the room setup, lighting, and lasers were top notch
the story and transition between artists, was very enjoyable this time again
Security was "thorough", both because they worry about muslim terrorists apparently (over 6000 people killed by them in Thailand :( ), and are intent on making sure you don't bring water :( (tap water is not drinkable in Thailand)
I realize that too many countries in Asia do not have drinkable tap water and the culture is to use an endless amount of non recyclable plastic bottles that aren't recyclable and mostly end up in the great ocean plastic garbage pile, but offering water to refill from big water containers, would be super nice
I'm really annoyed by the fake money wristband BS, it's a waste of time, it's petty and just vexing, especially when they make it clear that they will keep left over money you didn't use. Charge what you need to charge at the entrance, and stop playing games, please.
All is all, it was a good show and worth going to if you can fly there reasonably easily, but Transmission Prague was a much nicer arena (vs a room in a connention center)
Conclusion
This was my first festival in Asia, so that made it special. It was interesting to see different kinds of crowds, but at the end of the day, we're all trance lovers, and this unites us. Even though I was far from home, I felt right at home. Thank you.
