Dreamstate is my FAVORITE festival.

Okay, okay, I'll admit I'm biased: WE LOVE TRANCE!!! :D But seriously, I thought EDC was peak festival vibes until my partner & I came to Dreamstate. Instead of staying at 1 stage and visiting 1-2 others occasionally at EDC, we're hopping between stages and having a hard time picking between headliners! I can stand in the middle of where the sounds meet, and I love what I hear in every direction! It's like Disney World, but better!!

So, here are a few ways this year's Dreamstate made itself even better.

  • I love the new venue! Partying next to a boat was awesome. Partying on the boat for the afters... was even MORE awesome! We stayed a a hotel by the shuttles and had so many delicious restaurants within walking distance... sooo convenient. The only downside to this location was that cold ass breeze coming off the ocean.
  • The music was TOP NOTCH. I love all the IDs the artists play, I love the insane B2Bs, I love the headliners, I love the supporting DJs. Love love love! I feel like they really bring the trance because they know we all love it. AND I DO!!!
  • The DJS I expected to deliver ABSOLUTELY did: Gouryella (Ferry Corsten! <3) was transformative; exactly the type of journey I think of when I think "trance." Collider Live (Craig Connelly) was fresh and phenomenal. David Rust was a huge fuckin' party (oh hello, B2B Billy Gillies! Don't mind if we do!!). Greg Downey had sick beats and impeccable transitions; totally worth coming into the festival at 4 for him. Nilsix was SICK, having them at 6pm was criminal, but I danced my ASS off for them! JOC killed it as both aliases - I didn't get to see all of either of his sets, but what I did hear was absolute fire. Same with Paul van Dyk! Armin killed it (I'm picky about which sets of his I like, but this one was great), and so did Vini Vici. Ruben de Ronde is always a good time. I barely got to see the tail end of Aly & Fila, but wow were they going hard!
  • And then, in true festival fashion, we stumbled upon some new names that blew our minds! We have... Vegas. Out of Orbit (dude. like, woah. they were FANTASTIC! one of the best psytrance sets I've ever seen). Ace Ventura (okay, I know, I'm late to this party. Everyone loves him. Well, now I do too! lol). Colour Nation (they closed the afters, and had my tired ass still hopping around!). And we saw some of Sonic Species & Animato on the ship as well, and they were dope! Clearly, we enjoyed ourselves some new psytrance. xD
  • The Sequence is its whole own macrocosm over on that side of the venue, and my gosh was it sweeeeeeeeeet! The lasers were on point, the base thumped so hard I could dance my way into the crowd, and I swear I would've been happy just staying there the whole night. Every time we didn't know where to go, the answer was PSYTRANCE! And it was always the right answer.
  • It was the first time we did VIP, and it was TOTALLY worth it. I loved having actual bathrooms, it made such a huge difference. I didn't even need my she-wee or extra toilet paper! The viewing areas were generally pretty dope (especially at the smaller stages tbh), and I loved being able to sit on an actual chair or couch for a while. This meant we got to take nicer breaks, and between that and it only being a 2-day festival, I didn't get so overtired and was actually able to do the afters on Saturday without an issue.
  • We made kandi to trade this year, and I swear mine was all gone within the first hour! So many sweeties, cool outfits, and rad vibes!
  • We made new friends that I hope we'll be seeing before we come back next year! We are starting to build our ~rave fam~ and it's the best!

I know there's so much more, but this is already a wall of text. Tell me why Dreamstate is your favorite! (or not) Who were your favorite artists? Did they deliver? Did you discover anyone new!?