Another Dreamstate has passed and what a fantastic time it was for me. Lots of good around the festive grounds and amazing music being played no matter where you went. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for both nights as I’ll explain later. For now I want to discuss my experience this past weekend.
I got to the grounds just in time for Will Rees on the mainstage called The Dream. One of my top acts to catch, he played a variety of harder styles of Trance and Uplifting. Alex Di Stefano started right after Will and played some banging Tech Trance like his tune Now Get On Up and Cosmic Dawn by Mark Sherry and Richard Durand. I walked around the grounds to familiarize myself with the festival and caught the first female b2b set ever at Dreamstate, Kristina Sky & Orla Feeney. Emok was across the venue in the Psy stage called The Sequence. Then I made myself comfy back to The Dream for BT, Estiva and Giuseppe Ottaviani, who also played his Live set that got the place jumping with excitement with every track he played. I skipped the beginning of Vini Vici to catch Cold Blue in The Vision before leaving to get out of the stuffy hanger into the Megastructure to catch the remaining set of Vini Vici, who to my surprise played a great finishing set. I finished the night with Cosmic Gate as my girlfriend felt sick and we went to the hotel to recuperate.
The next day was open for me as only a few sets were on my list. My friends wanted to catch LTN who played a nice Progressive Trance set. Ruben De Ronde went next in The Dream but we caught a bit of Darren Porter vs Talla 2XLC for some harder Trance. We watched the US debut of Astrospheres which was the duo of Robert Nickson and Driftmoon. They were more melodic than the harder edge happening in The Dream with Bryan Kearney. A name that I forgot was there was Sander Van Doorn and his Purple Haze alias, which was outstanding. Then came my girlfriend’s request to go to The Vision and catch Argentina natives Chris Schweizer vs Heatbeat. It was such a eclectic set that was in my top 5 best sets. Then came the debut of Tech Trance phenoms Mark Sherry and Scot Project’s duo Gentech. They did not disappoint and I’m happy I caught 30 minutes of their set to catch the return of Ferry Corsten’s System F. It was a blast getting to hear his Classic Trance tunes. Then we finished the night with Lazerface by Gareth Emery, but I was underwhelmed with the production not being more insane and some of the music he played lacking panache. I left after saying my goodbyes to the world of Dreamstate.
Overall the festival was great. There was sound bleeding from The Dream to The Sequence stage that could of been avoided. Plus after weeks of hearing about people getting pickpocketed, I became extra aware with my items. Luckily I didn’t lose anything, unfortunately not everyone else can say the same. There were still people getting their things stolen and even a fight occurred at the front of Gareth’s set due to someone catching another trying to steal their phone. Not much can be done as bad people will always show up anywhere so you need to rely on yourself, be aware and surrounded by people you know. My hope for next year’s Dreamstate is to have each stage divided far enough with no sound bleeding, more unique art installations (like the spinning one in the back of the mainstage (why was there only one???)), newer DJs that don’t often come to the US and new headliners. Dreamstate will continue to be loved by many ravers and will be flooded with beloved Trance fans. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be ranked with the likes of other legendary Trance festivals around the world.
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