Review: Trance Energy 2008

I arrived in Utrecht around 8.30 from 8.07PM train from Amsterdam. I have never seen that many partygoers crammed inside a train station in my life. All buzzing with anticipation and gathered up in groups. If feels that the whole train is dedicated for those going to Trance Energy party.

Then i arrived around 9pm and there were massive people gathered outside of entrances. It took us about 20min wait to finally go inside. The first process is just going through in parallel files. Then once you go inside it’s the hall surrounded by locker facilities. I needed to collect a key from the counter and it costed €5 deposit + €6 hire which equals €11 overall. I shoved my bag, hoodie jumper and only took with me a camera and wallet. Rest goes in the locker!

Another round of gate. This time it’s the security personnel padding you and checking your wallet and pocket for dangerous and prohibited item. The whole security screening process didn’t take that long at all…all done very efficiently.

Near the security screening are booths ranging from token purchases to food, bars, mechandise items, piercing studio, kandy kid utilities and a big section for the emergency crew. I knew i had to purchase tokens to buy foods and so on. It costed €10 for 4 tokens.

I winded to the main hall. It was actually like 400m walk from the security screening to the entrance of the main hall. Inside, there are blue spots illuminated by above by spotlights. It was quite empty and there were even a small crowd way in front singing and chanting to start the music. The venue opened at 9.30 but the music doesn’t start in main hall at 10. At first it didn’t felt that excessively big, but once you fill the empty hall with people, then you can actually feel the extent of how massive this hall actually is!

The first DJ in main hall was Kyau & Albert and he played a mix of electro/house. It was a mellow feeling and felt that i should discover other 3 halls before making my home here. So made my way to the high contrast/hard trance hall, which was located on the other side of the exhibition centre. There was a decent crowd getting the hang of the music. It was hard trance, not hardstyle and it often mixes with minimal elements.

The crowd is a lot different to the ones in Sydney. Everyone wore comfortable clothes and there’s less presence of ’sects’ such as adlays and kandy kids. Although it is a trance party and not a rave, it is still less trendy. There were a few kandy kids however, but washed down version with a fluro ‘phatty’ pants without beads and headbands. There were many people all over the world such as Czech, Russia, Israel, Chile and U.S. Many built their whole holiday around this event.

I went back in the main hall about 1pm, that was an hour before Tiesto starts to play. Then space between goers starts to shrink until it’s totally shoulder to shoulder. When Tiesto started to play, it was totally full many people got stuck while trying to ‘travel’ to the front. The only way to go out of this hall was to follow others like a train and hopefully carve through the crowd. That is what i did. I stayed for about 40min then at a point where the hall was so full that it became less comfortable and even unenjoyable location to dance.

When i exited out of the main hall, there were security personnel stopping further crowd approaching the hall as it was so full it may pose safety risk.

So i headed back to the high contrast/hard trance main hall and there were actually a good crowd there. I would have thought that the other halls would be empty as everyone wanted to go see Tiesto. Marcel Woods was playing in that hall and had elements of hard trance.

In the end, it was a pretty good experience. Now i’ve listened to top 50 trance/hardstyle DJs and went to biggest trance party in the world, it does feel that i have done something special while living in Holland.

Beginning of Clubstage

Around 9.45PM, 15min before commencement in Main Hall

10.43PM at Main Hall

When Ferry Corsten played

Marco V

Chillout & Food area

MC dancing on the desk

Clubstage with around 6,000 goers

After the party. Time to collect my belongings from locker then back home to Amsterdam

Living Abroad, Tuning in Aussie Affairs

Well, i’ve been living abroad away from Australia for several months now. I am still in tune with Australian affairs often from web contents and newspapers.

When i lived in Sydney, a third of my news reading would consist of issues such as transportation, education, health and other local issues in Sydney. The rest would be federal and international issues such as politics, domestic economy and what’s happening in upcoming Australian election.

Now, it’s February and about half the news content would be Australia issues and the rest are international leaving local issues to a bare minimum. I kept my interest in Australian politics since the November election and see how the new government goes well in terms of governance and global affairs. Naturally, i have been more keen in European affairs as it is intertwined with some courses i have been undertaking since September.

I do make consistent comparison between Australian and European policy differences such as public infrastructure projects, governance and foreign policy. My recent interest was on high speed rail projects in Europe such as in Spain. There isn’t a high speed rail in Australia and so i am all for the project to be proposed in linking Eastern Australia cities.

It is great living abroad for a year and having to adopt to issues which are different to Australia. Gives greater perspective in what happens outside of Australia, which can only be beneficial in self-projects such as character building and experiences.

Online Purchases

I have made several online purchases over the last fortnight.
– Replacement cable for Ultimate Ears 5 Pro canalphone
– EU Law textbook
– Conflict Studies textbook (4x)
– Sensation Black Antwerp ticket

It’s better to purchase textbook online because its cheaper and only takes about a week to deliver from Britain. In Amsterdam bookstore, it is often around a third more expensive…which is quite substantial given the cost of textbook itself! So i gathered up three others in my Conflict Studies class to bulk purchase 4 textbooks in total to save cash from bulk shipping. We were all satisfied and saved around 7 Euro each.

