Tomorrowland 2010

I’ve never been to festivals such as Pinkpop and Lowlands before so I was pretty excited to see what Tomorrowland had in store for me. Together with two friends we bought ourselves a combo-ticket for both the 24th and 25th of July because many great artists were spread over the two days.

Upon arriving at the parking (for which we obviously had to pay for) and not knowing that it would be another 30-minute walk to the terrain of the festival itself we finally got in queue for the wristbands, our proof of entry. After a rather poor security check we put our stuff in the lockers and I grab my camera to take some area shots.

The first thing you’ll notice is the crowd: it was huge. I was thinking: “Oh man, if a major artist starts playing, how crowded is it gonna be?” And let’s not forget the festival area, it had to accommodate for 13 stages after all. The stages were more or less divided according to genres (trance, dance, house, hardcore, …) and the main stage would act as the main sensation.

After getting familiar with the locations of the stages, it was time for our first artist at Trance Addict.

Saturday 24 July
Andy Moor

Trance Addict was quite a small stage compared to others. It was fully covered (tent) as well. I was wondering why Armin would get such a small stage though but it appears that the trance stage changes location on sunday. The candy decorations were a bit strange but the whole thing was supposed to look like a cake. The first artist we would see at our festival was Andy Moor. I heard of him once on a A State of Trance podcast from Armin van Buuren with his amazing track Faces. I was glad that he would also play this song at Tomorrowland. Another great song he played that I’ve been listening to lately was The Great Escape by Rank 1 and Jochen Miller. Most tracks were pretty good and he gave a good show for about an hour.

Andy Moor at Trance Addict

It was another hour before our next act would start so we decided to grab a bite. I guess it was to be expected but the food and drinks were so, so very expensive. Drinks were €2,80 and above for small cans and some foods could go for up to ten consumption tickets (which is equal to €14,-)!

I couldn't help myself...

Swedish House Mafia

Next up would be the Swedish House Mafia at the main stage. Right now, they’re best known for their “One” track (which probably was one of the most liked tracks of Tomorrowland). Night has fallen and the Swedish House Mafia has been giving an excellent show until now. The show was about to end and their climax was one of the greatest sensations I’ve ever had. Together with the crowd, Swedish House Mafia and beautiful fireworks, Tomorrowland was rocking the world! I loved every second of it.

We still had John o’Callaghan left to see for today. I was expecting at least to hear his own popular track Find Yourself but instead heard some rather mediocre songs. We left shortly thereafter.

Other artists we had a glimpse of throughout the day were Afrojack, Scooter (ugh), Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Airbase.

Sunday 25 July
Gareth Emery

Gareth Emery at A State of Trance

As said before, the trance stage switched to a much bigger location compared to yesterday. We didn’t listen very long to Gareth Emery but from I’ve heard, he was able to give an excellent show with tracks that resembled his style a lot. There was a ferris wheel nearby and we took a ride so I could take some photos from above.

Next up would be Paul Oakenfold but his tracks were rather disappointing. I did hear Dash Berlin with Man On the Run as we were leaving for the main stage though…

John Dählback was playing at the main stage when we arrived but I think most of the people there were pretty much waiting for David Guetta. Just before David was about to arrive, it started raining which miracously caused everyone to stand up. The MC told us to hold our arms in the air and go up and down in an attempt to stop the rain. It was very nice to see the enthusiasm of the crowd. Luckily, our prayers were heard and the rain stopped. I thought it was hard to surpass the sensation Swedish House Mafia gave us but when David appeared, Tomorrowland broke lose! For 2.5 hours we had the best time ever. It was amazing to see that the whole audience was involved and having a great time.

Armin van Buuren was also playing during David Guetta’s performance so we had to miss a part of that. It took us a while before we arrived at the trance stage due to the immense amount of people leaving the main stage. I have to say that I had higher expectations from Armin. He was (for me) one of the major artists at Tomorrowland after all. There were some good tracks but there were also tracks that did not resemble his style at all. We were only able to listen for 45 mins though so I guess I’ll need to see another performance before jumping to any conclusions.

Armin van Buuren at A State of Trance

All in all, Tomorrowland was one of the biggest sensations I’ve ever had. I definitely will be going to next year’s edition.

The storm quickly resolved and we were able to go to the house party. I had something in mind (some kind of villa; I thought the man would probably be quite wealthy). I was close. Wow, that house was huge. And very beautiful. Especially the surroundings were breathtaking and very tranquil. The food we were offered: delicious, just delicious. Real, Italian food. Man, it was good. Do you mind if we come again, sir?

Videos:

Ferrara Day 24: Storm
Ferrara Day 24: Storm 2
Ferrara Day 24: Storm 3

Gallery is after the break.

Regardless, Venice is beautiful. Even though it wasn’t anything I had expected (expectations probably formed by movies and such), it was a real treat for your eyes to see Venice. Many photos have been made and will be posted eventually.

However, as beautiful as Venice might be, I could not live there. The ‘living’ areas of Venice are quite bland and nothing special once you’ve seen one of the streets: they all look the same.

