Jul. 4, 2008 - Touch down, feeling Sensational

After 24 hours or so in transit we finally arrived in Amsterdam. I caught up with the ITM comp winners Daniel and Scott at the airport in Sydney before we left, and throughout the journey also tracked down a couple of other Aussies who were making the journey over. There’s quite the contingent heading over this year!

It’s Friday afternoon now and I’ve spent today having a wander around Amsterdam city, before heading out to the Arena for a quick look at the setup for the party. Entering the stadium (the same place the legendary Dutch soccer team Ajax play) it was absolutely breathtaking to see the size and scale of the production. Without giving in to the hype, it really does stand head and shoulders above anything else we’ve ever seen at an Australian dance event.

This weekend’s Amsterdam party launches the new ‘underwater’ theme which will tour for Sensation throughout the next few years (eventually making it to Australia for NYE 2009/2010). This year we’ll see the ‘oak of love’ in Melbourne (the setup that featured in the artwork for our recent ‘win a trip to Amsterdam’ competition), which made its debut in Amsterdam last July. Regardless of the theme we’ll have down under for the first Sensation party, from seeing a little on how things gone on behind the scenes today we are definitely in for a treat.

I got a tour of the stage setup by one of the event’s producers, James. I had the video camera on hand to film everything for our special episode of inthemix.tv (will be online Friday July 18^th – be sure to check it out!) James is an Australian who came on board recently with ID&T (the people behind Sensation and a stack of other massive dance events). He’s been given the responsibility of looking after production of the Melbourne party, so he’s in Europe at the moment seeing how things are done here for our first event on NYE!

The thing that stands out most about Sensation compared to a lot of the dance parties we see happen in Australia is that the focus is really put on the ‘experience’ (as horrifically wanky as that sounds!) While most parties or festivals we go to in Australia concentrate their energy primarily on the music and the line-up, for Sensation it’s not the chief ingredient. That’s not to say it’s not an important element of the party, it’s just viewed equally alongside the other aspects of the production.

The lineup for this weekend’s party is Felix Da Housecat, Fedde Le Grand, Laidback Luke, Tocadisco, Marco V and some dude I’ve never heard of called Chuckie. In the middle of the night the famed ‘mega mix’ will take place, and although initially it was a little hard to overcome the connotations it had to cheesy hi-nrg Wild FM mix CD intros, from all reports it’s a mind-blowing spectacle that’s the most precious jewel in Sensation White’s crown.

I think I’ll be heading back to the Arena tonight to see some of the rehearsals, and while I took a stack of pics and video today I’m under strict instructions not to reveal anything until after the Amsterdam party as the specifics of the production always remain a closely guarded secret until the event takes place.