- "The world’s biggest dance music festival comes to Turkey!" Now there's a way of exciting people for a festival. And, yes, we did build our hopes when we went to Global Gathering 2008 Turkey in Istanbul. Honestly, we felt honored that such a great festival decided to go on a global tour through the world, with stops in Ukraine, Romania, Malaysia, and Turkey.
Of course it’s never good to go somewhere with sky-high expectations. It’s unfair towards the DJs and it’s unfair towards the organization. Every little thing that isn’t 100% perfect is immediately dismissed as a failure. That said, it seemed that Global Gathering really did try to test its audience's patience by making some major organizational mistakes. Sure, the festival was well-done, but it's hard to keep a Turkish crowd happy.
One of the keys to a festival experience is information. Global Gathering didn't give out much. Nothing about the available lockers, nothing about the price of the food, and nothing about the last minute line-up changes. (Which, honestly, makes writing a review pretty hard.) We eventually heard by the end of day two that the updated timetable had been posted on Facebook. But on their official festival website? You guessed it. Nothing.
There's no sense in focusing on the negative, however, so let’s just try to focus on the good things: The festival location was really nice. Sure, it was a lot smaller than we expected, but that made it kind of cozy. It also made the distance between the Freedom Main Stage and the Global Arena walkable (although most people ignored the Global Arena throughout). That was definitely a pity because talents like Markus Schulz, Sander van Doorn, and Above & Beyond were playing there during the festival.
FRIDAY
In fact, Sander van Doorn and Markus Schulz were the highlights of the first night. Even though they both played in the smaller Global Arena, they gave their all to their fans. One thing that’s always nice about a small crowd: the people are there because they really love it. Schulz played the crowd like a puppeteer, making hands go up simultaneously like they were attached to strings that only he controlled. Sander van Doorn took over and seemed a bit confused that he wasn’t on the Main Stage. It must have been the smallest crowd he has played for in ages, but—to his credit—he gave the people what they came for. No complaints there.
Meanwhile on the Main Stage, Samim couldn’t surprise the crowd and, instead of storming to the stage, people decided to do some chilling in the VIP area or on the bean bags that were laid out through the area. It was definitely different than the reaction he received last year at Voltt Loves Summer, when I saw him spin to an adoring crowd. Eric Prydz and Sasha were the other big names of the line-up for the Friday and both performed almost compulsory sets that left the crowd wondering why they had bothered to show up to the festival in the first place. They can hardly be blamed, however. The power to the DJ's equipment mysteriously cut off every 15 minutes for about two hours. It was hardly the ideal situation to build any sort of momentum.
SATURDAY
What a difference a day makes. When we arrived on Saturday, all we could see was sun, beach, and sea. And that's where most of the crowd went, taking off to the beach near the main stage for a tan or a nap. In the background you could hear some laidback tunes from local Turkish DJs which made it almost feel like the ‘Chill-Out Festival’ we attended a couple of months earlier. Unfortunately, though, the festival area was even emptier than the day before. We hoped for the best and, in the meantime, enjoyed some drinks and the sand between our toes
Around 22.30 our wishes came true. Suddenly, people came flooding in and the crowd gathered in front of the main stage as if they were waiting to put into motion by the DJs! We decided to have a look at the little stage at that point, and patiently waited for Calvin Harris to come up. We almost missed the good man though, because like many others we were eagerly waiting for him at the Global Arena when the DJ announced that Harris would be playing at the Freedom Main Stage.
I bet the announcing DJ didn’t anticipate the migration that followed. Nearly 70% of his audience left to see the Scottish headliner. We felt bad for the guy. (I think it was either BeeGee or Nic Fanciulli.) But Calvin Harris had a great live show and didn't disappoint. He wasn’t that popular with the crowd that came out, but the people at the front were dancing their asses off and singing along with the Mylo-like songs from I Created Disco, while the majority waited on something less electro-brit poppy.
They didn’t have to wait for long. After an hour of Harris, everybody seemed to go crazy when Axwell took the stage. Dubfire did his thing as well, but couldn't match the coherency and intensity of his predecessor. When the main stage wrapped up, many people left, but diehards made their way over to meet their new hero, Umek. I had never seen him before, but he finished off the Global Arean well, sending people back to their home (or tents) much happier than the previous day.
In all, there were 18,600 visitors present at Global Gathering 2008 Turkey. (Although we heard rumor that only 10,000 had paid for their entrance and the rest came in for free.) They festival organizers were expecting over 25,000, so it's not a sure bet that Global will be happening again in Turkey. But, then again, it may be for the best, as rumor has it that they may have some competition from the Sensation Festival. My view? The more the merrier, just tell me when and where people are performing!