FSOE Weekend – Amsterdam – Feel the Trance Family energy love

 

Club Nights event Friday 14 April & Aly & Fila – Open to Close Saturday 15 April 2017

It’s been already a week ago since we all had the opportunity to experience an amazing Trance Family gathering like no other before.. I still feel it tingling in my bones, an involving wave of love, still buzzing in the air I breathe.

Introduction

Of course, there is a story behind it, and I’m here to tell you all about it. What made this experience different than others? Many things, all finely combined to sum perfection.  But first things first, I must tell my state of being the days prior to the event. Because, you see, it’s not only about the preparations and excitement; I knew already weeks before, deep in myself, this was going to be a weekend to stay forever imprinted in my memory.

For the first time my good friends Tina and Marco from Germany were coming all the way to stay together with me at my home. I was really happy about this, because I so much love having people visiting me in my little Dutch town. A small town, although capital of the youngest Dutch province of Flevoland, in the real polder, just 65 km northeast Amsterdam, which doesn’t awake much interest for tourism comparing with other cities in the Netherlands. Maybe due to its calm status and its scarce social life, Lelystad is a green city surrounded by water and doesn’t have many big attractions to offer. Being myself a social person, it’s mostly me the one going to places to meet my Trance Family; but this time was different, my friends were coming by car fully packed with food and drinks, ready to spend an amazing weekend the 3 of us together. And what better excuse than a 2 days weekend FSOE at Panama venue (one of my favourites for Trance parties) in Amsterdam?

The days prior to the so much awaited moment for them to arrive I was under much pain. Mostly due to stress and other personal stuff, I was having a hard time with back pain. I’m a really strong person, and I’m used to being alone and handle things on my own, so I knew this time wasn’t going to be different than other times. I wanted them to feel fully at home, happy and I was really excited about the whole experience in order to make the best out of this special weekend together.

They arrived on Friday late in the afternoon; I must say that although I knew them and trusted them I was still feeling a bit wary about it, specially having this awful pain I was taking under control with painkillers. I was happy my friend  Ivonne (originally from Bolivia), decided at the last moment to join us, it was really important for me  to have extra support. The fact that we could all go together by car was ideal, it saved us time traveling and was also less heavy for me in this state.

Friday, I’m in love – Club Night event

So, after the proper introductions, we all set ready to go direction Amsterdam. The party was starting at 22:00 and we were already a bit behind schedule. Although I was happy we were all together, during that moment of the night my back was hurting badly but I knew that the moment we would meet the rest of our friends and listened to our beloved Trance music, everything was going to be ok. And so it was! It was great to go into Panama, the 4 of us really excited about the whole event. At the entrance I’ve got my special press wristband with backstage pass (which I didn’t found out where it was!), greeted Stuart Roberts – manager of Aly & Fila – and after making some pics with the host and hostess dressed all in rich beautiful Egyptian style, we were ready to go for it!

The 4 of us went directly to the main stage, meeting lots of familiar faces, greeting them, hugging, all this euphoric feeling of being at the right moment in the right place was kind of coiling all through my spine. We finally got to the front row, where mostly all of our friends were dancing while talented Australian Factor B was at decks in a B2B with Robert Nickson, giving both an impeccable set. I’m lucky I have seen both of them before at other parties, and I must say this was a great performance, really high vibes to start an unforgettable night.

It was also a great surprise to see our Trance Family friends coming all the way from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, people we were not expecting to see at the party. Friends from all around the world, a great diversity of different nationalities, race, sex and religion were all gathered this night. This was pretty amazing, especially since knowing the actual state of the political situation in the world. I must admit I don’t follow the news at all, because I get easily influenced by them so I rather live in a state of magical trance, it makes it easier to survive my daily life.

It was Ferry Tayle’s turn, whom I greeted at the entrance and had a small chat with, asking him about his health since I knew he wasn’t able to play the weekend before at ReadyForDisorder in Prague due to an ear infection. But there he was, alive and kicking, giving it all and he clearly surprised me playing lots of Anjunabeats tracks. In my opinion it felt as he was kind of taking it easy, still managing to maintain the vibe. What can I say? The whole Trance Family feeling was alive, I felt a really special atmosphere, people were happy, enjoying the moment, as if there was nothing else than us drifting deeper into the sound.

And then it was time for Fadi, 1 hour set to leave us asking for more, maybe in anticipation for the following day with his so much awaited Open to Close.

