2016 Recaps & 2017 Resolutions with the AAN team!

2016 was one hell of a year, and we’re sad to see it’s departure! But with 2017 right on our doorsteps, it’s time to make one final reflection, this time, from our Alive At Night team. Cassi, Nicki, Sara, Stijn, Myron and Dennis will all be sharing some of their personal experiences from the year, including some wild and very turnt tales! 

Cassi

Best party

DEFQON.1. This year I was honoured to be given the ultimate Defqon.1 experience whilst filming the Day Reports. I was also able to see just how much hard work the incredible team at Q-dance puts in to create such pure perfection. I’ll never forget this weekend! 😀

Most ‘turnt’ moment

This is a hard one to answer, because 2016 was generally a very ‘turnt’ year for me. However, if I have to choose, first of all I’d say that Mysteryland’s Sunday was unquestionably the most cooked experience of my life. We started drinking as soon as we arrived at the festival and things totally escalated to the point where we ended up at a friend’s after-party and continued until Monday morning. Many questionable things were done, including me slipping out at 2AM for an impromptu Tinder date. I deliberated over my existence for the next week or so…

Other worthy contenders were WiSH Outdoor, where we partied (and after-partied) with my lover Chris One (lol, sorry Martin), Defqon.1, where I got naked in the artist lounge photo booth and we threw an epic after-party in our bungalow ‘Fuarkistan’ and Dominator, where I went on walkabout and ended up partying by myself in the Frenchcore area for a few hours.

Something I learnt

One important lesson I learned was to not let people’s conservative judgements and attitudes affect or influence me. Sure, my way of life or style of work is a little more ‘progressive’ and it might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but it’s my cup of tea and that’s all that matters.

In amongst all the crazy turnt times, I also learnt the lesson that nudist houses are a very real thing, but we’ll talk about that one another time… 😉

New Year’s resolutions

I have a couple of things I’d like to achieve in 2017. First of all, I want to properly set my life up in The Netherlands and finally finish the process of getting my Greek passport.

Another goal is to focus a lot on my ‘personal’ writing and finish the memoir I started this year, or at least have a better idea of its direction. This year I’ve written a bunch of hilarious stories based on personal experiences and have even managed to create a major project which covers a very contemporary theme, so I hope that in 2017 I’m able to showcase these specific stories to the broader public.

Finally, I’m going to keep being Hard Dance’s baddest bitch/drunk journalist. There’s going to, of course, be a lot of zesty content coming your way in 2017, including many new episodes of ‘Into The Wild.’ At Alive At Night, we’re going to show it how it is – raw, uncensored and fucking wild!

Nicki

Best party

My favourite party of this year was Midnight Mafia, which took place in Sydney in April. I remember being right down the front from almost the very beginning and being “in the zone” dancing non-stop to The Prophet, Da Tweekaz, Psyko Punkz and Noisecontrollers. Later on, I walked back into the arena towards the end of Radical Redemption’s set. The next artists to take to the stage would be UK Hardcore legends Darren Styles, Mark Breeze & MC Whizzkid.

I expected that there would be a big shift in the crowd as the Raw fans all disappeared outside for a break and the UK Hardcore fans filtered to the front of the stage, but no! Virtually everyone in that crowd stayed exactly where they were and gave the biggest cheer when Styles, Breeze and Whizzkid took to the stage, proving that many hard dance fans are indeed fans of all harder styles. Also FYI – I was actually completely sober at this event!

Most ‘turnt’ moment

At Defqon.1 NL this year I managed to be quite well behaved until the Sunday evening, when I truly had lost count of the number of beers I had put away during the day because at just one token for one smallish looking beer, it’s easy to forget how many you’ve got through (upon later inspection of my token supplies, I fear it might have been about 30..). Anyway, my peak moment of tipsy-ness was around the time that the gate to the Red stage opened and everyone started to filter through into the red stage area for the Closing Ceremony.

On the Saturday night, I remember seeing dragons on stilts on the stage (yes, real dragons, obviously) and now on Sunday those same dragons were parading at the entrance to the red stage. Despite the dragons clearly being very careful of where they trod due to the sea of partygoers on the ground beneath them, I was much less capable of co-ordination and found that with almost every step I seemed to be somewhere dangerously close to getting trampled by a dragon!

Something I learnt 

I need to remember to sleep! This may seem obvious but I tend to always try and just squeeze one more task into the day until suddenly I’m picking my head up off my laptop keyboard because I’ve literally fallen asleep at my desk. When I do eventually get to sleep, I’ve learnt that the best breakfast to wake up to is a mug of Douwe Egberts Hazelnut Infused Coffee and two slices of brown toast with Kraft Cinnamon Spice Peanut Butter.

2017 resolutions!

I’m writing a book and I need to make time to finish the damn thing! The characters are in my mind constantly, with bits and pieces of the story tumbling into my consciousness at the most random of moments only to be recorded on my phone or frantically scribbled down on scraps of paper. In 2017, I will knit the pieces together and finish the story.

Stijn

The double rainbow floating in a sapphire sky at Decibel festival, for me, was one of the most imposing moments of 2016. Dancing under a skyline of these majestic colours nature can provide, while simultaneously listening to the awesome anthem made by Ran-D, was beyond the imaginable. Moreover, it was a moment of reflection as I realised the impact this music has in my life. It sounds a bit cliché, but sometimes the right track, even the right kick or a single note, is what can make my day. It was that moment, looking at those two rainbows, listening to the music I love, I felt blessed of being part of all this.

