Dance Valley 2005, 5-7 August

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Soda Jules

New member
Just to put the record straight – in case you’d heard about Dance Valley over the last few months and then assumed that because no one had written a review it must be crap you’d be very wrong. It’s more like anyone who went either (a) didn’t want to come home and is still partying in Amsterdam or (b) it’s taken a very long time to piece it all together.

Anyway, what a weekend! That was fookin’ brilliant! Four of us went - Me, Cathy (missus) and mates Kim & Simon. We booked for a long weekend (Thu – Mon), so this review covers the whole weekend ‘experience’ rather than just the two days of music at DV and is probably the longest review you’ll ever read on OSA. If you can’t be bothered to read it all, just skip to the end (links to photo gallery) and start saving to go next year.

Thursday
We didn’t want to have to get up at stupid o’clock on Friday morning to catch a flight, so went straight from work to the airport Thursday and spent a night out visiting a few coffee shops in Amsterdam. Good way to start the weekend.

Friday
Friday morning, catch train out to the suburbs. Dance Valley shuttle bus waiting for us, and it was about a 25-minute journey out to the Spaarnwoude Recreation Ground. By the time we got off the bus it was pissing down, and a bit of a hike to the entrance, although as we approached the queue to get in, staff were there handing out waterproof ponchos. Good thinking.

Queuing to get in was probably the worst bit of the whole weekend – took over an hour (although there was a DJ at the entrance playing tunes to get us in the party mood already). We British are used to queuing, and it was very apparent, that the majority of people here for the weekend were indeed British. As we neared the from of the queue we could see why it was taking so long – staff were searching everything including all camping equipment. It appears most people had decided to hide stuff in wash bags and inside pockets of bags – most of which was found and confiscated… Not expecting a camping bag search I’d made no attempt whatsoever to hide anything – bloke searching my bag dived straight past the weekend’s-worth of drugs that was just lobbed on top and poked around every pocket and bag underneath without finding owt.. he he he…

Over a big slightly scary bridge made out of scaffolding and chipboard to the campsite. Campsite was well organised with 24hr café bar, food stalls, camping shop, clean toilets, hot showers. Considering this was set up for the weekend, facilities were far better than all those French campsites I had to endure as a child. Rain had eased off and we could hear music starting up from the DV arena, so lobbed up tent and head back over to explore.

There were supposed to be something like 15,000 people camping for the weekend, and the Friday event was exclusively for the happy campers. The full DV site wasn’t open, but there was still 8 tents/areas open – each with its own theme/genre. 2pm ish now, and walking past the Reactor tent, this place was already bouncing to Vin-ILL. Bit hard for our liking so continued tour round site. Many of the DJs we were interested in that day (Nick Warren, Sasha, Carl Cox) were due to play on a main outdoor stage, but as the rain got heavier we sought refuge in the Renaissance tent. Nice décor in this tent – drapes, chandeliers, etc.

Absolutely chucked it down all afternoon – don’t recall ever seeing that much rain. But tunes in Renaissance were top quality all afternoon. Danced to Nick K, Marcus James, Behrouz. Rain was unrelenting still. Some people even turned up in the Renaissance tent in an inflatable dingy – they moored up at the back of the dancefloor and sat in their boat chilling out and drinking beer.

For some reason (to go and get some Gaviscon tablets I think) I got sent back in the rain to the tent. Very bizarre walk that was ‘cos we were well tripping at that stage so the footbridge made out scaffolding and chipboard was a bit mad. Walkway to the footbridge was getting a bit muddy so the DV staff turned up with a digger and tipper truck full of woodchip to spread on the passageway. Hilarious watching them trying to coordinate flow of people with the digger movements… no, the objective is not to shut all the mashed people IN the compound with the tractor dumping bits of tree everywhere.

Behrouz was cut short by announcement – apparently not even the mighty Sasha could compete with the rain so if the people won’t go to him, take him to the people – so on comes Sasha. Pretty fine set actually – can’t remember what was played but danced all the way... Behrouz came back on and at 7.30ish the rain stopped and brilliant sunshine flooded in to the tent. Massive cheer went off, and everyone legged it outside to jump around in the sunshine. DJ must’ve been thinking ‘what the..’ :confused: as hearing huge cheer from crowd, looks up from the decks, and everyone’s fucked off!

Then Deep Dish came on. Started off okay for first half hour, technically mixing was spot on, but the music wasn’t really going anywhere so we went off exploring. Went next door to the Electronation tent to try and catch Alter Ego but we were a bit late, but stayed for Agoria for a while – pretty good. Looked in again at Deep Dish, but still hadn’t moved on – way to prog for my liking and crowd not too lively. 10pm ish walked over to Eurogrooves – a trance tent – not sure what the décor theme was but there looked to be giant colour-changing condoms hanging from the roof. Arrived to catch Eddie Halliwell and the place was bouncing. The attitude of the DJ can make such a difference to the atmosphere: There’s Eddie Halliwell jumping around stage waving his arms, making vastly exaggerated movements at the mixer making each knob and fader look the size of dinner plates – crowd really responding to him, whereas across the road Deep Dish is nothing more than head that pops up from behind the decks every 5 minutes or so… zzz.

