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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Saturday, August 13, 2011
In the Beginning ...
Hello World,
My name is René Sebastian Shabastari. I was born February 20th. I am a Psychology major with a Philosophy minor at California State University Northridge in Los Angeles. I changed majors after transferring to University as a Business Administration major. I feel I would enjoy a career in Psychology over the daily grind of a Business related career. I attended University of California Santa Barbara as a Computer Science major straight out of High School, but discovered that Computer Programming is not for me, I am still passionate about Computer Hardware and stay on top of Technology related news and build my own PCs and upgrade my system religiously. I very much enjoy gadgets and among my friends am always the person to ask about Hardware and / or Network expertise.
I enjoy being active and participating in all kinds of sports. My favorite sport is Basketball. My height exposed me to the sport and I have loved it since an early age. I still keep in contact with some of my early childhood friends and teammates and play at least twice weekly in Leagues and pick-up games with friends. I also enjoy nature, which is related to my active lifestyle. I go hiking with friends, and take trips to the beach. I like to swim in the ocean, in my pool at home or anywhere else.
I also love to travel. Having lived in different countries growing up I have family in Europe that I can stay with, alleviating a major burden of travel; hotels. I have family in Germany and Finland, while I live in Los Angeles after I moved here with my parents. I would travel a lot growing up and have visited Greece, Italy, UK, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, New York, and was fortunate enough to visit a good foreign-exchange-student friend of mine in Japan. Traveling is an amazing experience and I truly believe it has affected my view on life in a very positive way. When I travel I get to enjoy the nature those countries have to offer and I try to visit areas where I can be active and take in the culture.
Music is a big part of my life, and it has even influenced me to combine my passions to travel, experiencing special festivals catered to my favorite genre of music; Trance. I used to listen to hip hop when I first moved to Cali as a child. I was big into a rock phase during my school days here. There will always be a special place in my heart for 80’s and 90’s music, being a child of that era. However, once I discovered EDM [Electronic Dance Music] there was no turning back. I fell in love with Trance, especially because it is a very melodic and symphonic branch of EDM. Most people think of harsh and monotonous beats when they think of electronic music, and I myself actually dislike this style of EDM. Trance was pioneered in the Netherlands and I have taken many trips for the purpose of visiting a country while attending certain big time events. I have met amazing people during my trips, and the most generous and kind have been in the Netherlands. Amsterdam is an amazing city. It is beautiful, tolerant, progressive and has a great taste of music.
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My name is René Sebastian Shabastari. I was born February 20th. I am a Psychology major with a Philosophy minor at California State University Northridge in Los Angeles. I changed majors after transferring to University as a Business Administration major. I feel I would enjoy a career in Psychology over the daily grind of a Business related career. I attended University of California Santa Barbara as a Computer Science major straight out of High School, but discovered that Computer Programming is not for me, I am still passionate about Computer Hardware and stay on top of Technology related news and build my own PCs and upgrade my system religiously. I very much enjoy gadgets and among my friends am always the person to ask about Hardware and / or Network expertise.
I enjoy being active and participating in all kinds of sports. My favorite sport is Basketball. My height exposed me to the sport and I have loved it since an early age. I still keep in contact with some of my early childhood friends and teammates and play at least twice weekly in Leagues and pick-up games with friends. I also enjoy nature, which is related to my active lifestyle. I go hiking with friends, and take trips to the beach. I like to swim in the ocean, in my pool at home or anywhere else.
I also love to travel. Having lived in different countries growing up I have family in Europe that I can stay with, alleviating a major burden of travel; hotels. I have family in Germany and Finland, while I live in Los Angeles after I moved here with my parents. I would travel a lot growing up and have visited Greece, Italy, UK, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, New York, and was fortunate enough to visit a good foreign-exchange-student friend of mine in Japan. Traveling is an amazing experience and I truly believe it has affected my view on life in a very positive way. When I travel I get to enjoy the nature those countries have to offer and I try to visit areas where I can be active and take in the culture.
Music is a big part of my life, and it has even influenced me to combine my passions to travel, experiencing special festivals catered to my favorite genre of music; Trance. I used to listen to hip hop when I first moved to Cali as a child. I was big into a rock phase during my school days here. There will always be a special place in my heart for 80’s and 90’s music, being a child of that era. However, once I discovered EDM [Electronic Dance Music] there was no turning back. I fell in love with Trance, especially because it is a very melodic and symphonic branch of EDM. Most people think of harsh and monotonous beats when they think of electronic music, and I myself actually dislike this style of EDM. Trance was pioneered in the Netherlands and I have taken many trips for the purpose of visiting a country while attending certain big time events. I have met amazing people during my trips, and the most generous and kind have been in the Netherlands. Amsterdam is an amazing city. It is beautiful, tolerant, progressive and has a great taste of music.
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