40.000 trance lovers from all across the globe came together for an iconic celebration in Utrecht. ASOT is going strong on the road to 1000! We had the opportunity to join the biggest trance event in the world last Saturday at the Jaarbeurs and we had a blast!
Upon arrival at the mainstage for Armin’s openingset it was definitely clear that ALDA had planned on taking things to the next level compared to last year in terms of production. Huge LED-screens and ”balloons”, which gave us a bit of a flashback to the times when Sensation used these, were bound to create an immersive trance experience.
While we expected Armin van Buuren to start the night in a relaxed way, he surprised us and the rest of the audience with ‘Mr. Navigator’ and many trance tunes with a beautiful melody. While we’re mentioning Mr. Navigator by the way, we got the opportunity to chat at ASOT950 with Tempo Giusto. That interview will be online soon!
When we decided to take a small tour through the venue, as ASOT boasted once again 5! areas (including the Mainstage) focused on a different sub-genre within trance music, we noticed a brand-activation for Electronic Family. The festival, also organized by ALDA, will be celebrating its 10 year anniversary as well as final edition unfortunately this summer on July 25th. Ruben de Ronde, Markus Schulz, Cosmic Gate, Rank 1 & many more will be performing at Electronic Family and tickets can be bought through: www.electronicfamily.com
One thing, that makes ASOT so special, is the fact that you see so many different nationalities in the crowd, united by the sole fact that they love the same genre of music and come to get ‘in A State Of Trance’. It’s quite difficult to describe what that means if you’ve never visited a trance event. However, if you feel the energy building up inside while partying at the mainstage, can actually close your eyes and drift through space, then you know what it feels like.
We should also definitely mention that A State Of Trance is focusing on minimizing their environmental impact this year. Armin became an ambassador for the WWF and therefore ASOT950 was ”Plastic Smart”, meaning that the crowd was stimulated to hand over their plastic cups to the bar after finishing their drink in exchange for a voucher which could get them the chance to win cool prizes.
As there were so many different artists playing at the same time and Armin performed 3 times, we felt like going on a journey of discovery within trance, since despite the fact that Armin’s sets are amazing, if you live in the Netherlands, there are more opportunities throughout the year to see these sets, for example ‘This Is Me” at the Ziggo Dome in May. We were quite blown away by the live-act Skypatrol, which consists of ReOrder & Standerwick, at the Who’s Afraid Of 138?! stage. Their melodies were simply so captivating, as well as the constant high-level of energy within their track selection was definitely on point. If we made you curious, you can relive the Skypatrol set here:
We already touched the subject in our ”preview article” of ASOT950, but ASOT950 definitely made us even more curious as to how ALDA would be planning to top this event in 2021 for the milestone of ASOT1000. There was a short video on the LED-screens created to build the hype for ASOT1000 which consisted of old footage & old anthems which the crowd obviously very much appreciated. It didn’t really reveal anything as for what would be happening next year, but we’re sure that we’ll be in for a treat next year
At the mainstage another definite highlight of the event for us was the performance of Andrew Rayel. You’d almost forget that the Moldivian DJ & producer is only 27 years when you see him controlling the crowd on stage. He has played at Ultra, Tomorrowland & ASOT stages across the globe and his unique ”bigroom-trance” style makes it impossible to stand still. He’s doing super well with his own ”InHarmony Music” label at the moment and he played a lot of these tracks at the ASOT950 mainstage. Check Andrew Rayel’s set right here:
The Italian trance maestro Giuseppe Ottaviani had the honor to close the mainstage with the premiere of his brand-new 3.0 liveset. Luckilly we got the chance to catch up with him before that set, that interview will be online soon as well! It was definitely the premiere, as we could notice that it was very experimental what he was doing. But, it was 100% live which is super unique with 2 keyboards, several drum-machines & obviously a dj-booth on stage. To think that Giuseppe must have perfectly memorized every single musical note to re-create these gorgeous melodies. The trance family went nuts during this set as they understood how special it was what they were witnessing. Watch Giuseppe’s set here:
To conclude there’s only one thing we can say: ”See ya next year at the celebration of 1000th edition of ASOT!”