A few Dutch were chatting to us in Eurogrooves tent. They all seemed very proud that so many Brits had come over to their festival. Bought us few beers and everything. Marcel Woods did the last hour. Big shout out to everyone from the UK (huge cheer) – finished off with a silly version of Smells Like Teen Spirit. End of a top quality day…

Back to the campsite. Had some sort of steak sandwich thing. Decided to give café and silent disco a miss – big day tomorrow.

Saturday
Work up earlyish. Music from café was still going. Not raining – excellent! Hot shower, get up, etc. Outside the campsite shop some people turn up in a Hummer and set up large sound system. Just in case anyone was still asleep they start pumping out Bob Sinclair - Gym Tonic and two girls in bikinis are on the roof of the Hummer trying to get all the campers to join in their workout – proper Carry on Camping this! Starting pissing down again… after so much rain yesterday people were just stood there in the mud shouting ‘Fuck off’ at the clouds… didn’t seem to bother the bikini workout girls.

Music at the main site was due to start at 10am, but it was still only 9.30ish so we wandered over to the café in search of a coffee and shelter from the rain. The Friday-night party people were still dancing from night before – plus a few asleep on tables… obviously too much hassle walking back to the tent. Don’t serve coffee here? Just alcohol? Oh well, beer it is then. Went down pretty well, so let’s have another… By the time main site opened at 10am we’d sunk half a dozen or so beers… good start to the day.

Had a bit of wander round the site, now with far more arenas open as they were expecting something like 60,000 today. Found the chill-out zone, which appeared to be a load of sofas dumped in a field along with some challenging-looking hammocks. Laughed at lots of daft people who had obviously seen all the torrential rain Friday and, going to jump around in some very muddy fields with 60,000 other people, must’ve thought “Hmm.. I know. I’ll wear a white suit and trainers”. Obviously not English. Now we might have not looked the trendiest in our shorts and hiking boots, but at least our feet were warm and dry.

Had a look around the stalls and then made our way to Loveland tent to listen to Laidback Luke. Loveland tent was themed as ‘fire’ with a vintage fire engine centre stage and more girls in bikinis and fire helmets, etc. on cherry-picker platforms stretching out over the crowd. I’m sure many people would find Laidback Luke a bit too commercial and cheesy, but considering it was only 11am he’d already got 1000 or so people dancing. He was playing ‘uplifting house’ with various songs we all know dropped in from time to time, such as What You Waiting for?, Song 2, Groove is in the Heart. Stayed on to hear the first bit of the Housequake set then, as the skies had cleared, ventured outside to the Armada stage (themed as armada battleship, with DJ on top deck) for the start of Stonebridge’s set.

Stonebridge was excellent – good quality house music, nice mixing. My favourite so far, (although house music is a bit slow for our Cathy… she called it “pleasant chill out music”). As Stonebridge’s set was nearing the end, the rain clouds were gathering again, so over to the Concept tent (all metal and shiny theme) to catch the start of Kevin Saunderson. Stayed for a while – seemed okay, but a bit hard & fast for our mood at the time.

4pm(ish) headed back over to Loveland for Dr Kucho, Dimitri & Eric Nouhan, and Seb Fontaine. Er… can’t remember too much about this part of the day, but we stayed in there until 6ish. Must’ve been good.

Weather cleared up now for a nice evening. Walked up hill to where the Main Stage (house) and HQ (trance) arenas were. These sites were HUGE. Watched Eddie Halliwell again on the HQ stage – definitely Cathy’s favourite of the weekend. Although we were a few hundred metres back, you could still see Eddie there jumping around moving those giant knobs and faders on the mixer. Danced there for quite a while. Nearing the end of Eddie’s, set I decided it was time for some more refreshments before we head down for Ferry Corsten. Walked about 3 steps then Eddie drops in Adagio for Strings by Tiësto (a local lad, apparently) – right, we’re staying for this. Showman Eddie’s now managed to find a large Dutch flag and is stood on the decks holding above his head, kissing it, worshiping it, then he’s jumped down the front of the stage running up and down with the flag above his head… crowd go nuts, etc. Shove that up your arse Deep Dish. :moonie:

7.30pm - in position then for start of Ferry Corsten’s set on Main Stage. The area is basically a fairly steep hill with the stage at the bottom of the hill, so really good view wherever you stand. Corsten’s set was spot on. As usual, I’m rubbish at naming any tunes played, apart from him predictably playing his own ‘Rock Your Body Rock’.

We stayed at the Main Stage until close at 11pm, but things were very hazy by now, but I can recall:
• Everyone waves at the Dance Valley helicopter dropping confetti on the site.
• It getting dark, then the biggest fuck off lasers I’ve ever seen coming from the main stage – everyone stops dancing and just looks up open-mouthed going ‘woooahh’
• Ferry Corsten finishes and Paul van Dyk takes over
• Despite the state everyone was in, it was dark apart from light from the lasers, and there were 60,000 people there, we managed to meet up with Brixonite with a surprisingly few amount of text messages that went something like “Where r u?” “Main Stage”, “Where abouts?” “On left”… How mad is that?

