Reading all the complaints about Global has helped to crystalise in my mind just what a superb time I had at Dance valley this year and just how well the festival was organised.

Thought then I'd write a short review (my memory is shocking so detail may be sketchy) so that people looking around next year trying to decide whether to go to Dance Valley 2008 know what to expect.

I'll deal with the practicalities first and get on to the nice stuff like the DJ's, people and music later.

1 - Cost

Well obviously you have to get there, thats £60-£70 gone on a flight so not a good start. However after that things start to pick up.

Tickets in 2007 were a very reasonable £35-40 and best of all when you get in there they dont try to rip you off at every opportunity like in UK events. You have to buy tokens for drinks (which saves queuing at the bar) but a small bottle of water cost 1 token which if i remember right at the time I worked out as about 80p. A small beer was also 80p and even a redbull was only £1.60.

My guess is we spent about £20 each less on beer and water than in an equivalent event in the UK.


2 - Travel to and from the site.

This was spot on. We arrived at the slotterdijk trainstation (15 mins out of Amsterdam) at about 12.30pm (bearing in mind the event started at 10am) and walked straight on to a bus (5 euros round trip). It was then around a 20 min bus journey and then once we arrived at the site a 30 minute walk. Although this seemed a long way it did help to spread out the queue so that everyone didnt arrive at once. Queueing at the actual entrance was no more than 15 mins despite a pretty thorough search.

On the way back I was a bit concerned as I couldnt see how they were going to have enough buses to ferry 20000 + people back to the train station. No need to worry though as by the time we had reversed the 30 minute walk back to the start we got straight on a bus (despite my mate having lost his ticket).

3 - General organisation

I thought the event was brilliantly organised. No queues for lockers, bars or toilets. Set times in advance of the day and free sheet giving all set times on one piece of card given at entrance. Much better and more durable than those plastic necklace things you get at global that fall apart and cost £5.

Wooden floors in most of the tents - Great idea.

Rubber walkways along some routes although these weren't needed as it was fine weather.

Best of all the sound quality in all the tents was great and on the main stage was the best I have ever heard, whether at an event or even in a club. Good volume but absolutely crisp


Ok boring bit over on to the stuff that really makes a festival.

Dj's and music

As a trance fan there were a good few DJ's I wanted to see. By the time we had had a wander round, the first person wanted to see was Sean Tyas. He started with an absolute belter and then played an excellent uplifting set.

After that we went over to the HQ arena but Proteus wasn't exactly going down a storm (most people were just standing around) so we back tracked and after a brief pop into Marco V inevitably ended up back at the trance tent for the back half of Blank and jones who were just what was needed. Played a really nice uplifting set and both appeared to be having a great time and really working up the crowd.

Next up was Dogzilla live which I had really been looking forward to as I expected they would play "Without you" one of my fave tracks. Well we almost missed it. They were going down so badly after 10 mins that we decided to pop out for a quick wander and only got back to the tent just in time. Despite the earlier lack of enthusiasm from the crowd "Without you" went down a storm with one member of the band playing live on quitar and another singing. Worth coming just for that one track in my book.

After that we sat on the hill at the back of the main arena to watch the start of Ferry's set. That was a magical moment sitting there looking down on thousands of people in the late evening sunshine texting a few friends back it the UK.

After a few good tracks though, we needed to dance and made our way right down to the front (about 10 people back) where we stayed the rest of the night. To my surprise Ferry played a blinding set. This may sound like heresy to some of you trance addicts so I guess i should explain. I have seen Ferry many times over the years (perhaps 10 times) and although when he first played he was an asolute legend, in the last couple of years his sets have always left me dissapointed. For a man responsible for some of the best trance every made he seemed to be stuck in some sort of Electro house rut. To the point, that we had resolved not to bother going to see him again. Well perhaps I'll have to revise that estimate as he played a really excellent trancey set much more like his old style. I think the set was being recorded for a CD so I might have to get that one.

Finally it was PvD. We had seen him a couple of months earlier at Open air where he played a no- frills very hard set. Thankfully this one was much more trancey and tuneful. Personal highlight was Time of our lives and although I'm not so keen on "the Anthem song" we all had a moment when it came on. The last hour with the lasers and at the end the fireworks was absoutely amazing.

The other thing I should mention is the people. Everyone was very tall, and very freindly. There was no bad atmosphere, not a hint of violence and best of all no chavs of drunken brits abroad. Just loads of friendly people up for a big party.

The only couple of downers were that it ended at 11pm and that there didnt appear to be any obvious after parties. However by the end we were so wasted and tired that by the time we had got back to amsterdam and finally remembered to eat something the only place that seemed enticing was bed.


So to sum up a long rambly review;

Good points;

1 Good (though not stellar) line up.
2 Cheap entry tickets
3 Good value food and drink inside
4 No queuing for anything inside
5 Short queue to get in and easy to get to site.
6 Fantastic sound quality
7 Wooden floors in tents and some rubber walkways
8 Great visuals on main stage
9 Not as large a site as it seems on the website, so easy to get around
10 Wonderful people and great atmosphere
11 No Chavs
12 The weather
13 Sunday in Amsterdam!

Bad points

1 It finished at 11pm
2 No obvious afterparties
3 Getting up at 4am for our flight on the way there

As you can probably guess by now I would thoroughly recommend anyone to go.

Thanks for persevering to the end.

Steve

So well put!

Can only agree with every word.

For all you other DSI'ers drop the UK festivals and give this a try next year.

Can't find a website that dosent just say 'hope to see you all next year'..... Really interested though! Global was a let down.

X

Nice Review, enjoyed the read. I might consider it next year :-) Although it is defo a bummer it finishes at 11. Atleast there is no 4 hour que ! LOL