By: Cassi Catsaros

**Disclaimer: All photographs retain credit to Rossumedia.com/Michel van Rossum & Sven van Gestel Photography**

As the beaming rays of the sun have run its course and the shift is finally over, she glistens and gleams, retreating through the remainder of the sky to soon melt peacefully into the horizon as she will temporarily rest until next year’s pleasures…

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we say goodbye to the remaining crumbs of Summer with a few stunning and extra long days as we pull out our road-kill jumpers and beanies that had been gathering dust in our cupboards and with a tear of sadness, we push our Summer dresses and all things revealing to run its course in the back-drop…

Winter’s coming.

Underneath the grey European skies and beneath the droplets of rain, we can look back at a festival season filled with happiness, joy and an energy that will never cease to exist.

We were born again at Rebirth, watched the Sun bless the Belgian lands at Sunrise Festival, got a little dreamy at Dreamfields, unleashed the beast at Defqon.1, had a fucking wild wild weekend at The Qontinent and conquered the creatures of the night at Q-BASE.

Europe, you came, saw and tore your cognitive neurotransmitters a new one in the Summer of 2014. So give yourselves a big pat on the back and please, before you give your serotonin a well deserved break, I am here to jog your memories on the one and only event that closes the Summer festival with a pretty fucking big BANG.

I am indeed talking about Belgian’s closing ceremony that marks the transition from Summer to snow, Sunset Festival.

So sit back, wrap yourself up with a fluffy blanket and a cup of steaming coffee as I take you on a little trip back to last Saturday’s shenanigans.

So without further adieu…

Somewhere around 3:15PM and after a relatively short drive from beyond the Dutch border, I excitedly jumped out of the car and into the unpractical knee deep green grass of Belgium. Walking for a few minutes to the festival entrance, I could hear the hard bass thumping it’s waves through the last of the warm Summer air. It immediately infected my soul as a rush of “party-mode” went straight to my head and I began dancing whilst walking.

3:30PM: After a few minutes of looking like a complete idiot and dancing whilst walking (I don’t live here anyway), we arrived at the entrance and breezed past the friendly security guards who thoroughly searched, yet fortunately didn’t find the flask hidden in the depths of my spare pair of shoes (cheeky).

First things first, I pulled out my voice recorder and quickly gave a rundown of the “Green Oasis” stage.

“3:35PM just arrived at Sunset Festival in Belgium, it’s medium sized party but it’s looking really good! The Green Oasis tent looks beautiful and also packed! Ooooooh there’s nice trees and plants in the backdrop of the stage and a little waterfall behind. I like this.”

Created, designed and engineered by the masterminds at Amaze Productions, this artistic Belgian company didn’t fall short when it came to creative stage designs and a production that really fell in touch with the concepts of the ‘Sunset’. Although the party was designed to be smaller in size than the colossal Summer projects, it did not mean in any way that the key design elements and the production lacked one bit. We were all here to celebrate, and thanks to Amaze Productions, our senses were tantalised and treated to one last amazing party.

Speaking of design, I was about to climb a wall if I did not check out the “Red Ruins” stage pronto! Another partygoer advised us that the stage was on the beach and I thought that this person was just tripping balls…

3:45PM: “Turns out that person wasn’t tripping balls… IT IS ON A BEACH.” Being an Australian and residing in Sweden, I cannot explain how happy I was to finally see sand and feel it beneath my feet.

So I did what seemed appropriate at the time. I took off my shoes and jumped face first into the sand.

No, I’m just joking, but I was extremely happy.

Being my favourite stage already, the tall castle was build upon the beautifully clear and idyllic water that sparkled like diamonds as the sun beamed upon it. I was in admiration of this beach-themed stage, Hosted by Homebase, whilst Outlander was conveniently providing my soul with some well craved psychedelic hardstyle and MC Chucky was in full energetic mode to hype up the crowd.

I squeezed in through the crowd to watch this Belgian melody genius finish off his set and next up was the master of all Belgian hardstyle, Mr Dirty Workz himself, Coone.

“4:03PM and everybody is going fucking crazy! It is completely packed, the weather is beautiful and WOW, the water fountains in the back are awesome! I have also decided that during Partyraiser’s set, I will go crowd surfing, just saying.”

Instantaneously, the energy doubles when Coone jumps up to the stage as the crowd unites to celebrate this last Summer celebration for 2014. People were relentless mind you, I mean, sitting on somebody’s shoulders, yeah sure, but a few members of this ruthless Belgian crowd decided to crank it up a notch (or 10) and stand on other crowd members shoulders (and heads) and party hard in the sky.

Back to Coone’s set. He showcased a fantastic selection of tracks mostly consisting of his recent masterpieces such as “Aladin on E,” “Into The Madness,” and “World Domination” with Frontliner. The energy up on stage was also unique, undying and so reflective of the invigorating sunlight that shone upon all of us.

