One Step Beyond - Review 3

Thousands of people from all over the country descended on Castle Donnington Raceway for One Step Beyond, a night which almost captured the enthusiasm of the M25 rave days.  One overheated enthusiast stripped starker's as the bass-line thumped and, as I watched, enthralled a 10ft silver robot scared the life out of me when it tapped me on the shoulder.

Police made just 23 arrests during the 10-hour free-for-all and only nine of these were charged.  One local bobby told me there was less trouble than at the racing car meets which are the more usual sights at the ground.   Sensibly, the cops kept a low profile, and like the saying "you can never find one when you want one," there wasn't a policeman in sight during my desperate search for a pen!

Organisers Fantazia are so chuffed they're already putting together plans for a Super-Rave in September at a different site with more tickets and more side attractions (if that's possible) than at Donnington. Although everything is top-secret at the moment. 

The sound system was crystal clear, even in the huge outdoors arena, where the stacked speakers produced enough noise to cover the whistles and cheers without drowning the atmosphere.   Occasionally the hard-core music took monotony into a new dimension, but perhaps that's just me getting old.  The smiling, mainly teenage, punters seemed to lap it up.    There were enough clothes stalls, fairground rides and new age tents to keep the most easily bored ravers smiling.

The castle stage and giant plastic dragon were colourful touches and showed an attention to detail which has been decidedly  lacking from better known raves recently.    Amazingly, as the sun came up, the raving got more intense and by the time the Rat Pack made their appearance at 5.30am and the fireworks went off on the main stage, there was a manic quality in the air.

"This is definitely the last one" was said half-heartedly a few times , the crowd even laughed at the MC at one point.   But finally at 7.30 it was time for all good and bad, boys and girls to go to home to bed.  Knackered and satisfied. 

Kiershen Mackenzie