The 30,000 People Party!

I knew I was going to be in for the long a haul when it the bus arrived 2 hours late to our London station.

8 Nov 2004

In May 2003 the Dutch radio station ID & T set out to do what no other promoter had done before, to stage an event that has only 1 dj all night long.

Id-t radio being who they are set about using DJ Tiesto, whom at the time was the world's number 1. The idea paid off 30,000 screaming fans sold out the gig within hours and Tiesto delivered a huge 7-hour set.

This year I decide it might be a good idea to get in contact with ID & T and head along.

Now coming from New Zealand the biggest gig I had attended was Slinky Nye in 02/03 with about 4000 people.

After some quick decisions I got a bus and ferry to Amsterdam. I knew I was going to be in for the long a haul when it the bus arrived 2 hours late to our London station.

There were two other people on my bus that had made there way over from Ireland for the gig as well, we had a chat on the ferry about all the gigs we had been to what we like and who we had seen, they told me that this was there first trip abroad for a big gig as well.

11 hours and 5 stops later I arrived in downtown Amsterdam. I spent most of the day walking around the streets taking in the Dutch culture.

The Dutch people where all very friendly, helping me with directions to places I should check out.

As day turned into evening I decided to make tracks down the train station, as from what I had worked out it was going to take me a good couple of hours to get to the venue.

I ran into a few other lost people who had no idea. We decided it was probably best it we all stuck together, a couple from Liverpool and their mate and a young bloke by the name of Chris from Belfast joined me in sussing it all out.

The train ride was an event on its own, after getting kicked out of first class (what the seats were better of course you going to go for them) we settled in the 2nd class carriage. By this time I think most of the 10 carriages were full of young ravers heading to Arnhem for Tiesto.

After switching 3 trains and a bus we were there!!! The Gelredrome Arena, Arnhem. For some reason I had the idea it was outdoors, but it was an indoor football stadium. Thank God for that cause it was rather chilly and the fog had began to set in.

After checking in with the media section and picking up my pretty orange armband and having the hot coat rack girls tend to my jacket it was time to enter.

Upon entering I got handed a pair of 3D glasses, we came in through the top floor from the back of the stadium.

So many happy smiley people, so even dressing up for the occasion, being Halloween as well some people dressed in that theme.

Making our way through the seats and right down the front it was very clear our group was focussed on staying right up the front all night. At about 20 minutes past 12 the show began. This Huge screen came down out of the roof and on it was Tiesto himself, he asked to put on our glasses and get ready being in Dutch it took as a few minutes to work out what he was talking about.

He handed out a huge record, being in 3D it went right over my head and behind, very wicked. He started off his set with a very progy / techy trance feel, which was to my liking because I love the dirty techy trance.

They crowd was starting to build, at one point I couldn't even see to the back of the stadium, they reckoned in the end there was just over 30,000 people!!!!!!!!!

After playing about 30mins of this warm up set the curtains started to lift, there was a huge hush over the crowd until the curtains pulled back and up and out of the floor appeared the man of the hour!!. Standing in side a huge circle dj booth surrounded by glowing lights and massive TV screens. Behind him was a huge burning sign of 'Magik'. Then the ID& T crew let off a huge series of fireworks Tiesto dropped his first track Forever Today and away we went.

I couldn't believe my eyes, I didn't no if should have been crying or screaming with joy, having only dreamed of seeing Tiesto perform, but to also see him in his home country with his home crowd is something else.

The music started getting a lot faster, and we started dancing a lot more. Even for the size of the crowd I had lots of room to move round taking some snaps and meeting new people. I meet to lovely Dutch girls that had travelled a few hours to see Tiesto, who went by the name of Annette and Odette. They had decided to join our ever-growing group. They couldn't understand why we that we had travelled so far for the event. It was really good meeting some

Through out the night Tiesto had lots of live performers with his Djing. Dj Mason provided his Violin during Lethal Industry, The Plastikmen preformed a live percussion set of there track Spastik, this would have to be the coolest live drumming session I have seen, these two guys really went for and there instruments were huge.

When Tiesto Dropped Suburban Train he had the backing vocals from the Children of Orpheus Choir direct from the Chez Republic. This was quite a site as well, having 20 girls singing with him.

BiBi also did a couple of live performances, I didn't catch it because I had nipped out to get some pizza, and yes they had plenty of food at this gig. Damn awesome.

The theme of the night was magic, so throughout the night there was fire breathers, dances and all sorts of magical tricks. Tiesto himself got put into a box that was suspended 20 ft above the stage. It broke open and shattered into about 4 pieces, Tiesto who had been locked inside was nowhere to be seen, then from out of no where he appeared in the Dj Booth, not to sure how the did it but was pretty damn awesome, they also had huge glitter drops through out the night.

Now I must talk about the interesting laser light show, I was told last year they had ten lasers and a swimming pool to keep it cool, I reckon for the amount of lighting they had it would have drained the lakes dry back home, loved it!

They saved this till around 3am, when they switched them on one by one, I lost count at 14. Blue, red, green orange, white, tunnelling lasers, 5 colour lasers and plenty of smoke to take effect this would have to be the mother of all laser light shows, back that up with about 50-60 backing coloured spot lights, it looked like they wanted to bring in an airplane on the dance floor with that many.

The whole time I was there I never really felt out of place, I thought I would totally flip out on the shear size of the crowd but it was so easy to get around.

Tiesto bought his set to a close with Dark Alliance - Vibration.

He jumped out of his huge disco ball dj booth and thanked the crowd, he gave a short speech on how the crowd gives him his energy to perform so well, he also thanked everybody that supported him through out the year. Thanks to Annette for the translation (Most of it was in Dutch)

He finished off the night with a special 1-hour request session. He dropped some massive tracks, for me it was so good to here Gouryella - Gouryella, haven't had that in a long time.

The last track of the night was Delerium - Silence, no one wanted to leave but being 7am in the morning and getting an extra hour in from daylights saving a 7.5hr set was plenty.
Once outside it was a made rush to the train, we said our good byes to the people we had meet and exchanged phone number, all joking about going to Innercity in December.

We boarded the train and spent most of the trip falling in out of sleep. Two young American girls just on with us, they where really worried because they had no idea how to get home either. Upon talking to Janette and her friend Amy they to had made a huge trip for this concert. They had travelled all the way from the States, they like me got told there where mad they didn't care, the got the vibe like me from the crowd, they had seen Tiesto before but they wanted to experince a huge crowd. They loved it.

About an hour later and three short sleeps, we arrived back in Amsterdam Centraal station.

The girls made there way home and I set about finding something to do till 9pm (bad flight organising).

A last Ditch effort I went to the Vincent van Gough art gallery, which I think I will go back and have another look at really liked that, pity there was just to many people in the building to study the artwork closely.

Shouts to Chris, Annette, Odette, Janette, Amy and the English boys with the Flag for all helping me enjoy my trip, might see you all again on the 18th of Dec for Innercity yea?

Special thanks to Francis @ ID & T, if it wasn't for your lovely self I wouldn't have had the chance to go, thanks a million.

Carl Reynolds