Okay. Unsolicited or not, whether you care or not, I am listing my personal highlights of the festival each day from an insiders perspective. Delete if you will.
oh yeah, these are in NO ORDER whatsoever. FRIDAY'S TOP MOMENTS 1. Staying up all night helping to build the television wall with some truly dedicated people. 2. Falling off a ladder while hanging colored tile squares 3. Taking DJ Spooky to play an unannounced backroom set at Motor 4. Purchasing a "fucktrance" t shirt via DJ Magda 5. Keith Kemp's fucking SLAMMING set at Motor. Somebody get this boy a residency ASAP! 6. Almost running over Tim Price with a buggy. 7. Slamming 2 bottles of Red Bull and twitching uncontrollably SATURDAY'S HIGHLIGHTS 1. Looking in awe of the crowd for Stacey Pullen with Mr Sicko and VanLoo 2. Dan Sicko's photos. Breathtaking. 3. Establishing Hoedown Records, Detroit's first all trance label with Adam Lee Miller from Adult (look out DEMF 2001...) 4. Theo Parrish taking people beyond house and into church. Same goes for Mike Grant and Mike Clark 5. Bill Vanloo and Mike Dykehouse's sets. Two to watch in the next few yrs. 6. The extended hardwax set. Simply Amazing SUNDAY's HIGHLIGHTS 1. The Planet E Party (sorry. I know I am biased...but I thought we did okay...) 2. Dennis Archer on stage with Slum Village. What a juxtaposition THAT was! 3. The Ectomorph live PA ( I only caught a brief glimpse of it...but I swear they get better every time i hear them! ) 4. Seeing an old guard from the Kalamazoo tribe headline a stage. Fanon Flowers gets his moment in the Detroit spotlight finally =) ( I was off site most of the day...so I didn;t get to see much...any feedback on that day would be cool!) MONDAY's HIGHLIGHTS 1. Enjoying a pristine opening set from Clark Warner. Flawless, excellent choice of tunes that complemented the beautiful weather. No rain! 2. Shake 3. Richie Hawtin closing the damn thing in true style. What a finale! 4. Derrick May and Rolando's sets. ESPECIALLY the end of Derrick's set. TRULY the closest thing to spirituality on stage. 5. FINALLY MEETING K HAND!!!!! 6. Getting the final estimated 3 day attendance total (900,000!) 7. Theorem's Live PA and Sean Deason's live PA back to back, and Mr Plaslaiko going off!!!! 8. Seeing so many people come together, dance, laugh and enjoy themselves without scarcely any harm or injury. This was truly the antidote to last year's woodstock 9. Walking down the street with the festival press co-ordinator, only to see Paris the black fu in a lovely little see-thru skirt. 10.Seeing Detroit finally get some respect in the main stream culture I am sure there is so much more that I am forgetting. But its 145am and I have had very little sleep these past few days. To those who were there: Thank you. Your energy is what validated working my ass off to make this festival work. My hat is off to you for the love and support you have shown everyone involved. To those who did not make it: Your presence was missed but your spirit and soul were felt. Perhaps next year you can head up and see this magnificent festival firsthand =) There is no place like home. Rob