Day 15 (Friday) wasn’t much interesting, except for another boring (but okay English) lecture and group discussion regarding the case (Water management in Bangladesh: it can’t be less medical than this case!). After that, we rejoiced with Wendy to drink some cappuccino and went to the arcade not long thereafter.

I haven’t written about it yet, but we do go to the arcades quite a bit. Most games are junk, but there are (for me) two particular machines that really makes me want to go and play there. The first is, obviously, Dance Dance Revolution. I used to dance a lot at home on my mat, but got lazy and never did it anymore. With the arcade, this is the first time I’ve ever used the bar behind me to stabilize myself in order to do quick steps. I have to say, my steps are improving with the usage of the bar due to the balance improvements.

The second machine which is definitely worth going to the arcades for is the basketball hoop. The goal is just to throw as many balls in the hoop as you can to get a high score. It’s possible to do it with two players. Obviously, our goal was to improve the current high score. Our highest was 144 (high score at the time was 163) for the last couple of days, but Jeroen and I finally managed to beat the score with 178 today (I only took a photo of our previous high score 171, so hopefully, the 178 score is still there so I can take a new photo of it ;p)

While we were doing intensive (yes, yes) sports on an arcade machine, Tessy and Wendy would wander and throw some coins in gamble games where you win tickets. These tickets can then be traded for items. To my surprise, both of them had extreme luck. We have some photos with them winning a jackpot and other large ticket amounts.

Tuesday was a day in the park. It sort of became a picknick and we held a whole day of siesta in the grass. Yes, I know, lazy. But that’s Italy.

While grabbing our lunch, we saw these dressed up people all going the same way. We knew that it was the Palio, a tradition that is celebrated here in Ferrara every year. It was wonderful to see them going towards the tribunes where horse races would be held. I took loads of photos and recorded (Jeroen mostly, because I had to take the photos) many movies as well. I’m hoping to compile them when I get back home so I give you all an impression of what it’s like. As for the photos, I’ll try to make a selection of them sooner or later.

The park, the area outside the walls and shops we visited during the day were nice, however.

Twas time for the laundry and since we all had to do quite some laundry, we decided to design a magnificent construction to put our clothes on for drying. See the photos for the results.

Dinner was at the roof for everyone and it was very nice but it got cold real fast. After some casual drinking (well, not me), we went to the Architettura party just outside the city walls. The spirit was great but the music was baaaad…If they had one in The Netherlands, it would have been great.

Vid of Architettura party 1
Vid of Architettura party 2

The university and hospital weren’t that impressive, I’m afraid. I guess we’re used to the luxury of Maastricht University. It was a half assed park due to the old buildings. After finding our way to the main room and the introductions of our new Italian tutors, we started with the discussion of the cases. Unfortunately, no Italian students are among us right now due to the fact that they have exams in June and July (what a disappointment!). The discussion wasn’t different from the ones in Maastricht, apart from the fact that they were in English now. The case wasn’t too specific either and therefore not very interesting.

The one time that friend Jeroen decides to eat an apple, he loses his iron thingy from his teeth (picture). Yikes, but apparently nothing to worry about.

We all decided, after a long day, to go out and eat pizza with everyone. Our initial idea was to eat at the so called Pizza boat but it was closed (on a Tuesday?) so we had to look for another option. A kind woman led us to a place where she’d always get her pizzas from and with enough space for twenty people. The pizzas were delicious, but the owner (or one of his co-workers, actually) tried to rip us off! It was actually really funny to see because we were (obviously) very stubborn and wouldn’t pay what they asked (in total, it was about €100,- too much). That’s where our Dutch greed came into play, but we had the right to do so anyway. Eventually, they gave in and asked for the right price (kind of). We even gave them a huge tip of fifteen Euros! I thought they didn’t deserved it but oh well, some hadn’t paid yet while the amount was reached and wanted to.

Something I forgot to tell on the fourth day (Rent-a-bike):

Jeroen found these enormous, gross cocoons in his curtains. I don’t mind insects but that really freaked me out. I don’t know what they were, but it seemed like they were moths or something. Could be spiders too though, because we shoved them with a broom and when they broke, we saw these little dead insect bodies…Ugh.

And last but not least: Jeroen said he wanted to eat the sun so…

By now, everyone has arrived and they all had to register and sign the contract for the apartments as well…As you could have guessed, it took sooo long. I’ll be saying this a lot, but man, the Italians are slowpokes.

Once everyone had signed and freshened up, we all went to the central station together to rent a bike. The owner did not speak English and pretty much tried to rip us off with €100,- for six weeks (previous med students hired a bike for €60,- for three months). Obviously, we would explore other options and the one rent a bike store advised was near the cathedral. To our surprise, the owner spoke English very well and the process of renting our bikes luckily went easy peasy.

Having our bikes gave us enormous freedom. It was great to go from A to B within a few moments. Definitely worth it and pretty much mandatory.