“Time To Go Apesh*t!” – Q-dance @ Electric Love 2016 [Friday]

I woke up at 8:30AM. Dizzy, still drunk and in absolute need for a shower. I drank some apple juice and slowly started to gather my shower stuff together and alongside one of my camp mates I slowly walked down to the sanitary tent. The queue was massive and absolutely nothing seemed to move. After two cigarettes, a guy playing Anime and children’s shows theme songs passed by. So apparently the “One Piece” was hidden in the shower. And the Gummy Bears. After waiting for ONE AND A HALF HOUR(!) we FINALLY showered. It was the first true highlight of the day and I was more than just happy to finally be part of the human race again.

Unfortunately there were no power outlets, which was also a big disappointment, as many girls wanted to blow dry their hair and I wanted to straighten mine. Ponytail it is then. As i walked up the hill in my bra and with the towel around my hip, I quickly got reminded that Austrian guys are not really gentlemen, as a whole group of them decided to sing a song about my boobs as I passed by. Another dude decided it was funny to splash me with a water gun… Okay then…

I was back at out camp at a little past 10AM and we had breakfast; during our breakfast I took a look around and saw some funny and quit curious things. As a couple of gladiators with capes mad from Austrian flags or a dude who built a Shisha from a plastic bottle. As I looked downhill I saw that the queue to the showers was still massive. This is something that had already been a problem last year, but somehow Revolution Event thinks that showers are not really something you need at 30°C+. Guys, please fix this if you read this. Just having one or two small showers (the tent was equally big like the ground on intents, but the room inefficiently used) without electricity for one camping ground, bigger than the whole Intents camping is not really cool. As I walked up to the toilets next to the entrance (the queue at the showers next to the toilet would have made myself implode before I could take a piss) I saw the probably funniest outfit: a guy in hiking shoes, an Guy Fawkes mask, an Afro wig and… a mankini. Yup. The camping was a biiiit crazy. It took a while until everyone has done fulfilling their hygiene needs, meanwhile the rest of us had icicles.

We actually wanted to see Luna, but arrived just in time for Audiotricz. The guys played tons of new stuff (are they making an album???) and the sun burned down on us. It was way too hot for beer. After looking up and down the drink menu w decided to start the day with ice cold Vodka-Orange. I finally got my draw string bag from the Q-Dance merch booth, just to see that a guy from Q was handing them out for free minutes after. Well. Fuck my life, another cold Vodka-Orange for me then. We also got pretty cool, big high-quality stickers from Q-Dance, some of them would last on my clothes the entire festival.

The stage for this year was The Ape or Pavian stage, a great, colorful stage, but I’m more of a (wild)cat person, however did anyone else notice how similar it looked to last years’ Q-dance stage at Mysteryland? I’m not complaining because that stage was fucking awesome! The Audiotricz boys really hyped up the crowd and even though there are not as much people yet, the vibe was simply amazing. As the sun got more intense I decided to get my Kimono out of my drawstring bag and wet it with water. The cooling effect lasted for about 15 minutes before the thing was completely dry and I had to go to the water station again, the heat was unbearable and my skin tanned right before my eyes.

During TNT I ran into my friends from Musical Madness Germany and we all agreed that it was still way too hot for beer or anything else but Vodka-Bull (in all kinds of flavors including the new Summer Edition Red Bull) or Vodka-Orange. TNT played a great mix of Oldies and new Goldies including what sounded to me like a remix of DJ Isaac’s legendary “Bitches”. The Italian beats were truly made for the hot temperatures and we decided to have a little (very little) dance in the shade next to the tech. Bringing my own fan definitely paid off, but I would have loved to add a cool, colorful ELF fan to my collection as well. As I came back from soaking my Kimono in water for what felt like the millionth time already, I also finally ran into Mr Hardstyle Austria and we exchanged stickers and the newest chit-chat.

As everyone in my camping crew was getting a bit hungry, we decided to go up again to have a BBQ. After a the long walk up and me buying two Haloumi-Veggie-Sticks at the BBQ booth we enjoyed the fantastic food and the panorama view. The BBQ’s were free to use for anyone, as long as you could fit your stuff on them. After another beer we decided to go down again, as me and the girls actually wanted to see Jack Ü. We ran into a guy with a stuffed ferret (“Pet the ferret for good luck!) and two guys trying to find a vet for their plush guinea pigs (“It’s not moving, please help”). Unfortunately we were half an hour late at the festival ground, as the timetable in my ELF-App did not update properly. Instead I got a Push-notification telling me and all other party goers not to stuff the toilets with t-shirts. Meh. At least we had a meal for kings (and queens). So instead of Jack Ü, I tried to cheer myself up with a great Code Black set and some more alcohol. The temperature was slowly getting bearable again and the great set lifted my spirits again as well. I ran into more Austrian friends of mine, some of which I hand’t seen in quite some time, and we danced and talked.

