The experience of Sensation ‘Angels & Demons’ at the Amsterdam ArenA!
Around the globe people are familiar with the concept of Sensation. Not very strange since ID&T has been putting on great shows for over 15 years now. Last year there was the celebration of ‘The Legacy’ at the Amsterdam ArenA and now they return with the theme ‘Angels and Demons’! We were intrigued by the trailer and the line-up so we just had to be a part of it! Check out our experience below!
The Amsterdam ArenA is one of the best indoor-locations that The Netherlands has got to offer. Normally it’s home to the matches of Ajax Amsterdam, but for Sensation it had been transformed to a party-dome. We got there early because of the extra security measurements and it didn’t even take super long to get in. Our high expectations for the decoration were met when entering seeing the stage completely in the middle of the ArenA and we couldn’t wait what was going to happen for the opening with Sam Feldt.
The well-known Sensation voice started the opening and it was clear that it had been thought out really well. We were spell-bound and got goose-bumbs in anticipation of the story of ‘Angels and Demons’. After some pyro-technics display Sam Feldt revealed himself in the DJ booth which actually was turning around all the time, perfect because then everybody could see him well.
We kind of expected a more tech-house start but Sam Feldt warmed up everybody with loads of his own tracks which can be characterized as lots of catchy vocals. In addition to that it was really cool to see the whole crowd dressed in either black or white. The dress-code was clearly an added value to the atmosphere.
The Battle (Mr. White vs. YAX.X) was up next, we weren’t really sure what to expect of that but thanks to the interview we did with YAX.X, which will be online soon, we had a rough idea of what it was going to be like. It truly was a battle with Mr. White, obviously dressed in white, representing the angels and YAX.X dressed in black representing the demons. It truly was a real battle with fire and red lights rooting for YAX.X and bright lights rooting for Mr. White. There were no limits so they battled with hip-hop, trap, metal, house and old-school-sounds. At the end of the battle there wasn’t really a clear winner so they continued by doing a b2b including the anthem for which the vocalist Brad Mair showed up, a nice touch, and quite impressive to witness live.
One of our highlights of Sensation is what happened for the intro of Robin Schulz. Suddenly 4 aerial drummers showed up with clothes that were lighted up and they kept drumming pretty high in the air. An absolute stunning sight! Robin Schulz did pretty well keeping up the vibe. His set was relaxing.
We decided to get something to eat before David Guetta would start his set and also have a look at the Obscura area in the Deluxe-zone of the Amsterdam ArenA. The Obscura area was quite small and completely decorated in black. Eventhough Bolier, who was playing at that moment was playing, was doing well it was not busy at all and not a lot of people were dancing either, a bit of a disappointment.
We must say that we had our doubts whether David Guetta would really belong to the Sensation concept and were surprised to see him on the line-up. The intro he had was nice though and he has played 1 hour and 45 minutes filled with hits. More importantly the crowd digged it and kept jumping and throwing their hands up in the air. MC Gee announced that the crowd consisted of 50.000 people. We were really surprised because despite that we had definitely enough space to dance.
Nicky Romero had the difficult job to keep the energy flowing after the heavy big-room set from David Guetta. The Protocol Recordings boss had no trouble with that at all and had adapted his set with a couple more breaks than usual. The vocal tracks like ‘Warriors’ were sung along by the entire crowd which was great to experience. The sound during his set was exceptionally good and it seemed that they were really well prepared for the acoustics of the Amsterdam ArenA.
Sensation was definitely special for Don Diablo because he was making his debut on the event. A well-deserved spot for him on the line-up in our view but programmed a bit late in the night. It was dope that he premiered one of his upcoming tunes called ‘This Is What We Started’ and that went off. Further his set was all about the chill house vibes.
Yellow Claw made an announcement recently that was shocking for a lot of the fans. Bizzey (the MC) will not be performing anymore. For Sensation there was another MC with them and he clearly did his best but it was definitely not like Bizzey. Personally we enjoy Yellow Claw and their ‘F*ck genres’ attitude but clearly the majority of the Sensation crowd was really tired and not really into their set, a shame.
Conclusion
Sensation isn’t your typical indoor-event. It’s a very well thought-out experience. The show has been really great and most of the DJ’s sets were very enjoyable. The theme Angels & Demons might have been used a bit more in the show effects since we found the focus was a bit too much on the Angels-side. If there’s something that we would add to the concept it’s a Trance-act. It would make the transition between the acts easier in our opinion. Despite our critical view one thing is for sure: Sensation should be on your bucket-list and the relatively high ticket-price is totally worth it!
© Festivalling.com
Reporter: Alexander Bouten