But during the first part of his set I started feeling again acute back pain so I told Tina to go and have a smoke (I only smoke at parties, kind of social smoking let’s say) with the excuse to go and sit for a while. The smoking room is located behind the bar, and you can enter either that way or through the small room (second stage); fate wanted us to go first to the smaller room. While everybody was enjoying Aly & Fila’s set, this room was almost empty. We immediately saw familiar faces, also good friends from Germany and went to greet them. The music which was being played at that moment was really good, quite a bit different than the typical Trance sound I must say, and to tell the truth I didn’t have a clue who was the DJ playing. He was young and good looking 😉 and really energetic. I really enjoy dancing where I have enough space to move, and this felt like the perfect timing. So Tina and I stayed, dancing together with our friends, it was a kind of magic because the moment I started dancing I totally forgot about my back pain. The DJ was a German guy with Turkish roots called Melih Kor. He played an amazing set, and I was surprised to discover a new refreshing Trance sound I was not used to. He played his most recent track ‘Nightrider’, released by FSOE Excelsior. After his set I went to greet him and even took a photo with him. The room started to fill up, it was Stoneface & Terminal’s turn on decks. I didn’t recognize them at first, and asked a friend (I’m still not that good placing faces and names) and he pointed at his t-shirt (with their names on it ehm), then I did remember seen them live last year at Luminosity Beach Festival.

I stayed there, totally forgetting about the main stage. You see, I’m not somebody who pays much attention to the time-table; I rather go with the flow and follow my intuition. So then it was time for Tempo Giusto and everything was great until we suddenly remembered that James Dymond was playing at the same time at main. I was eager to see him since I’ve also greeted him earlier that night and I didn’t want to miss seen him alive, especially with his recently work . Also, because almost the whole Trance Family was still there getting ready for the big debut and closing of Italian Queen of Trance, Alessandra Roncone.

The whole time spent there I felt happy, people were smiling and in clear ecstasy enjoying their time; even Fadi was dancing happily among us, we were all having an amazing time. It was almost unreal. Alessandra was doing great, although she was a bit nervous, which is quite normal, she has been growing a lot in her career since that first time I saw her live in Braunschweig. It was all fun and emotion until my back pain was back, and before the end of her set I removed myself back to the smokers’ room until almost the end of the night. Such a pity, I know, somehow I felt bad not being there together with all my friends, but my health was first. Anyway, all in all it was an amazing night! Happy and tired, we went back home, took us long to find the entrance for the parking but we didn’t lose our spirit. Back in the car, direction Lelystad, we were all talking about the awesome night. I felt so much alive and happy, beyond words. A huge wave of love was spreading all around us; Trance, taking us higher than ever.

With a little help of my friends

It was early in the morning and we were still feeling really euphoric, we could barely go to sleep, still under the spell of such a magic night. I finally made it to bed around midday but omg something went really wrong, I’ve stayed longer than 20 minutes aching as hell, as if the tension of my back was now moving through my whole body, making it impossible to lie on my side. I was kind of in panic, I didn’t understand what was happening. While Tina and Marco were still awake and getting ready for the night, I was saved by Ivonne who brought me a magical herbal ointment with healing properties made in Bolivia. I rubbed the ointment on my right side and went back to bed hoping for a power nap. It was getting late, and I saw Tina all dressed up and ready, asking me please to try my best to hurry up, she wanted so bad to be at Panama enjoying the Open to Close of Aly & Fila, it was her long awaited wish to experience such an event. It was my wish too, of course, it was just that my body wasn’t responding the way I expected. More painkillers, a massage with the ointment and hanging from the frame of the door to stretch my back muscles sort of did the magic necessary. I finally took a hot shower, dressed up and got myself ready for it. We also took extra support this time, our beloved Raimund was coming this time with us, wrapped in my Argentine flag and a sticker from Melih Kor on his forehead Tina had the clever idea to stick on him. Never a dull moment with us 😛

My phone was glowing red with messages from friends asking where were we, everybody was already at Panama while we were almost 3 hours behind schedule; anyway luck was on our side, the highway was clear and we arrived, parked the car and went into Panama, ready to spent the rest of the night with all our hearts.