However, despite Coone’s amazing set, it is a little shame that some of the members of the crowd were (how do I say this nicely?) COMPLETE FUCKTARDS.

4:35PM: A 4/10 approaches me and starts speaking in an unfamiliar language to my native English. I say “Sorry, I only speak English.”
Weird guy: “OH MY GOD ARE YOU ITALIAN.”

Me: “No… I’m Australian.”

**Points at me and looks at his friends**

Weird guy: “You are Italian!”

**Ignores the weird guy and attempts to move in the opposite direction. Weird guy follows. I feel violated**

Weird guy says something in a language I cannot understand.

Me: **losing patience** “I AM NOT F*CKING ITALIAN!”

Another guy offers to put me on his shoulders. My friends encourage me to do it and suddenly I am floating on the surface of the lively crowd, smack-bam in front of Coone who is dancing crazily behind the decks. In that second it was pure bliss.

However, all good things come to an end and in a split second, I feel a tug at my leg. I peer down to spot the weird guy attempting to steal my shoe.

Okay, now, I have attended a few foreign parties now and have seen some unusual sorts along the way, but C’MON WHO TRIES TO STEAL A FUCKING SHOE. My friends are yelling at him to stop, yet the weird guy is beginning to unlace my shoe. In a desperate attempt to save my $220 Nike Air Max’s, I do the most logical thing and kick him in the face without too much force. I order the guy to let me down from his shoulders and as soon as I retreat back to land, another guy throws a whole bottle of coke at my back. I feel the coldness drip down my back as I run as fast I can out of the crowd to wash it off before it stains my light coloured shirt.

I am in luck. I respectfully wash the back of my shirt and feel thankful that my beautiful Nike shoe is still on my foot.

However, that past three or so minutes made me feel sick, so really, the only negative of the day was the small percentage of the crowd who were being disrespectful to other female partygoers. Like c’mon guys, it’s the love of the music here, not who can steal the most shoes at a music festival…

*End rant.*

Continuing on, at the conclusion of Coone’s fantastic set, he invited Hard Driver up to the stage and they dropped their killer collab “Swoosh Fever,” which absolutely blew the crowd up and really kicked it into overdrive.

At 6:00PM, I let my Swedish pride unleash as the Wasted Penguinz emerged with one hundred and ten percent euphoria as I couldn’t contain the explosion of “feels.”

I had only watched the Penguinz perform twice before so I was finally happy to see them again as they showcased some of their newer tracks that are under the TLC of Dirty Workz. From the very first minute, the guys put the crowd under a spell of pure joy and jubilation as I looked around to see friends embracing each other, dancing from side to side with huge smiles on their face.

“6:18PM and I am loving this set! It is pure happiness and the energy up on stage is great too! The guys are drinking beer up there and having a pretty awesome time! I hope they play ‘Fuck Yeah’ however, because I think everyone will say, FUCK YEAH!”

Every artist brings something to the decks, and these guys evidently bought some magic as they cast a spell upon all partygoers with their beautifully emotion evoking masterpieces.

“6:25PM Wasted Penguinz drop their collab with Rebourne, FUCK YEAH, and all I have to say is, FUCK YEAH!! This is the first time I’ve heard this gem out loud and let’s just wait for the drop now…”

**Waits for the drop.**

“Woah. Everybody is fucking hakken! I just saw like three people take their shirt off in the last two minutes… Other than that, everyone is ‘hakken’ and there are some pretty impressive high kicks I must say! Fuck yeah Sweden!”

After recovering from that few minutes of absolute mayhem, I stayed observant during Wasted Penguinz set. The guys really catered for the Belgian crowd as they started off with the beautiful melodic tracks such as “All For Nothing,” their perfectly crafted remix of “Life Is Calling,” and Toneshifterz’ killer remix of Havana Brown’s “Better Not Said.”

The energetic Swedes also cranked it up a notch as they went a little harder in the last twenty minutes of their set, just going to show that they knew what the crowd wanted, so good job guys!

Somewhere around 8:00PM, when the Sun made its final goodbye’s to the land and the moon shone brightly, the favourites who steal my heart every time they jump on stage, Da Tweekaz, were back again, also with the well loved MC V, I knew that their relentless energy would be extra special to close down the festival season.

They kicked off their hour of energy with the theme song for their successful Summer project “Tweekay 14” and from there, it only got better as the crazy Norwegians unleashed a whole heap of tracks that made the crowd transform into a wild state.

One moment that especially did it for me was when the guys played their remix of “Frozen,” a song that has gained the number one spot in my heart and will probably always remain there.

8:32PM: “DA TWEEKAZ PLAYED FROZEN AND I AM ACTUALLY GOING TO CRY.”

