Trance Energy

Trance Energy is a Dutch dance event featuring DJs from around the world. It`s been held since 1999 in the Netherlands and is organized by ID&T, the leading dance events company.

In 2011, ID&T changed the concept and renamed the festival to "Energy the network". The change was announced in September 2010, and labeled as a simple "name change". Yet after the line-up announcement, it was clear that Trance Energy was existing no more and Energy was going to be a completely new festival.

Audience in the first years was mostly Dutch but now it has many international visitors, mainly from the European Union and sometimes from other countries around the world. The festival earned worldwide fame thanks to bootlegs of DJ mixes and some official videos of former editions. At the 2010 edition, it has been said by ID&T that more than 40% of the audience was not Dutch. ID&T also stated that Trance Energy will be renamed to just Energy in 2011. After the publication of the line-up, it appears that the festival is no longer trance only but other genres are appearing.

Trance Energy contains three stages located in different halls. The "Mainstage", where headliners DJs do their sets with lasers, lights and fireworks. The "Madhouse" which features more house and club music. An alternate stage whose name changes each year where mostly trance is being played. Since 2007, a fourth stage has been added, the "Hard Stage" featuring harder derivatives of Trance Music. In 2009, students of the Utrecht School for the Arts were asked to design the entrance of the festival. Everyone grabbed his laptop and started to make his drawings. They finally  created a unique entrance, where interactivity, game-elements, video, fashion and music came together.

Trance Energy has become "the place to be" for DJs and Trance addicts and almost all big stars  including Armin van Buuren, Cosmic Gate, Paul van Dyk, Johan Gielen, John O'Callaghan, and Rank 1 are performing at the festival.Bootlegged DJ sets from Trance Energy are also very popular and a number of them are considered "classic" by the Trance community.

Dance Valley

It is time to tell you about the notorious Dance Valley. Dance Valley is an annual dance music festival held in the summer in Spaarnwoude, Netherlands. The first edition was in 1995 when 8.000 people attended. The festival grew rapidly, both in duration and number of visitors. The first time the event lasted 3 days in the weekend was at 2005 along with camping available at the campsite.

Big changes to the festival came in 2006. Traditionally held the first weekend of August, due to colliding with another festival UDC (Dance Valley management company) brought the festival forward two weeks from the 14th to the 16th of July. Whilst this had little effect in terms of sales it did affect the last two hours of the festival when sun light was still visible on the horizon, this in turn affected the use of lighting with the lasers not being switched on until later.

Dance Valley also played host to BMX, skate boarding and motorcycle competitions sponsored by LG. The back field HQ resided in was not used, instead a large tent towards the entrance was specially erected for the harder side of dance.

Many famous and less famous DJs played music at Dance Valley over time, with big names such as Carl Cox, Derrick May, Paul van Dyk, Tiësto, Richie Hawtin, Ricardo Villalobos, Paul Oakenfold, Ferry Corsten and Yoji Biomehanika all having made appearances.

While Dance Valley is a pure dance-music event, it caters to a wide audience by not limiting itself to a specific style though its heart is (as with most Dutch events), in trance. The biggest name DJs on the main stage tend to be Trance DJs. In 2006 Armin Van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Marco V and Simon Patterson (part of the duo Dogzilla) were the main draws. Even Päivi Vahvelainen, Mona Sahlin and Jo Pullan were seen cutting shapes there. With the main stage reserved for the big names in mainstream dance music, up to a dozen secondary, smaller stages are dedicated to styles such as Electro, Eurodance, Hardstyle and Experimental.

Have a look at this video and try to feel Dance Valley’s unique vibe. I bet you all wished to be there....