Getting there Shepton Mallet is pretty easy to find as dreamscape had maps printed on the back of the tickets and there were also signposts along the way. Arriving at shepton at 7.00pm, the mobile rang and we were imformed of the already huge queue to get in. However, as we had travelled with one of the ID Concept dancers we managed to get in via the VIP entrance on the other side of the site and straight in. The Set-up Having been to dreamscape 26 in october I knew what to expect of this 'new' venue. There were five arenas altogether, catering for different musical tastes. The main arena is huge, about twice as big as the sanctuary with a huge balcony all the way around the arena. The music here alternated between hardcore and jungle. The old skool and house rooms are seperate rooms at the back of the main arena. the techno and jungle rooms were also huge and in seperate buildings. The technoheads particularly revelling in the space that they had with scenes of complete madness taking place for the majority of the night, particularly when Mark EG turned up close to the end and appeared to be taking his face off!?! Times of what DJ's were on when were displayed at the back of the main area and outside all of the other arenas was a nice touch, as no times were published on the flyer. The Crowd Most of the crowd had come to enjoy themselves and they did just that! Almost everybody I met was either Welsh or I knew from the brunel rooms in swindon. Met up also with a few lads from London who preferred Dreamscape to Helter Skelter because of the size of the site. "You don't have to queue up for 30 mins to get into another arena here" they said, which is the case at Skelter usually. Attitude wasn't too bad on the whole. With no reports of taxing as was the case at Skelter (Time in November). The Count-down At a quarter to twelve, security were stopping people getting into the already crammed main arena. DJ Rap stopped the music at five to twelve and the mc (can't remember who) said what was going to happen, hyping the crowd up for the all important countdown, as if they didn't really need to be! Then as the song goes "Now Is the Time" and the countdown began 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 getting louder and louder by each number, then boom whistles, horns, shouts, the noise was deafening. Sy then took control of the decks. With people not dancing as you'd expect, but still hugging each other and shaking hands with one another. The Music Sets that stood out for me: Juice & Cally in the techno arena. They played a trance set, but unlike Bunter, this was fast and furious, similar to Sharkey on Bonkers 3, but a great deal better with some top scratching (Cally) within the set. DJ Brisk (main arena). Played a touch slower than he usually does, but what a set. When he dropped 'shooting star' by Bang! (of Cloudy Daze fame) there was pandemonium. It's one of thoose choonz when the hair on the back of your neck stands up. Also jiieeehhhaaa remix went down a treat with some first class stomping taking place. Active (jungle). I didn't go in the jungle arena as ain't my dancing cup of tea. But quite a few people that I spoke to said his set was shit-hot. Other exceptionally good jungle sets form Andy C and Brockie was the word on the grapevine. Scorpio (techno). The techno grandad up to his old tricks, mind-blowing. Tuned into jelly in his set, had to sit down. Complete utter techno mayhem. Other Stuff The security were on the whole were quite alright Some paramedics spotted dancing! What? and they weren't taking the piss! Some bird mistaking me for Mark EG (my hair was platted) Countdowns took place in all arenas apparently (I'm not sure though) My shout-outs over Cally & Juice (on tape, big shout to the pornstar - Mc shocker) and Vinyltrixster Finish This was easily the best new years event thet I'd been to. With the general opinion of a top night. (the come down was bad though). The next one is on April 11 but this is yet to be comfirmed! See you there!
