Review: A State of Trance 600 Den Bosch
On Saturday the 6th of April 2013, 30,000 souls gathered in the Brabanthallen of Den Bosch to witness one of the biggest trance event ever in Europe. The latest edition of the ASOT 600 worldtour! After traveling the world for almost 10 weeks, and celebrating 600 episodes of the ‘A State of Trance’ radio show in 11 cities all around the planet, it was finally time for the grand finale in Den Bosch.
We arrived around 19:30 at the Brabanthallen in Den Bosch, and used the press/crew entrance to enter the venue. The press was treated well! We had access to the press room, the place where the interviews were held, we could sit and have a drink. Also we had access to the VIP decks, where we had a great view to take pictures. 20 minutes before the start of Armin’s warm-up set we walked in to an almost empty Mainstage area. On 20:00 the first people entered the room and Armin kicked off his warm-up set. Only the first 1000 people that bought a ticket had access to this set, which made it very special.
1 hour later the doors were opened for all the other 29.000 people that bought a ticket. And within 30 minutes the Mainstage was packed with thousands of excited trance fans. During the night we didn’t hear anything about the chaos at the entrance. According to the statement published on Alda Event’s Facebook page there was an intensive search for the possession of weapons, and did it take a lot of time to check every single visitor. But, better safe than sorry!
Line-up: (5/5)
The line-up for this event was impressive and very various. With no less than 30 DJ’s and acts! It contained legends like: Armin van Buuren, Dash Berlin and Cosmic Gate. And lot of rising talents like: Andrew Rayel, Omnia, Juventa and Faruk Sabanci. It was hard to choose between the 4 stages, and we felt like kids in a candy shop!
The Atmosphere: (4/5)
The atmosphere was great during the whole night. Almost everyone was in a good mood and enjoyed the party. Although, we saw a lot of disappointed faces when the Mainstage stage was full, and people were held back. Lucky for them Armin did another set at the “Who’s afraid of 138?!” stage and these people had a second chance to see their hero. But they had to be on time because the “Who’s afraid of 138?!” was also full during Armin’s set there. Lucky enough there were
We didn’t see any serious disturbance, and we haven’t felt unsafe for a single moment.
Food/Drinks: (2/5)
As usual on events like these, the visitors had to buy tokens to pay for their consumptions. The price for 1 token was €2,75. Every room had their own bar(s), and most of the time it didn’t take too long to get your drinks. Only during the sets of Armin van Buuren when the rooms where completely full.
Which brings me to the following subject. During Armin van Buuren’s set at the Mainstage, and ‘Who’s afraid of 138?!’ stage the rooms were completely full, and the temperature reached very high levels. People are getting thirsty and hot in that kind of circumstances. To buy a bottle of water you had to pay 2 tokens (€5,50). We understand that the artists can’t play for free, and the stages, technique and fireworks are expensive. But €5,50 for ‘just’ a bottle of water is way too high. We can buy 3 liters of gasoline for the same amount of money here in the Netherlands!
There was plenty of choice in food during ASOT600. There was Pizza, Sandwiches, French Fries, Caribbean Soulfood and even fresh fruit. We didn’t test them all, but according to the people we spoke with the quality was great and the price was good.
Stages: (4/5)
The stages looked absolutely gorgeous. There was a lot of decoration and the longer you looked at it, the more details became apparent. The Main and ‘Who’s Afraid of 138?!’ stage were the biggest and most beautiful. The other 2 stages were way smaller and not that impressive. But the music at these two stages was great, and that’s the most important. During the night we saw some spectacular laser shows, fireworks, and creative visuals on the gigantic LED screens.
Photo Gallery:
[dmalbum path=”/wp-content/uploads/dm-albums/ASOT600 – Den Bosch/”/]
Conclusion:
We had a great time at ASOT600, definitely a night to remember! It was great to see our favorite DJ’s live, and it was an experience to interview some of them. But we also saw some improvements. For example the price of the drinks, and if you do an intensive search for possession of weapons and drugs at the entrance it’s better to do this with more people to shorten the waiting time. But overall we think that everybody had an amazing night.
Together we turned the world in to a dance floor!
@edmupdate Great review. Noticed your comments. Glad you had a good time! C u next year!
— Armin van Buuren (@arminvanbuuren) April 10, 2013
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