As for the replacement cable for my canalphone, yeah, i really need it. I looked for it in Ultimate Ears official site and it’s quite expensive for just a cable. So i bought it off ebay for $19 including shipping cost. I haven’t received the cable as yet… For now, i’m using the shorter cable which just barely long enough to go from hip to ears.

The Sensation Black ticket went out well. I bought it at teleticketsale, which previously haven’t used it before. I opted for a real ticket instead of e-ticket with my Visa card. Shouldn’t be long till i receive it.

Jordaan

Jordaan is a district located at North West of Amsterdam Centrum. It is popular for its weekend flee markets and alfresco cafes. All these shots were taken with Canon Powershot G9

Amsterdam ArenA precinct

I travelled over to Amsterdam ArenA precinct to buy a TV Tuner for my laptop. Quite a lot of my friends here have their own TVs and thought i would be missing out on something if i didn’t tune in as well. They said that CNN, BBC, MTV and many more are running in every student apartments.

So i bought a TV Tuner for like 100 Euro including 7.5m analogue cable extension. I bought a model which is more expensive than others because the tuner can recognise Australian HD signal…which will be good when i go back to Sydney in mid this year.

The precinct is pretty much like shopping mall, cinema, parks and office blocks surrounding the Amsterdam ArenA stadium. This is not the first time coming here. I’ll come here again to perhaps watch a movie at this mega cinema complex…

Vivaldi Concert @ Concertgebouw

Me and the containercity friends arrived at the box office 6.25PM. We approached the sales agent whether the under 27 y.o discount sales are available. She told us to wait 5 more minute for the official sale. Soon, we got it for only €7.50, which is very reasonable for a classical music concert in Amsterdam. I paid more for a cinema ticket.

We had time to burn and so we headed down the road to a traditional Dutch brown bar tinted with brown stains and ciggarette. Instead of beers we drank coffee and 3 serving of chicken nugget with sweet chilli sauce as a finger food. We didn’t feel like eating any substantial solid food before the viewing and besides, we didn’t have enough time to eat.

So the concert started at 8.15PM as planned and everyone anticipated a wonderful experience. It wasn’t a full house, instead about only the bottom section was used and still it was half full. However, it did not change the enjoyment of the occasion.

As with any concert protocol, no audio or visual recording devices were allowed.

It was performed by Ukraine Symphony Orchestra.

It was a great experience to once again hear the classical music live. The last occasion was in Vienna.

Just like a chronograph watch…

I think the best object that describes Amsterdam is the back of a Swiss watch. You see all those wheels and mechanics working in synchronised way. As you walk down the canals you see the cargo boats criss crossing the canals, going underneath the bridge and workers loading the boats for transportation. Then you see system of draw bridges to make way for larger cargo vessels.

The urban planning in Amsterdam is very mechanic. Almost all objects here are man-made built to withstand floods and other severe weather. And it is also a transportation and freight zone. Buses, trains, metro, bikes, boats, ferries and trams are all jammed inside this small and dense city. In Holland, land is scarce and expensive since half the country is below sea level. Flood proofing supported by canals plague the country like veins. This scarcity of land brings new ideals such as doing things more efficiently yet, make the standard of living actually liveable. It is a delicate balance and often relies heavily on long-term planning to accomodate future population growth.

Amsterdam means ‘where River Amstel meats the Dam’. Then they built the whole city on a dam layering the canals into spider-web form. Then built those famous triangular roofed houses in between canals.

My way or the career way

This is the subject which has bothered me when i left the lecture room on Thursday afternoon. What bothered me is whether i should choose European Union Law class or Violence in Peace & War. European Union Law looks good on paper but i dislike the teaching style of the instructor which may flatten my motivation for the whole semester. On the other hand, the other class looks interesting but it’s the subject that i dislike.

In that class, we had to watch a film about the passion of killing in times of war. It was an interview of Vietnamese war veterans who are struggling with post-war trauma and seeks purpose in life by killing enemies. It was a gruesome storytelling about war veterans who cannot continue life like civilians because in times of war they found a life’s calling. It’s when a man finds himself only being protected by the law of the jungle and it ultimately comes down to survival of oneself. There was one veteran who collected his victim’s ears as a momento to keep track on how many people he killed: it was 36.

Then after the viewing, we met the director of the film. She was a former Israeli soldier who wanted to show perspective on what drives killers to kill. She also expressed empathy towards the veterans as she tried to express that killers can be victims as well. The war veterans were normal civilians and were brainwashed during training in perceiving that the enemies are not human and can be expendable. Many veterans cannot adjust to civilian life and wish they can continue their journey in another war.