DUBAI-N.Y.E-AMADEUS (review)
Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2005 6:13 pmFinally it's Sunday; some free time to review my trip to Dubai and the gig I had there on New Year.
Being curious since a long time to find out what's going on in this fast booming Emirates state, I finally got the chance to visit Dubai on the 31st of Dec. and play there at Le Meridien hotel on New Year's eve.
Not the ideal arrival for all tourists and work seekers, the airport was full of people at 1 after midnight waiting in a seemingly endless line for a one and a half hour to complete the so called "eye prints".
On my way to the hotel I could see the enormous buildings and centers on both sides of the road, a desert land astonishingly turned into a modern civilized city.
I could clearly see during the next day, as I went out with some friends, how huge and enormous the buildings were, but couldn't deny the fact that the city looked as an artificial place as I also realized the different cultures and nationalities of people, from middle easterns to asians to eastern europeans, africans, europeans, americans ...
Back to the football field at the hotel where the gig was supposed to be held, I went there for the sound check. The stage was perfectly built, the staff looked calm and organized and the football field was filled with some tents, bars on the sides and a big 'red bull' tent in the middle. This pre-setting reminded me of the hard work we do before the big events with Mixfm and Bacardi.
After dinner, I went down at 11:30 pm to the venue, the time when the French dj had started his set.
The place had around 1500 persons, and the dj was playing some commercial music.
At 12 amazing fireworks filled the skies for around 10 minutes and the people were going crazy.
The time came at 1:15 am when I took over the decks. I could see the mixed nationalities of people again, eager to listen to what I'm going to play, as they had heard the ad. on DNR radio for a week.
I started with some progressive trance tunes and some vocals such as Believe the punk and Seven Nation army..., with Prodigy's immortal Smack my bitch up; songs which made the crowd jump and scream on a wonderful new year eve. 45 minutes later I took my set higher with the trance tunes and played songs for Armin, Pvd, Tiesto, Ferry. People loved them and I could see hands open in the air, some closing their eyes and some shouting with joy. I tried not to go hardcore trance, as people wouldn't handle that on new year, for they needed a bit of everything. The last 30 minutes, i switched to house music and finally at 3:15 am (when all parties had to stop according to the law) emotionally ended up the set with Abba's famous 'Happy New Year' . Couples were hugging and friends singing joyfully along with the song, a touching moment where one would wish that it would never end...!
All in all it was a great new experience and I look forward to play again in Dubai and spreading trance over there.
AMADEUS
Being curious since a long time to find out what's going on in this fast booming Emirates state, I finally got the chance to visit Dubai on the 31st of Dec. and play there at Le Meridien hotel on New Year's eve.
Not the ideal arrival for all tourists and work seekers, the airport was full of people at 1 after midnight waiting in a seemingly endless line for a one and a half hour to complete the so called "eye prints".
On my way to the hotel I could see the enormous buildings and centers on both sides of the road, a desert land astonishingly turned into a modern civilized city.
I could clearly see during the next day, as I went out with some friends, how huge and enormous the buildings were, but couldn't deny the fact that the city looked as an artificial place as I also realized the different cultures and nationalities of people, from middle easterns to asians to eastern europeans, africans, europeans, americans ...
Back to the football field at the hotel where the gig was supposed to be held, I went there for the sound check. The stage was perfectly built, the staff looked calm and organized and the football field was filled with some tents, bars on the sides and a big 'red bull' tent in the middle. This pre-setting reminded me of the hard work we do before the big events with Mixfm and Bacardi.
After dinner, I went down at 11:30 pm to the venue, the time when the French dj had started his set.
The place had around 1500 persons, and the dj was playing some commercial music.
At 12 amazing fireworks filled the skies for around 10 minutes and the people were going crazy.
The time came at 1:15 am when I took over the decks. I could see the mixed nationalities of people again, eager to listen to what I'm going to play, as they had heard the ad. on DNR radio for a week.
I started with some progressive trance tunes and some vocals such as Believe the punk and Seven Nation army..., with Prodigy's immortal Smack my bitch up; songs which made the crowd jump and scream on a wonderful new year eve. 45 minutes later I took my set higher with the trance tunes and played songs for Armin, Pvd, Tiesto, Ferry. People loved them and I could see hands open in the air, some closing their eyes and some shouting with joy. I tried not to go hardcore trance, as people wouldn't handle that on new year, for they needed a bit of everything. The last 30 minutes, i switched to house music and finally at 3:15 am (when all parties had to stop according to the law) emotionally ended up the set with Abba's famous 'Happy New Year' . Couples were hugging and friends singing joyfully along with the song, a touching moment where one would wish that it would never end...!
All in all it was a great new experience and I look forward to play again in Dubai and spreading trance over there.
AMADEUS
