It was that time of year again, the hugely successful festival known as Global Gathering was making its way back to Long Marston Airfield for another weekend of the cream of the talent to gather and bang out their stuff to the masses. Some festivals in this country consistently supply the usual world class djs to one day events which isn't a bad thing, but I believe Godskitchen realised to stay up there above the rest you've got to give it that little bit extra. So there was the introduction of the two day festival, which was introduced last year. Festivals have come about in recent times in their diversity in music which gets played during the event, which Godskitchen introduced as the Hi-Fi festival. But Global Gathering is identified as a dance festival in the eyes of the clubbing masses, so dance is all that is expected. As every year passes, it's difficult to imagine how they are going to excel from the previous year and make it the best yet. But they managed to do it once again this year.

We arrived at the airfield about 5ish all excited about the weekend ahead of me, already slightly tipsy after a few on the way, or maybe quite a lot! As we collected our tickets we noticed that the campsite was absolutely rammed and hundreds were still proceeding towards the gates, at this time all we wanted to do was to get straight into the festival. So it was decided that we forgot about the camping part of the weekend and think about it at the end of the night. So we collected our passes, headed to the entrances only to be jumped on by the sniffer dog on patrol. At this point I was advised that I was to be searched, which was fine by me. After a few minutes I was let go and told to enjoy the weekend. I was quite impressed by the police's attitude towards me, very polite before and afterwards the small incident. Now that this was behind me I carried on into the festival, it was brilliant to see thousands of clubbers up for it in mid-afternoon. First thing was first though, a few drinks and a timetable of what was going on and assess who I was going to see. To be honest the line-up on the Friday evening only had a handful of djs I wanted to listen to due to the fact I only ever really listen to trance, but I have to say the music that evening I was about to listen to gave me a real eye opener to what the different styles of music were really like. After going around the festival to check out were was what and what everything was like, we proceeded to the beach stage for Pete tongs essential selection.

The beach stage was set up perfectly, in a sort of enclosed area with plenty of sand on hand. The crowd went wild as soon as it went live, really going for it. Everything was perfect, the sun was shining and one of the biggest djs in the world was playing on a brilliant stage to a crowd of up-for-it clubbers. I don't really think it could've fit together any better, and possibly will never be surpassed. After a couple of hours it came to my attention that David Guetta was starting, for me it was a must because each time I have listened to this dj he's rocked the crowd like no other. The Global arena wasn't too packed, but atmosphere there was brilliant. He has a habit of dropping tune after tune, but then he dropped the tune by The Egg(Name of tune???) which completely blew the roof off. Also what made me even more impressed with the arena was the small bar at the side with about ten people serving which I could happily get used to in future festivals. After his set was finished, was quite danced out. So me and my mates just had a little wander around first to see how things were progressing and decide who we were going to listen to next. It was a unanimous decision that we were going to see Pete Tong once again, so we headed over to the essential selection arena. Surprisingly the arena wasn't that busy considering who was on, but as usual the crowd were up for it. After about an hour I decided to get a bit of fresh air and then head over for a bit of Erol Alkan and then listen to none other than Daft Punk. For years I have wanted to listen to these guys and finally I was given the chance to see them and I certainly wasn't going to miss it. By the time we got to the Electric arena it was absolutely rammed, and when you consider the sheer size of the arena there had to be a serious amount of people in there. But this was no surprise as they are one of the best dance acts in the world. When we got a decent position in the arena, it was revealed by giant screens that they were being delayed by 45 minutes, this only allowed time to fight my way to the bar and get a couple of drinks ready. When they finally came on I didn't realise that for their show they were performing on a huge stage, it was brilliant. The crowd erupted when their first tune kicked in and I quite happily joined in. All their big tunes were played and the stage show was surreal to say the least, you had to be there to appreciate it really. For me it was a once in a lifetime experience and one I'll never forget. Once they'd finished I paced back to the Global arena for the rest of Dj Tiesto, one of the headliners of the night. This time when I went into the arena, it was packed and the music was quite banging by then. I never really got to listen too much of him, but the time there was quite memorable. His last tune he dropped was deliriums 'Silence', and the crowd went for it. Throughout the tune, tiesto decided to give his headphones to somebody in the crowd and shake hands with all the people at the front, which I think is quite good for a dj these days. Even though the security were trying to stop him, he simply ignored them and carried on which is even better. By this point it was two in the morning and I was a bit tired, but still raring to go. Knowing there was still another day of clubbing to get through. When we got back to the cars we were informed by fellow clubbers that they'd been rejected from the campsite because there was simply no room left, so it was decided just to put the tent up next to the cars.

