New years eve is the most important night of the raving calendar and so it's important to pick an extra special event in which to see in the new year. I loved Fantasy Island last new years eve and it was one of the best raves I've ever been to. Whilst there were lots of other good events to choose from, when I heard there was another Fantasy Island this new years eve there was only one choice for me. This year they'd come up with the idea of doing a pre-party hosted by the UK Scene website, and this was located in a building just across the road from the main complex. This was free to get in and didn't require you to show an event ticket. I thought this was a really good idea as it meant that people could go in there but not have to go into the actual event too early. It was put in an arena with lots of tables and chairs as well as a reasonable sized dancefloor and a variety of up and coming DJs. The first of these was dj stride who played a good hardstyle set which was nice and thumping. Following him came Ventura and Griff playing back to back, and they started off with the anthem "Born Slippy" by Underworld. They then played a really varied set which included some old skool such as "Volume 1" by DJs Unite and hardcore such as the old "F/uck my best friend" tune. After him came Tom Wilson and Mangle back to back. They started off with the "51st state" sample currently used in a couple of hard house tunes, then played a hard trance set which had some tight mixing and a bootleg of "Joyenergiser". The best thing about the pre-party was that when I went into the main complex I already felt warmed up and ready for the night ahead. The Fantasy Island complex itself is absolutely huge, and even after going there three times now I'm still not completely sure of my way round it. It has nine arenas, lots of different bars and hot food stalls, and once again had lots of different cloakrooms (there were at least four). There was a big fairground outside with lots of different rides, although it didn't look like the rollercoaster was in use this year. Everyone was provided with a wristband as they entered the event, which enabled them to go completely off the site whenever they wanted and then return later. There were lots of fireworks being let off above the main complex just before it opened, which added to the feel of the night. The arenas used had changed round slightly this year and the arena inside the main pyramid was used for the live stage. Even though this pyramid is huge it has so much stuff in it that the actual dancefloor space there isn't that big. The hardcore arena was in the same outside warehouse where it was last new years eve, and the arena linked to it was the hard house arena put on by Goodgreef, Mixmag's club of the year 2002. The drum and bass was in the fairly big arena where the hardcore was in June, and the Raindance old skool arena was next to this. The Tasty and Tomorrows World hard trance arena was in an amusement arcade style room which was fully carpetted so therefore easier to dance in. There were also techno and house arenas although I didn't go in these. The first set I saw was Sy in the hardcore, and he was playing early at 7pm due to his other bookings elsewhere. He was accompanied as always by MC Storm who had the same problem so he just did the first two sets of the night till 9pm. They started the night off well with a good set which included "Get f/ucked", the "Turn up the music" remix and "Elysium plus", before finishing with "Like an Angel" by QTex. The lineup times had meant Sy clashed with BK in the hard house (both favourites of mine), so once Sy finished I had planned to catch the last 15 minutes of BK's set. Robbie Long was next in the hardcore though and when his first two tunes were his own "Where's the party at" and "PSA" I had to stop for them. When I did go into the hard house arena after these I found this didn't matter though as just finishing was a younger DJ I didn't recognise, so BK had either swapped sets with someone else or not showed up. After this came Paul Glazby who played a good set but not as hard as he usually does. At 9pm I then went to the live stage to see K90 do a live PA. He played some great tunes including "I get a rush" by Steve Blake and "All your bass" by DJ Virus, as well as his own "Breathe" and "Red Snapper" which he finished with. What I did find strange though was that he'd also been booked to do a set in the hard trance arena later on. As the PA was hard trance anyway and he'd most likely have played some of the same tunes in his set, it would have been better to have given the set to another big hard trance DJ such as Phil Reynolds or Tidy Two's Guyver. Next there was a tough choice between Tidy label manager Lee Haslam in the hard trance arena or Nicky Blackmarket in the drum and bass arena, and I chose to see Nicky Blackmarket play. He did a good set which included the new "Papua New Guinea" remix, the "Snapshot" remix and finished off with the all-time smash "The Nine" by )EIB( . Alongside him on the mic were Fred-E from Lockdown and another MC. At one point this other MC was dissing hardcore and hard house over the mic, which I thought was a bit ironic as hardcore originates from the same place as drum and bass, so