And then it finished, what appeared to be way to early, although it was indeed 11pm curfew. Wandered back towards the campsite whilst watching the fireworks. Definitely not ready for sleep yet, so into the café where a few hundred others were already dancing to a CD being played from behind the bar. Everyone well up for it in there – just a bit bizarre when there was a gap in tracks on the CD – all these mashed up people stood on tables and chairs just grinning at each other for a few seconds, and then we’re off again into the next tune. Had enough by about 5am, so headed back to tent. What an excellent day.

Sunday
Woke up 10ish. Sunshine! The music from café was still going, although in an attempt to clear everyone out they stuck Elton John on. Had some juice, coffee and food then packed tent up. Cathy was complaining her back was really hurting now, and had been a bit sore since around Friday lunchtime. Turned out (after a visit to the Doctors on our return) that she’d slipped a disc somehow on the Friday lunchtime and as a result has been of work two weeks. Must admit – I’ve got big respect for Cathy for dancing for two days with a slipped disc.

Security guards obviously keen to get people packed up ASAP. They were going up to any tent not being packed up already, and whacked it with sticks. If no one shouted from inside, they just pulled all the poles out and collapsed the lot. Simple, but effective.

25min coach transfer back to Sloterdijk station – everyone looking a bit worse for wear – one girl even passed out on the way. Anticipating we’d be in need of some comfort on Sunday, we’d booked a decent hotel literally opposite Central Station. We pile in to the shiny marble lobby unshaven (just the blokes, that is) and covered in mud. Doesn’t matter – our money is good here. Up to room and trash bathroom by washing our muddy boots in the bath with a high power shower, then chill out. Popped out later for some beer and kebabs.

Monday
We hadn’t wanted to rush back home, so had booked a flight back Monday night. This gave us an extra full day to explore the sights and smells of Amsterdam. Or rather, wandered round the city, did a bit of shopping, and then had a wobbly afternoon with some mushrooms, lots of beer and pinball in one of the bars. Quality!

The End
And that’s about it. The four of us are definitely going again next year, and already got quite a few other mates interested. The Dance Valley event was really well organised – from coach transfers, the campsite, friendly staff, cash machines on site, wide choice of food, and – take note UK event organisers – despite having 60,000 people there, we never had to wait more than 2 minutes at a bar the whole weekend. :p

I think with so many different arenas and DJs, there was more than enough for everyone. We’d planned ahead by working a list of ‘essential’ and ‘desired’ viewing for the weekend, and surprisingly got round to seeing everyone we wanted to. It was so easy to get from one arena to the next – even walking from the entrance to the HQ arena on the far side of the

There are hundreds of photos from the festival on the UDC website, some of them dead funny. Go to http://www.udc.nl/ then select ‘FOTO’S’. If you go to ‘foto archief’ there are around 40 photo albums, each with 80 or so pictures.

Only 11 and-a-bit months now to Dance Valley 2006… :thumbsup:

Jules
 

Danny

Active member
Jul 22, 2002
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Excellent review mate! Glad you took the time out to write one .... Thanks for that :)

Each and every report I have heard back from DV has again been ecelent this year, with all my mates in particular saying it was unbelievable despite the weather. They even managed to have it in a supposedly tip-top afterparty until the early hours of sunday morning before heading back to camp. :thumbsup:

I'd love to be able to afford the trip and return again next summer, as last year's, like this year's i imagine, was mind-blowing. Probably up there with the best weekend of my life :thumbsup: Glad you got to experience it all mate :)

Have to agree with you about Deep Dish too mate. They were the same at Global Gathering - with very lenghthy mixes, and tracks that seemed to take forever to end or move anywhere. Although their mixing was spot on, their set on a whole was very dull - would'nt advise anybody to waste their time going to see em' play to be honest :S

Deffo gunna try and make next year's one after that report! :cool: Let's hope the weather's a bit better thou eh :thumbsup:
 

Soda Jules

New member
Glad some of you liked the review and stuck with it... well, it says 'full reviews only please'. It was partly for my own benefit, as so much happened in such a short space of time, its good to try and remember it all. As stuff came back to me over the last couple of weeks, I wrote it down. Got some photos somewhere if I can find the camera again!

Lozzie said:
Deep Dish play Proggresive. Thats why it was dull, boring and moved no where. Proggresve house=Frustrating house! Apparently peeps like it for the tecknicalities.
You're quite right, and I did appreciate the technical aspects of the mixing and stuff, but as Danny's pointed out previously, the 5-7 minutes inbetween just isn't good enough to hold our attention. I suppose given the choice between listening to some bland tunes mixed perfectly, or some decent uplifting tunes mixed indifferently, we'd all go for the latter.

brixonite said:
I had a great Saturday... all ended a bit early tho. :O(
Mate, you should've stayed on site after it ended. We go to the trouble of smuggling you into the camp site past security, then you decide to get the bus home and walk straight back out again! It wasn't like a prison camp or anything - they were more than willing to let people leave in the morning. Everyone's camping next year though, eh?