The first trip I took for the purpose of traveling the world, experiencing great music I love, and having an amazing time was for the celebration of the world's #1 DJ Armin van Buuren’s 8 year Anniversary of his world famous radio show, A State of Trance. He was celebrating the 400th episode with 3 parties in 3 countries. Germany, UK and Netherlands. I decided I would go to all 3 as they were back to back all in one weekend. I was even luckier because the weekend before he was performing in a club in Los Angeles and of course I went to see him as well. The special parties featured many guest DJs and it was an amazing celebration of Trance music. I invited one of my best friend’s and former German classmate to meet me for the Finale in Rotterdam, Netherlands. We had a great time catching up and enjoying the party. We stayed in Amsterdam another two days, sightseeing and having a good time.
I would attend festivals that featured trance before this event in Los Angeles, and I had even seen the likes of Armin van Buuren, but the atmosphere is nowhere as special as it is in Europe. In LA the festivals are largely driven by drug-culture, mainstream partiers going to the events to do drugs and have a good time. I was always there for the music, and people were often amazed when I told them this and that I was sober. In Europe almost nobody does drugs, maybe 10% or less. Of course everyone still drinks, but that is normal. The partiers in Europe attend for the love of the music, and I could tell the experience was much more enjoyable than it had been in the states. I loved it. I had to make it a ritual.
I still continued attending local festivals with friends, filled with glow sticks, pacifiers, crazy outfits and cuddle puddles. But the next year when the 9 year anniversary for A State of Trance came around it was announced that there would be 5 parties in 4 countries, and that they would be more globally spread out. I was worried I could only attend one event. The locations were revealed to be Toronto, New York, Bratislava and Poland. I wasn’t sure which party to attend, but it seemed luck was on my side and New York was to have two back to back shows in one weekend. I was excited beyond belief. I could save money staying in the country, visit an amazing city such as New York and experience two of the ASOT 450 parties. Once again I came a day early and stayed a day longer, visiting an old classmate from Los Angeles who had moved to New York. The performances were once again amazing, and to my surprise the fans were all very down to earth and definitely into the music. Not as passionate as Europe was, but much better than LA. The guest DJs were top notch and the performances absolutely amazing.
Of course after attending these two epic celebrations there was no way I could miss the 10 year anniversary of A State of Trance. I once again attended local events and had fun passing the time until this year when ASOT 500 was to take place. Armin said he would take the party to global heights, with 5 events on 5 continents. This time I could only attend one show for sure. However, the trance gods seemed to have smiled upon me. It was announced that ASOT 500 USA would be on a special dedicated stage at ULTRA Music Festival during one whole day of the 3 day festival. ULTRA is one of the most famous USA EDM festivals and I always wanted to go. Not only would I be able to attend all 3 days of it, but it is always being held as the finale of WMC, [which is a week long EDM centered conference in Miami] as it does every year. It features special performances, club nights, beach parties, pool parties, yacht parties and surprise performances in front of sponsors' stores and of course concludes with ULTRA. I was lucky enough to have Spring Break and went to Miami for the entire week. One of my friends in L.A. who also loves trance and joins me for local festivals told me he wanted to go as well and we had a blast. It was an opportunity of a lifetime, and we grabbed life by the horns and jumped in. We went to South Beach during the days and went clubbing, seeing our favorite DJs at night, all week long. We also stumbled into the Armani store in SoBe [South Beach, Miami] to find special performances being held all week, which we walked to from the beach. ASOT 500 was definitely the highlight of the week, unparalleled in its guest DJ lineup and quality of DJ performances. Besides Armin’s 10 year anniversary for ASOT and the rest of ULTRA Music Festival we also attended Gareth Emery’s album release party at club Dream with guest DJs, Markus Schulz & friends @ club Space, Above & Beyond’s concert at the Ice Palace with special guest DJs and Cosmic Gate’s yacht party extended performance. Best Spring Break Ever!
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