they're effectively cousins to one another. To bring in the new year I decided to see Marc Smith play in the hardcore arena, and he'd bought with him the phenomenal stage dancer Vinny. I couldn't tell what the tune he used to bring in the new year with was, as less than five minutes after it had turned midnight someone collapsed right near the front and the music was stopped. It was off for about five minutes while the security and paramedics sorted out the situation, then Marc Smith restarted the music with "Identify the Beat". After this set I fancied something different so headed off to the live stage where they were playing some funky house in between the live acts. This was a big step down in tempo after the hardcore but I enjoyed it and they played "Gypsy boy, gypsy girl" which I used to love but hadn't heard in years. At 1am the singer Big Ben from Phats and Small came on stage. He sang "Feel good", "Luv da sunshine" which he did with The Intenso Project, and of course "Turn around" which I've always really liked. After he'd left the stage he was called back to do an encore, for which the crowd requested he do "Turn around" a second time. I then went back to the drum and bass arena where it was Donovan "Badboy" Smith on the decks. He did a good set and right at the end played "Playtime" by Roni Size. Goldie had done the set before and was walking at the front of the stage chatting to people and posing for photos. He came across to me as being a nice bloke who had plenty of time for people. Then it was off to the hard trance arena where Jon Doe was playing. He did a good set which included the Scot Project remix of "City to city", "Serious Sound" by Guyver, one of the remixes of Signum's "Coming on Strong" and "Red Snapper". After that I went back to the hardcore arena to see Sharkey play. He did a nice and hard set which included "Technorocker", "Where's the party at" and the classic "Now Control". He ended up playing longer than he expected as Hixxy arrived there about twenty minutes late. Next I went back to the hard trance arena where it was up and comings UHF and Kaine playing a back to back set. UHF did the first half and played some thumping hardstyle including "Go insane" and a new tune he'd made himself, then Kaine did the second half and slowed it down slightly with some hard trance. I spent the last hour of the night back in the Vibealite hardcore arena where it was Breeze on the decks. He did a really good set which included his own "You're shining", the remix of "Follow me" by Force and Styles, his own "Be Angeled" rip and what sounded like a brand new remix of his classic tune "Let's fly". He then played the customary one more tune which was the new "Heart of gold" remix, and then managed play yet another one, although this was cut off halfway through by the security. This bought to an end what had been a quality new years eve event. Fantasy Island is my favourite venue anywhere and has so many arenas that it enables a massive range of different dance music to be put on. I saw a variety of different sets but there were still DJs I had to miss because of clashes in the lineup times. The range of music had in turn bought in a varied crowd including ravers, cyberkids, junglists and house fans which was good to see. I thought Breeze just edged Nicky Blackmarket to the set of the night, although Sharkey and Jon Doe were also good. Besides the music there were lots of different things to do including the big funfair, and I thought the pre-party was a really good idea. This was also used as a chillout room after the music had finished at 6am, although I had to get a coach back home afterwards. There were many more toilets than last year, including some right outside the hardcore arena. The production was generally good, including nice green lasers in the hard trance and drum and bass arenas, although Fantasy Island is such a colourful and lively venue that it doesn't need much in the way of decor. The main downside for me was around the middle of the night the sound system in the hardcore arena just wasn't good enough. When Marc Smith was on it was too quiet with not enough bass, although this seemed to have been sorted out by the time Sharkey came on at 3am. Another criticism was that the dancefloor for the live stage suffered from the same crowd movement problems as it did last new years eve. As this was one route through the main pyramid arena it meant that people were always walking through it and at times there wasn't much room to dance in at all. Overall this event wasn't quite as good as last years although that was a very high standard to reach again. It was still a very good event though and at the end of the night I knew I'd made the right choice in coming here as opposed to the other alternatives. Vibealite's next event is at The Emporium in Coalville on Jan 24th, see you all there. :) Shouts to Lee UHF, Jake Nicholls, Sam, Thumpa, Hiney, Gallagher, Rich B and his girlfriend, Lang-E and Charlie, Part-E, Runna, Andy Freestyle, John, dj stride, Kaine, Dodgee, Dave, |-_-| , Shox, Reepa, Joe UK Scene, Wendy and Wayne, Alarm, Lee, James, Bombjack, Strike, SFX, JD, Ronin, mis.tc, Mozz, Astraboy, Davespice, Hardcore Alien, Pinhead, Hixxy, Sharkey, MC Whizzkid and MC Storm.