I woke up at half seven in the morning, and to my surprise half the campsite were up as well. Everybody was gearing up for the main day of the festival. We decided to have a few drinks early and get something to eat. Once it started you could feel the excitement in the atmosphere, everybody eager to get back in and get started. For me I could've spent the whole day in the Godskitchen arena, it was one of the best line-ups I've come across in a while. So first up was Jon o'Bir, the Gods resident and he always comes up with the goods. But for a while the arena was closed for what I can only describe as a health & safety check. The crowds were building up and as soon as it was ok everyone raced to the front raring to go. I knew the day was going to be brilliant from start to finish from this point. I basically stayed in that arena until about six because Matt hardwick and special guests Above & Beyond were on, and they were both excellent sets. At this point I thought It was time to have a look around the site and see what the other arenas were like, so first up was the polysexual arena. For me it's really difficult to keep up with the hard dance crowd, but somehow they can go from start to finish. And this crowd was no exception, Amber D was banging them out and the crowd were just as equally energetic. I really love the music but I just couldn't keep up with them. I've got to say the hard dance crowd are probably the best crowd in the world. After an hour it was back to the Godskitchen arena to see Marco V, one of my favourites. Once again an excellent set, especially when he dropped 'False light'. Once he finished I saw this as my last opportunity to go to other arenas before I spent the rest of the night in the main arena before Ferry Corsten came on. So we went over to the Bedrock arena to catch a bit of Hernan Cattaneo, for me the music was a bit down tempo considering I spent most of the day listening to banging trance. So after about half an hour I decided to head back to the polysexual arena for another half an hour, and I made the right choice as Rob Tissera was on and the crowd were loving it. Once nine o'clock struck, it was time to head back to the Godskitchen arena for Ferry Corsten. As usual he rocked the crowd with all the latest tunes and then after Ferry was Paul Oakenfold. He hasn't been up to scratch lately and I thought that this crowd would bring the best out of him, but unfortunately his set wasn't exactly the best. But during his set, the sound seemed to have dipped and then just stayed that way throughout the night. Was this to do with sound levels being monitored, or was it simply the sound system was crap? I was going for sound restrictions, but there wasn't a problem the night before so I don't see why there was a problem then with the volume. For me this seriously affected Oakeys set. When Armin Van Buuren came on it was a decider for me what was going on with the sound. It was either Oakey, sound restrictions. Still the sound was pretty poor. When I walked towards the side of the arena, all you could hear were people having conversations and hardly any music. For me this was really pissing me off, because it just never done any justice for the size of the arena and the crowd who were there and especially the dj. Once half one came I was really geared up for my favourite dj to come on, and probably so were the rest of the crowd because masses were entering the arena. So we got to the front because in the previous year they put up a pretty big show to coincide with the dj which I loved. But still Armin was playing, which isn't a bad thing as he's great at what he does. But after twenty minutes I'm starting to think to myself 'where was PVD?' Ten minutes later a dj comes on to stage with a lot of the crowd baffled as to whom it was, and then it came on the screen that Eddie Halliwell was on. At this point I was really baffled as to what was going on as he wasn't even on the line-up. But then somebody told me that PVD had cancelled. For me that was a devastating blow, he was one of the headliners of the festival and he'd cancelled. I'm sure the Gods crew were pretty gutted about it as well, but it turned out that one of his family was taken ill and there was simply no way he could play which is fair enough. Being in a pretty gutted mood, I decided instead to go to another arena to listen to another dj. I decided on Lisa Lashes in the Polysexual arena, if anything was going to cheer me up then this was place to be. The crowd was still going for it all that time and I even seen a few in the same spot as they were in earlier in the afternoon still going strong. Lisa Lashes was typically banging which I really enjoyed, some really banging hard trance: which always goes down well. After she'd finished it was time for a bit of a change so we went to the Carl Cox arena to catch some of Ben Simms. I really like this guy because he really crosses the boundaries when it comes to techno and he's quite banging as well. By this time the crowd were starting to wane and quite a few people in the arena were lying on the floor shattered, which I suppose you could call the clubber casualty. With an hour and a half left I decide to head back to the Godskitchen arena to listen to up-and-coming Gods resident Mark Eteson. I firmly believe that this dj is going to be really big in the future as I've seen him quite a few times now and he's never failed to impress me. On this occasion I was absolutely shattered, literally ready to sleep were I stand. So it had to be a pretty good set to keep me going, and I have to say he kept me going right until the end. There was still a pretty large crowd in the arena still going for it like mad, right until the end. He ended off the festival by playing Tilt's 'Invisible', which was an excellent choice and one not many dj's would've thought of. So there we had it, it was six in the morning and the sun was shining and it was time to leave. You just couldn't have planned it better, as I was heading off towards the exit in the perfect weather I turned back round and looked at all the happy clubbers leaving and I thought to myself 'What a brilliant night'. Then it was time to go back to the tent for a few hours sleep before going home.

The event was excellent from start to finish, there was plenty to listen to throughout the two days. The stalls at the event were pretty good, apart from one stall trying to sell a double burger for £7.50. The price was altered the next day, so I think the price monitoring system was actually working. I was pretty disappointed with the fact that we weren't allowed into the campsite area with our tents, but we were still allowed to check out the facilities that were on offer such as the cinema they had in place. But none the less we were still happy people. The organisation was excellent with Radio one doing a pretty good job, apart from the sound problems in the Godskitchen arena. But I can say that the Godskitchen crew combined with the Radio one crew is simply unbeatable when it comes to festivals and I hope they maintain the partnership, because they're really are going to have to work hard if they want to excel from this years event. I think I can safely say that the event was a success and that every penny the clubbers paid to get in was worth it.

Can't wait for Global Gathering 2007!!!

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