- Two Tribes rolled into Melbourne Park courtesy of Future Entertainment promising the biggest event in dance music this year, and with over 60 acts playing everything from house to breaks and an ensemble of some of the finer non-musical laser highlights you will ever see at a dance party it was always going to deliver.
Rain reared its head on the night, but this didn't stop the masses in any way, nor did the strong police presence with sniffer dogs at the entrance except for one guy, who stupidly hid his stash of goodies in a clenched fist (which was not hard to detect in a search), and was duly marched off to be subjected to what one can only assume was further probing.
James Lavelle was in fine form in the Global Underground room, and was well received by a frocked up Melbourne mob (though the numbers on hand seemed disappointing for such a quality act), playing a set that left for dead a gig last year at The End in London, which was slightly flat.
Highlights were his remix of Moby's Raining Again and Adam Freeland's mix of The Doors' Hello, I Love You. Closing out with Unkle In A State was a masterstroke.
Ali B and Lee Coombs played some rocking breaks, with the former definitely lifting the mood with his array of mixing, while Coombs sent the crowd into a frenzy by dropping Plump DJs Prey For You.
Many people came to Melbourne Park just to see Dutchman Armin Van Buuren in the Vodafone Arena, and with a loved up crowd in the mood for some cranking tunes, the Dutchman displayed why he is such a massive crowd puller.
Van Buuren has been quoted as saying: "I play a lot of tracks that are labelled as progressive, tribal progressive, techno, trance, euphoric trance, vocal trance, melodic progressive. These days it's really hard to label a specific sound. Styles are mutating and evolving into this all-over new sound, which is basically dance music going back to its roots. There's so much good music out there and I don't want to limit myself to just one style."
And his musical philosophies were on show for all to see as he built from an electro start and worked into the sound he is most famous for as the Pryda Aftermath bassline thumped out. The crowd was jumping and it is easy to see why he has so much respect in DJ circles.
Van Buuren truly connects with his audience, and it was some sight seeing him leave the safety of his decks to shake hands with the crowd up the front after closing with Gabriel and Dresden's Tracking Treasure Down.
Though not catching all of Eric Morillo's set, he rocked house with house rock, as Coldplay's God Put A Smile On Your Face was finagled into the mix along with Steve Angello vs. Metallica remix of Sandman Dancing.
Steve Angello followed up Morillo's effort with a bang, whacking in the Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams.
Future can definitely claim a win on the night, but leaving Melbourne Park and chatting with others in similar foggy states, it seems that most thought that it was shame that the side rooms were not given enough attention.
There was a hell of a lot of 'moths' turned on by the bright lights and lasers in the stadium arena rooms, while awesome acts such as Max Graham, Technasia and Blackstrobe lacked the numbers they probably warranted.
Using a statistics by eyesight method, about 90 percent of the crowds were immersed in the two main rooms most of the night and the d'n'b, breaks, techno and progressive rooms fought out a battle for the remainder.