WHAT AN EXPERIENCE !!! I got in the queue which was a mad free-for-all, about 500 people crammed into this alley pushing, shoving, waiting and shouting "Hurry up" in Dutch (as i was told). A few rowdy idiots were shoving the back of the queue making it squashed and very uncomfortable. It was also quite shall we say nerve racking-ish seeing a bunch of 6 Nazi skin heads all stood at the top of some stairs shouting racist comments in Dutch. And also at one point they threw a full can of lager into the crowd over our head which unfortunately hit someone. The security didn’t pay much attention to what was going on outside, they were sorting people coming through inside the venue. This was the only part of the night that was very un-organised and there were only 2 of the 3 things shit about the night. Don’t let this sound worse than what it is written though, I had no fear of my life. Whilst we were in the queue and inside lots of Dutch people were asking where we were from, shaking our hands, telling us about past raves good times and bad. There were a lot of very friendly people. Some guy went into great detail about how the racism has been quite bad in recent years over there and the government have been blaming most of these raves for it. But it truly is a minority (they are the gypsy crew of Holland), not everyone with a skin head is Nazi btw !!!! The venue was massive, and everywhere you looked there were people bouncing up and down. The stage had a 1920s Al Capone gangster theme, complete with Al Capone cars (Bugsy Malone style) and a garage, and security dressed up like gangsters. Another nice touch were the stage dancers getting it all out, not something you see over here dancers going that far. But they are obviously more laid back out there. The video screens, OMG, 7 around the stage set up. Before each set the lights and sound would go off then the video screens would light up with a 3D MOH logo spinning round, and some effects. A really Evil monster type voice would then say, for example, "Welcome to Masters of Hardcore, the next set is brought to you by 2 members of the Deathchant family, please get ready for the 2 most hardest DJs in the UK, all the pussies must now leave the dancefloor, its time...for... Hellfish & Producer" . This is then followed by fireworks and the DJ appears at the decks and plays the first tune of the set. All us lot were going mental to Producer & Hellfish, a lot of the Dutch were watching us and even gave us some respect for giving it to the harder stuff, One thing I noticed about the night was that it was quite hot, but thousands of people had bought hand fans. Also to help this, twice during the night between the sets, 2 massive shutter doors opened up for 2 minutes to let a lovely cold breeze throughout the place, very good. Plus there was only ever one room so the 12,000 were all their in the one room all night long. What was my favourite thing about the night ? Well it was to stand at the balcony and watch 12,000, that’s right TWELVE THOUSAND, ravers going off their nuts to gabba !!!! A sight to be proud of, they all seemed very emotional about the big trancey breaks we class as cheesy. When these tunes came on lighters went up everywhere, absolutely amazing for 12,000 people. Seeing this gave me a lot more respect for cheesier nu skool gabba !!! Every so often the DJ would cut out a vocal in the track and the crowd would shout it, e.g Outblast did this and the crowd filled in the sample "GIVE ME PAIN TIL I DIE". That was amazing seeing and hearing everyone shout this in time. Unfortunately the bouncers would not let me take my camera in, but go to http://www.rige.nl and look at the official pictures in the next 2 weeks. What really surprised me though, is that a few Dutch guys in the queue said that this was one of the smaller parties and the Hellraiser events are more organised having 35,000 + ravers. That would be a site to be see. Oh yeah and I did the entire thing straight headed, I didn’t want to miss a bit :)