Everybody loves Raimund – Aly & Fila Open to Close

We came in, and I was carrying Raimund in my arms when I saw Stuart who gave us our new wristbands (I’ve thrown mine away from the day before while I was under the shower) and one of the FSOE crew guys saw Raimund and asked if it was possible to take him to main stage. Of course we didn’t have a problem, but we asked him to take good care of Raimund, since we already have lost him before at FSOE 450 UK in Manchester last year. He told us not to worry; Raimund got an ‘Artist’ wristband and went to occupy a centre spot at main stage while Fadi was playing.

We hurried up, making our way to the front row, all our friends were already there and we greeted them. At that moment Fadi was playing more progressive tunes, which it was kind of different to what he normally plays. And from what we heard about the 3 hours before we arrived, his set was more of a warm-up with all different trance subgenres styles than the usual uplifting.

I was feeling ok, although the atmosphere was fully charged and it felt too warm for me, so after a while I’ve decided to go upstairs, where I could have a more panoramic view of the whole venue and also enough space to dance in freedom. One great thing about upstairs was that by the bar we could drink water from the tap for free. This was really a nice surprise, since it was pretty hot and I think water should always be available.

All in all, the party was amazing. I met many friends; some who had only came all the way from other countries just to enjoy this incredible night all together. This is for me the real Trance Family spirit. I’m sure this was not about getting rich, knowing many people got free tickets for the night before. The main dish was of course the OTC and the whole event until that moment had been special and coloured with deep emotions.

I felt good, a deep warmth feeling of belonging and happiness so intense I could almost cry of joy. While I was still upstairs, felt this so deep in my heart, that even the pain was vanished.

After a long while, a visit to the smoking room and the bathroom as well, I finally decided to go back to the dancefloor. I wanted this time to be there with all my friends, and stayed more into the right side next to the stage, because I could breathe better there and it wasn’t so crowded. I don’t mind dancing alone, I always get into trance and feel the energies surrounded me so deeply that I never feel really alone; besides that there are always people around me to whom I smile and they smile me back, I don’t need more than this. Happiness is a brief moment of contentment when you realise ‘ we are all what we need’ .

While Raimund was stealing the show, being taken in arms by Fadi and different people who were at the stage while Fadi was amazing us with his emotional uplifting set, the music was awesome and we all were enthusiastic, feeling the deep love energy elevating us in a unison of  togetherness. There was magic in the air.

Then Alan Donaldson, official photographer of the event and good friend, invited me to climb up the stage and stay behind with the whole FSOE crew, it was an amazing moment for me, feeling part of it, dancing and having so much fun. We danced together, Alan and everybody around were so happy; it was such an emotional moment!

By the end of the set the people were showing all their passion, it somehow look like the Latin passion we try to bring in, this time full mode on, pure uplifting baby! The crowd kept asking for more, getting closer to the decks, waving their hands, making pics and filming, totally euphoric and happy. From my point of view at the stage it was something amazing to see, although due to my short length I was sort of hidden behind a speaker and could barely see the crowd. A strong wave of love was involving us all, magical moments that will last forever in our hearts. When Fadi played the mash-up with ‘Napoleon’ and after the breakdown the lyrics of ‘We control the sunlight’ we were all going crazy!

For one moment, that night, we were all one, together in a state of trance. Love was in the air and our hearts fully opened. There was fraternity, solidarity, all qualities of a real Trance Family love.

The night came to an end, with the energy still pumping inside; people were heading to continue the party somewhere else. I was tired and feeling really happy, but I just wanted to go back home. Back on the road, an amazing sunset with yellow, orange and pink strokes spreading all over the horizon painting a canvas in the sky. On the radio old classic rock anthems such as ‘I want to break free’ from Queen were playing and we were all singing out loud. Fulfilled, happy, the energy was flowing everywhere, with its healing magic.

FSOE weekend was the perfect Easter event ever, a huge adventure for me and us all, we hope we have more of these warm and intimate parties were it’s all about the music and the energy we share. No need for more. Quality over quantity, the best formula ever.

I want to thank the whole FSOE crew for the organisation and mostly Fadi for giving us all the opportunity to experience such intense moments. Everything was perfect, no egos, no bullshit, no merchandising or whatsoever, just the pure moments of oneness and love. Thanks to all the people who brought their best high vibes, you are all amazing!

I really hope we can soon have a new event such as this one, because we all need of moments like these, to feel the real love energy power uniting us. More love to spread in the world.

 

PLUR