**Holding back tears unsucessfully.**

“Let it *crying* go… Let it go… *crying more*… THE COLD NEVER BOTHERED ME ANYWAY.”

I absolutely burst into tears, all thanks to this beautiful song.

Let me tell you, I am a tough spirited woman and I will not even shed a tear whilst listening to the most melancholic of tunes, but Frozen, well, it is just so beautiful and it wins my heart over time after time.

This was probably one of the top highlights of my day and the fact that so many other people were going extremely crazy to the song made my face light up with joy.

Other than playing my all time favourite song, Da Tweekaz also played “Bad Habit,” “Your Love,” with POPR3B3L, who joined them up on stage, “Letting Go” and also went a little raw with their new track “Little Red Riding Hood” and also the Hard Driver remix of their Bassleader anthem “Unlock The Power,” which absolutely tore the place apart!

I must add that the energy and passion that I saw on stage was incredible, these guys are a must-see act that pretty much anyone would enjoy!
After recollecting my mind that had evidently been blown in the previous hour, it was time for another one of my favourites, Frontliner, to perform live and showcase his special “Summer Of Frontliner” project.

9:00PM: Frontliner begins his performance with an older creation of his. “I am either going to to cry or get naked! Frontliner opens with ‘Pull Tuduu Over’ and everyone is losing their shit to this reverse bass! If he plays TBA2 though, I will cry, get naked and go swimming or something.”

The melody-man treated the crowd at Sunset to yet another mind blowing set which included “Symbols,” “Feels Good Right Here” and of course, “TBA2…”

I unleash on my voice recorder: “TBA…. Fucking 9:13PM. I am going to cry! SOMEONE HOLD ME! Everyone’s like TBA and to be honest, I just want to cry of happiness!”

*Grabs the closest person to me.*

What an explosive 45 minutes that was. Frontliner really knows how to put on a show and can never do wrong with his music!

10:30PM: After a short break whilst a recollected my mind and after Psyko Punkz stepped down, Hard Driver was up next to kick this party into the next dimension.

“10:33PM and Hard Driver drops **breaks out in song** back-back-back-back in the days! WOAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH lights are everywhere and this is crazy! Fucking awesome production in every single way!”

The vibes were running high as I moved towards the front of the crowd. Everybody was going incredibly crazy to the hard bass. Legs, arms, everything was flying wildly through the air and the crowd was unstoppable by this stage!

As for Hard Driver, about ten minutes into his set, I agreed that he would be awarded “Set Of The Day.” His energy was incredible up on the stage, the tracks he played kept the crowd high and rising and the atmosphere and production all worked in unison to make this hour the most special, so good work Hard Driver!

In terms of what heard, it is no secret that Hard Driver’s album “Point Break” is around the corner and he treated us to many tracks that will be featured on it such as “Bassdrops,”“#WUT,” “Swoosh Fever,” as well as jumping on the mic when he dropped the classic Alpha Twins remix of “Tonight.”

“10:56: SET OF THE DAY! I cannot believe he played the ‘Tonight’ remix! I cannot believe this energy it is incredible! The energy is infectious! I mean, somebody almost stole my shoe and I am in a good mood, which says something.”

Thank you, Hard Driver.

11:30PM: Last on my list to watch and observe was the man himself, Adaro. It had been exactly one year since I experienced his magic live at Defqon.1 Australia and also Sunset was one of first performances back so I was extremely curious to watch this powerhouse genius!
Everybody was in awe of his intense energy behind the decks, including me. He had evidently come back stronger than ever and I was so happy to finally witness him live in action once again.

The raw power infected all members of the crowd as everybody danced as hard as they could during the last hour and a half. Adaro treated the hungry crowd to some incredible tracks such as “Bolivia,” by Gunz For Hire, “Firestorm” by Digital Punk “No Time To Sleep,” and “I’m The King,” with The Prophet.

And before you could ask, yes, the biggest raw track of the Summer “Seven,” by E-Force was played, which created an explosion like no other as it won the crowd over indefinitely and made my soul swirl with energy. Accompanied by the awesome light show and production, I must say that Adaro’s set was beyond amazing!

To finish off the party, Partyraiser kicked it up further and gave us our craved dose of intense hardcore music. I decided to enjoy this final 45 minutes of Summer festival season by embracing the heat, the outdoor light shows and of course, not wearing a jacket…

There’s no doubt that Sunset Festival was the delicious cherry on top of a fantastic festival season that saw the real warriors come out to play. An amazing production in a perfect location with a stellar line-up, there’s nothing else I could have asked for to close down the Summer festival season with (besides somebody not trying to steal my shoe…)

So there we have it. As the Sun peacefully melts into the last minutes of the dazzling Summer, we reach for our coats and curl back into hibernation…..

Until next year…