Fantasy Island is one of the legendary rave venues from recent years, and when the event returned here on NYE it was pretty special. This was the first event here since then and all the ravers were hoping that it could match up to the high standards set on NYE. I got the train up and it was full of ravers from all over the country, with some from London and some who had travelled down from Glasgow and Edinburgh. The venue is about four miles away from Skegness train station and a taxi from the station cost me £6. I arrived there at about 6:45 and there was a fairly big queue outside. Unfortunately they were 40 minutes lately in opening the doors, which led to some people getting a little frustrated in the queue. When it did open the queue moved fairly quickly and I got a reasonably thorough search by a security guard. As people passed into the venue they were given a yellow wristband and this allowed them to go outside at any point during the night, which I thought was a really good idea. I got inside at about 8:00 and the venue was filling up over the next 90 minutes or so. I took a wander round the venue to check it out as Fantasy Island is pretty big. The hardcore was in an arena just off from the central arena in the pyramid, and this was the best arena in the venue. It was kept pretty dark which added to the atmosphere and the sound system was loud and clear. The only thing I can fault it on is that it had a stone floor which got quite slippy at times. The Fantasy Island site is best described as a huge indoor amusement park and so it makes a great rave venue. It is completely different from any other dance venue there is, and even without any banners etc it is still very colourful and good to look at. At this event all of the arenas were contained in the central pyramid structure of the site, so the warehouse where the hardcore and techno had been on NYE wasn't being used. The Sundissential arena was in the central arena of the pyramid and the security had put up a barrier so that the crowd could only walk one way round this arena and this created a dancefloor section. This was a good idea as on NYE there was no dancing space in the hard house arena because people were continually walking through it. It was the Sundissential arena where I went first and it was Lab 4 doing a live PA. They played it rock hard and fast as they always do, with loads of acid sounds, and they dropped in "Ready to bop". Their set started at 8:30 though and this was way too early for Lab 4. The venue was still filling up at this point and they definitely should have been booked for a later set. After their set I went to the hardcore arena, and as I walked in I saw that the whole arena was going right off. It was a wicked atmosphere in there even by hardcore standards and there didn't seem to be anyone in there who wasn't dancing as hard as they could do. It was Sharkey and Energy playing but Energy arrived late so Sharkey was on his own for the first 20 minutes or so. During this time he played some great new freeform I'd never heard before which was all up to the usual high quality. After that him and Energy played tunes like "Vertigo", "Say it again" and the new "Badass" remix. This got my vote for the set of the night. I then caught the first couple of tunes from Robbie Long and Brisk, including "Mindripper" on Deathchant (my favourite gabba tune EVER) and "Powerjam". Then I headed off to the old skool arena to see Sy play. I'm not generally a huge old skool fan but Sy was dropping in classic tune after classic tune so I was loving it. He played "Everybody is in the place", "Sweet harmony" and "DJs Unite" which he scratched in. It was a good set from Sy and he was doing some really good scratching. I then headed back into the hardcore to see Sy play back to back with Unknown, alongside MC Storm. They played some new tunes I hadn't heard before, as well as "Future Set" and the "Power of love" remix. They then surprised me when they played "Eye Opener". Yes it is one of the most well loved (and arguably best) hardcore tunes there is, but over the years it's been caned to death so surely the tune should be put to bed now ? The set also included plenty of cool vinyl and vocal scratching from the three of them. Next up in the hardcore arena was Sharkey's second set of the night, and this time he was playing alongside Marc Smith. This set was more standard hardcore as opposed to freeform, and these two played "Identify the beat", "More fucked" and a remix of "I can feel it" and a really good new remix of Marc Smith's classic "Boom n Pow". On the night I had really wanted to go on the two rollercoasters, especially the new one, but it turned out that the rides only ran till 11pm so it wasn't worth buying one of the £10 ride passes. This was a shame as I had assumed that they would have gone on all night long. :( The next set that I saw was Paul Glazby in the Sundissential arena, and he played his own tune "Beautiful". His set didn't see quite as hard as it normally is, but I still enjoyed it. Before I got here I had really wanted to see Eddie Halliwell as he is one of my favourites but he played earlier than the lineup times said he would do and so I missed him. He was due to play back to back with Rob Tissera but in the end Rob Tissera just played on his own for the last hour. In the final hour I caught M Zone in the techno and hard trance room and he played a driving hard trance set with a continuously rock hard kickdrum, although he surprised me when he played Ferry Corsten's "Punk". The set I had really wanted to see in there was Gollum but his set was cancelled which I was gutted about. As the 6am finish came I picked up my coat from the cloakroom pretty quickly then went down the beach with some other ravers. To sum up this was a very good event from Fantasy Island. Their main asset is the venue they have, which is totally individual and I can honestly say is better than any other rave venue there is. In contrast with a plain warehouse which needs lots of banners and lasers to liven it up this venue is already very lively to look at. The crowd are all well up for it, the many different arenas give scope for lots of different music styles, and the ability to go offsite during the event is a really good idea. You could even go down to the beach if you wanted to. There are loads of food stalls and plenty of places to chill out in. For next time it would be really good if the rides could be on all night, but apart from that I can't think of any other criticisms of the night. If you didn't travel up because you couldn't be bothered or you thought it was too far, then what's wrong with you? This event is as good as any other rave there is and it's great that the North has got big events like this and Vibealite at the Corn Mill to be proud of. Skegness is a little bit out of the way but it's well worth travelling up for. Vibealite's next event is Future Vibe in conjunction with Future Dance and is on August 31st at the Sanctuary. Shouts go out to Slammin Sam, Lee UHF, Rich B, Lang-E, Charliieee, Part-E, Shaun, Davespice, Ravegirl, Astraboy, Paul Compulsion, MC Buzz, Emma O, Ellie, Joe UKS, Wendy, Wayne, Mark-E and all the other UK Scene crew, Alarm, Kerrie, Lee, Banksy, SD, Smithers, Russell, MC SFX, Strike, HB, Sweetstar, Bedford Caine, Manchester Kaine, Bedroom raver, Sureal, Missus Sureal, Ted Pornstar, JD Promotions, Potfish, Andy M, Number 2301, Charlie Kitten, James, Gurn-E, MC Whizzkid, MC Storm, Energy and Sharkey.
