This time around, buoyed with reports of how great Tribal Gathering was, we manage to convince a group of friends to come along this time.  Muggins here got lumbered with the driving again...though this time in my own car (an x reg 950 Ford Fiesta - a beast among motors!! pffft!) with 5 people in it.   A bit of a departure from my mum's swish Volvo.

Due to the traffic jam 'mare of Tribal Gathering we decided to leave as early as possible as the thought of 5 people crammed in my car, in summer was a little off putting. as it happened there was very little traffic due to much better organisation from the promoters and local police. we breezed straight into the venue. the only downside was that we'd traded car jam for queue jam. though with the weather as it was that wasn't a problem. took us about an hour or so to get in and then we were off exploring.

The basic setup for the event was 2 main stages back-to-back - Heaven and Earth - one playing host to the hardcore the other to house. both arenas were open air instead of tents so it was a return to the the feel of parties in 90/91. dotted all round the perimeter were a variety of stalls selling the usual merchandise, food, etc. a lot with their own little sound systems. an idea which seemed coo-el...but was soon a nightmare as unless you were right in the heart of the arenas, you were in sound clash city. the pa in general was a little underpowered and the night suffered because of it I think.

My memories of the night are actually more related to meeting people and having a great time just being there, as opposed to remember specific Dj set details.  One thing that does stick out though was the continuity of the music.   The scene was well into it's split by now and the line up reflected this with a hardcore Dj followed by a jungle/darkness Dj followed etc,  but whereas there had never really been an issue before, this time the sounds were so far distanced from each other it left the night feeling very clunky...thus more memories of wandering around and meeting people than of actual artists.

The general oddness wasn't helped by the fact that for a change I had decided to let one of my mates sort things out for everyone...normally that was left to me. sadly they got caught up in a potential money making scheme - buying a shed load of e's from a friend of an ex-girlfriend of mine. these beans were advertised as china-whites...but they certainly weren't! they were so mild I suspect that they were more pro-plus than mdma. Thankfully I managed to source some real china whites there so all was not lost...though the effects didn't really arrive until much later.

One of the quirkiest memories I have is of this peculiar little tent...well I say a tent. it was like a closed in black bouncy castle. You entered via a flap and inside was pitch black...except for the mini strobe tied to the central roof support that was set to 3000000bpm.  This enhanced the techno that was coming out of the little speakers also attached to the support. it was so oppressive, yet so amazingly funny that we spent several hours in there under a blanket (from those lovely Joe bananas people) passing a bottle of poppers and a vick stick back and forth. Hehe getting out the thing was so funny. I left as I was starting to come up on the first real china I'd eaten a bit earlier and the site as I staggered out of the hole must've been hilarious. it was also getting light as it was by now about 4am.

The next few hours were spent dancing away in the hardcore arena.

Around 7 my friends asked for the car keys as they wanted to go an chill out.  I assured them I'd join them in half an hour or so.   Which I did...kind of.

As I said the music had been a little weird all night due to the schedule and the bad pa. So obviously this had suppressed the chems a little...something that was rectified shortly after getting in the driving seat of my car.

The folks already at the car had stuck on a tape of Easygroove Fantazia into 93 and were getting down to the k of sound I carried in the boot...they were inside the car but we had about 50 people stood round the boot.  I remember so vividly sitting in the driver's seat, turning round to speak to whoever was on the back seat and seeing them just swim totally out of focus as the second china white I had dropped around 5am come charging on like mad. My mates all still recount this as a classic moment as I went from appearing pretty straight to being monstered in the blink of an eye. my jaw went, my eyes went, and I just started gibbering!  Oh how I wish I could see footage of that!!

Obviously as the designated (and only) driver in the crew they needed to sober me up a little.  Something done by walking me round the car park for 2 hours...something I remember very little of. Though apparently we bumped into my recently ex-girlfriend - the one with the duff contacts!   Whom I denied knowing. In fact I believe I introduced myself to her - "hi i'm Sy and I'm fucked. where you from?"

It's amazing really that we survived the drive home as everyone just seemed to get more hammered the further we got away from the venue...this in part due to the amount of poppers and pot being consumed, sadly not by me. something I protested as being more than a little unfair on the driver...even if it was the safest option and probably saved us all from being killed in an accident!

All in all it was a really good night. just not for the music, more for the people and general atmosphere - which was very good despite everyone bitching about the sound systems.

Big love also marked the end of an era for me and my mates as it was the last proper rave we attended.

DJ Haze (forum member)