We danced a lot during these two-nights event in the new location of Ahoy Rotterdam: we’ll tell you a little about it …
On June 22nd last year, Armin van Buuren and A State of Trance announced a historic decision: the change of venue for future ASOT festivals.
Saying goodbye to the doors of Jaarbeurs was not easy, the “home” of Utrecht has been the heart of the history of trance for over two decades, ranging from the several Trance Energy events up to the latest appointments of the A State Of Trance radioshow. The choice to focus on Ahoy Rotterdam has several reasons, the structure in any case is among the best organized facilities of the Netherlands, a place already structured and mature to deal with over 40 thousand fans.
We were there this weekend and yes, we loved practically everything.
The structure has kept its promise of being a worthy heir to Jaarbeurs for this event, with large spaces and punctual organization (despite the less than perfect weather outside, with rain and cold wind during the second night): the main innovation compared to the last few years was the presence of the arena, very famous because it hosts several musical and sporting events worldwide, which for this occasion was used to host one of the most important stages for this event, the Area Three: what obviously impressed everyone was the presence of a very high ledwall behind the stage and the footage of the DJs was projected onto it, as if it looked like a hologram: simply incredible.
Anyone who has been attending the A State of Trance festivals in the Netherlands for years knows that there is always a wait for the setup of the Mainstage (Area One for this event): as soon as we entered, we couldn’t help but admire these long led walls present in high which projected the light of the theme of the event (emerald green), the visual effect was exceptional since during the various DJ sets the lights and visual effects were constantly changing, giving the stage a spatial and futuristic atmosphere; the other novelty of the Mainstage was the presence of the VIP Deck around the console and for the first time the fans were able to admire the DJs at 360 degrees.
This theme was also repeated in Area Two, which represented a bit of the Who’s Afraid Of 138 stage of previous years: a huge parallelepiped-shaped LED wall that “cut” the stage in two towards the console, as if an alien spaceship stood over the crowd, truly awesome. Finally, the smaller stages, called Area Four and Area Five, had a more minimal design, the first set up with a cage of scaffolding where fans could “climb up” and the second which took up the style of last year’s Mainstage, in a smaller space, with a strip of mirrors behind the stage.
But let’s get to the music: it was clear from the line-up of this edition that there was a more techno feel to the festival, but this still didn’t distort the trance event: we moved between the various stages to try not to miss the sets we intended to follow, although they all deserved to be followed.
During of Friday 23rd, Laura van Dam inaugurated the mainstage with her deep progressive sound in a crescendo of bpm and some interesting ID tracks; we then headed towards Area Five where we were welcomed by Alex M.O.R.P.H.’s alias, MRPHLNRD: the progressive side of the German DJ and producer that we were pleased to hear again in this new modality.
Immediately afterwards, anamē, among the top names of Anjunabeats label, made their way: we were particularly curious to listen to them and the wait kept their promises: a set of the highest level, with many tracks taken from their album Beautiful World (there is was an opportunity to compliment Marcus Schössow for this work): towards the end of the set, Paavo from Above & Beyond entered the stage to play some tracks together with Marcus and Matthew, including Gratitude, the ttrack they created together in 2021 with Marty Longstaff.
We return to the Mainstage, which was now practically full and we find NWYR intent on turning on the crowd: bigroom, progressive and hard-trance expertly mixed in their set with many of their new tracks still ID: it was practically impossible to stay still.
At 1.30 everything was ready for Armin van Buuren‘s long-awaited Destination Set: Ferry, Ruben and Nina took to the stage during the last epic last 30 minutes of the set, but it must be said that the entire DJ set was perhaps the one that impressed us most, with Armin van Buuren engaging in the choice of tracks, which ranged from trance to progressive to that touch of techno: new tracks (including his new track with Gryffin which already seems memorable, out the next few weeks) and classics present in the set, especially at the end, when the notes of certain tracks such as Satellite by OceanLab and Anahera by Gouryella resonated in the stage, filling our eyes with tears of emotion. Of course, Destination, the anthem created especially for the event, played live, was one of the most powerful and exciting tracks of the entire festival.