As Da Tweekaz started playing I headed for the VIP deck to meet up with best friend and co-writer Marlene. The Q-dance VIP was situated at the left side of the stage this year. The view was therefore not directly frontal, but still quite amazing. I decided to hide a bit in the shade that the tent on the deck provided and blew soap bubbles into the crowd. A lovely Tweeka-set accompanied Marlene and me as she told me about her experiences on Hard Island. Suddenly I had to interrupt her for a second. “Wait… is that ‘See The Light’!?” It was one of my favorite UK Hardcore songs! “Uhhh, yeah, it’s a remix!” Jesus, what a track! Marlene decided I needed a ‘real’ drink, a drink from backstage, and let me alone for a second, until we noticed that my card allowed me to enter the sacred grounds of the backstage area anyways – even though my e-mail briefing initially spoke a different language. Well. Bye, bye to my lasts bits of sobriety. I greeted the artists that had gathered and the people I already knew, before we decided to leave again to dance.

It was Noisecontrollers o’Clock now. Bas played some kind of Knight Rider remix as all as “Power Of The Mind” (yes, I lost my shit and you would too) and the overall set was just absolutely genius. It was probably one of the best Noisecontrollers set I’ve heard in the past years and my (once again hurting feet) just couldn’t stop dancing. The stage was pretty full by now and once again the Austrian crowd showed itself from its very best side: motivated, dancing and completely on the loose! Getting another drink from Backstage I finally ran into Concept Art, who were also on their way to get a drink (in Stefan’s case it was the 12th). The guys were a little nervous about their gig the next day, but were absolutely hyped up about what had been happening so far. Having watched almost the whole Brennan Heart set sipping drinks at the VIP deck (you NEED to see a ‘Imaginary’ sing-a-long from above!), the alcohol level increased further during Hard Driver’s set and the music was now slowly getting rougher and I felt the urge to dance again. After having a bit of a nostalgic moment at this years Intents anthem, I took a piss. The toilets were still surprisingly clean and cleaners are cleaning them constantly as all as restocking the toilet paper.

When I came back, Zatox was playing and all of us had gathered in the middle left front to dance now. Zatox was playing tons of edits and bootlegs and a generally great “Party-Raw” set, that totally fitted my intoxication level. For one moment I thought I was a bit too drunk: Someone had brought a pot(!) with an oregano plant (yes, we tasted it). As the the Oregano (and the person holding it) was enjoying the party, Marlene decided that I needed to be on her shoulders for a bit. Heey-Hoo’ing along with everyone else drunkenly, I had the time of my life. Looking around myself I found another party-goer who was dancing along quite happily: Noisecontrollers! “What are you doing here in the crowd!?” – “Having fun like everyone else! I really like it here! And you?” – “I guess I’m doing the same!”

After our small drunk convo, I knew that I was in for a treat now: Gunz For Hire were about to play! And while I do not really listen to them at home, I absolutely love their sets and try not to miss a single minute. I hakk’d around as much as the tight space around myself let me and was having the time of my life. It wasn’t until during Crypsis that I decided to go see after what what happening at the Backstage again. A friend of ours drank a little bit (way, way) too much and I might not have any maternal instincts at all, but when I see drunk (or otherwise wasted) people or newcomer producers I’m all “mum” of a sudden. Being quite drunk myself it must have been a great sight to see me trying to feed the guy a Twix and some Cranberry juice. “Eeeeeet it, bro.” – “Mhnnnnn…” – “You need. To. Eat. Or get up.” We somehow got everyone in the car and I had to make my way back to the tent. I enjoyed the last epic minutes of Angerfist (was that an encore or was I really that wasted?) and then walked up the dreaded hill again. Once again: walking it up drunk was surprisingly more comfortable than walking up sober. After getting in my tent somehow and putting my pants on inside-out, I started rambling drunk talk into my voice recorder until it started raining.

Conclusion:
The first day of Q-Dance at Electric Love was a full success! Sanitary facilities on the camping grounds were a catastrophe, but a BBQ space like the one on ELF is a rarity and luxury. A buggy App and the burning sun couldn’t stop us from partying and Q-Dance once again showed Austria how it’s done not just the right, but the best way! Stay tuned for the last and most epic part of this 3-part article!

Pictures: Revolution Event / We Are The Night / Writer’s Own / Q-Dance

Make sure to check out the German version of this article too at Hardstyle Österreich:
(link follows 13-07)

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> https://www.revolutionevent.com/