Anyway, done with all the melodrama, being able to go absolutely mental with my friends, as well as taking trips to la-la-land every now and again is something I cherish the most. It is great to have a group of awesome, really handsome, party buddies. I feel as though I’m making a speech whilst receiving a fucking Oscar…. “I couldn’t do it without you!”

Anyway, speaking directly to them, I love you guys and thanks for every minute of partying! There’s only one last thing I have left to say: I wish all of you Alive At Night followers all the best in 2017. Whatever your plans are and wherever life may take you, make sure you enjoy it in fullest. Cheers!

Sara

2016 started with dancing poly-rhythmic Waltz at Freaqshow with some Austrian friends. It went on to Carnaval, the cancellation of Knockout, stage-climbing almost being pronounced an Olympic Sport and a 3-day alcohol binge to celebrate my Bachelor’s Degree at Electric Love Festival.

It was the year of “Fuarkistan” (our Defqon.1 bungalow) and its ‘national anthem’ being translated into 3 languages, and also the year where Alive At Night underwent a new design and scored a new and improved team. The year where Digital Punk held a pool party in a backyard and the year that Project One, Jeckyll & Hyde & Headhunterz all returned to the scene!

It was the year of 10 years Dirty Workz and 30 Years The Prophet. It was #Tweekay16 and the last edition of Defqon.1 Chile. It was the year Hardwell held a drunken speech about Atmozfears and the year of “Gaan Met De Banaan.” It was a moment of silence for Belgium, duo-split-ups and a sad “Rest In Peace” for a lost raver. But it also was Devin Wild’s Vitas remix and “Rellen In De Hel.”

So much more crazy shit happened and it’d be impossible for me to just wrap it all up here in this paragraph!

2016 truly put Hardstyle on the map internationally and here at Alive At Night, this year we proved that we are here to stay.

I wish a great 2017 for everybody; us, our colleagues, the industry professionals, the DJ’s, producers, promoters and of course, the fans! Let’s stick together, for this music is what makes us. My new years resolution will be 4K, since 1080p HD is sooo 2016. Happy 2017!

Myron

Best Party

Although I’ve been enjoying so many different parties this year, I think the winner has to be Qlimax. Defqon.1 and Q-BASE are close seconds, but after getting to know Headhunterz during his Defqon Legends set, I had to learn more about him. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I was giving it my all during Project One’s performance.

Most ‘turnt’ moment

There have been a few, but imagine entering your Defqon.1 bungalow and you don’t know who you’re sharing it with. You’re relaxing after the first day of the weekend, then all of a sudden a (mostly naked) girl slightly covered with a towel started running towards the bathroom. That’s basically how I’ve met Cassi and this encounter was only a small fragment of what happened during the summer…

Something I learnt

This year really has become my year of Hard Dance music. I’ve only been a part of the scene since 2015 so I’ve learned that there is still a lot more to discover. I started to recognise songs, artists and sounds, such as the classic reverse bass. And I feel that it’s only the beginning of what’s yet to come!

2017 Resolutions!

After Qapital I made up my mind and stated that this has become something I really love and that I want to be more involved as a visitor, but also behind the scenes. Since I’ve won a contest with a friend to host our own hard dance event in Amsterdam, that’s something I want to focus on. Not only as a graphic designer, but also as an event organiser. I want to give back to the scene and celebrate how amazing it can be.

Dennis

Best party

For me, the best party in 2016 was definitely the whole Intents Festival weekend – three warm and awesome days! Since there is a camping at Intents, I always visit the festival for the entire weekend, with a bunch of my closest friends. I recommend this festival to everybody who loves Hardstyle; I already have my tickets for the 2017 edition, so I hope to see you all there!

Most ‘turnt’ moment

Another awesome weekend festival was Decibel this year, and I can easily say that together with some friends we saw some really crazy shit. On the Sunday we went to the swimming pool at ‘camp east’ and if you’ve ever been to Decibel you’d know there’s a big lake next to the festival ground and from the swimming pool you can see the lake. When I looked outside I saw a guy with a beer in his hand laying in a dinghy on the lake with his arms and legs floating in the water. Nothing special you’d think, but it was raining and around 10 degrees that day, so it wasn’t quite the weather to set sail in a dinghy on lake Decibel… Anyway, after a while he paddled back to the shore (I think he ran out of beer) and went back inside his cottage.

Something I learnt

2016 was a great year for me; I got to know a lot of people, joined the Alive At Night team and did some really cool film projects. Besides that, I learnt a lot of new things, especially how to deal with the people at festivals whilst filming. When filming at a festival you’ll have always some people who jump in front of the camera doing weird things and thinking that they’re funny. This actually isn’t funny at all, it’s just really annoying and most of the time I have the urge to kick these attention whores. However, after a while I just pretend that I’ve filmed them and after a few seconds they move on… So next time you think about jumping in front of the camera, don’t do it… Just don’t.

2017 resolutions!

For 2017 I hope we can create some awesome video’s with Alive At Night and a good festival year with awesome moments to remember!

That’s it from the Alive At Night team! We hope you enjoyed reading some of our turnt tales from 2016 and more about our plans for the New Year. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everybody for the ongoing support this year; it’s been an incredible year and we promise that 2017 is going to be twice as turnt. Lots of love, and best wishes to all of our lovely readers.