Before entering the Arena to follow the first of Armin’s planned B2Bs, we can’t help but go to Area Four to follow Nina de Koning in action with her powerful set; so here we are at 4.30 am in Area Three with Armin van Buuren and Joris Voorn, a set that rewarded a very high level of progressive music, involving the fans present in the Arena on all the collateral sounds of trance music.
On Saturday 24th, a powerful downpour accompanies our arrival at Ahoy, we quickly run to the Mainstage where an enthusiastic Ruben de Ronde opens the dance with his set from 21:00 (for VIP ticket holders, from 22:00 for Regular tickets holders): many of his successes and a live performance with Xira singing live Tokyo (the track of last year with 3Lau) and an exciting new track with Ruben, closing the set with the now iconic Rainbow from 2018 (with Estiva).
Immediately afterwards, Paavo from Above & Beyond with his alias P.O.S. takes control of the mainstage to propose his set composed entirely of tracks from his repertoire, including those present in his last EP released last week Fire & Water: it goes without saying how much it was appreciated.
However, we quickly run to Area Five where, shortly before, a debutant Maciej Celewski invites us to raise our arms to the sky with his set: congrats man ! It’s therefore time for Hel:sløwed, returning from an amazing 2023, in the company of Amber Revival duo who give us a very exciting live performance of their last year’s hit If You Only Knew and also featuring for the first time their new collaboration with Hel:sløwed, due out in the next few weeks: we can only say we still have goosebumps.
We then returned to the main to find one of the certainties of this festival for years: Cosmic Gate, who once again enchanted the 15,000 people present on the stage with many of their tracks, which have now become iconic, present in the double album MOSAIIK released from 2021 to 2023.
And then it was the turn of A State Of Trance boss Armin again, who proposed a set very similar to his set from the previous day and we were very happy about it because we liked the Destination set so much that we started dancing the same way again !
At 2:00 am mister Ferry Corsten taked control of the main stage for his long-awaited set: pure trance and mixtures of electronic and progressive sounds stand out in his set, with some new track, including the new track, still ID, with Ruben de Ronde and great classics by System F and Moonman alias; it’s impossible not to have dreamed with hands in the air, expecially in our opinion, for Fulfillment (with Marsh), one of the most interesting trance record of this early 2024.
We decided to divide ourselves into the central part of the night to follow as many artists as possible: in Area Two there was an air of pure uplifting trance with the maestro John O’Callaghan which gave an hour of dreamy sound and followed by a insane set by Nifra, with a powerful combination of progressive trance and bigroom.
At the same time, with no small effort given the number of fans present, we finally managed to enter the Arena where Armin was there for his latest B2B with HI-LO: a long-awaited set in which sparks were promised and so it is It was because that famous encounter between techno and trance enchanted everyone. Also in this set Armin van Buuren proposed a new collaboration, with HI-LO, clearly still ID, with which he 100% synthesizes the encounter between these two increasingly less distant musical genres.
This event often serves as a showcase for new tracks and this year Armin proposed at least three new collaborations in his four sets: with Hardwell (who took to the stage during the Destination Set), with Vini Vici (also on stage during the Armin in the second evening) and, indeed, with HI-LO, all due out in the next few weeks.
At the end of this amazing two days and two night, Armin van Buuren and his team have once again achieved their objective, that is to drag the current musical trend of electronic music into their temple, given the vast presence of several purely techno DJs. The final result of these DJ sets, excluding historical trance producers, still remains attractive as if in the ears of the fans this combination has been “mixed” in the right way, thinning out any differences between the genres: the sensation in fact is that Armin is always able to attract any change of direction of music scene and make it his own in the most acceptable way for trance music fans.
Given the large positive response, A State Of Trance team has already announced that the festival will return next year at Ahoy Rotterdam and it’s already possible to pre-register now: A STATE OF TRANCE 2025: We will certainly be there once again !
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