This event was much anticipated by many in the rave, hard and uplifting trance scenes, following a smashing October edition last year.  On our arrival barely half an hour after the event had started, there was already a decent size queue outside the club!  Indeed, I have never seen the downstairs room of Arq so packed before 11pm!  There, the “Ultimate Uplifting Musical Journey” (as per the flyer) was being started by melodic sounds of Peter Fly.

11pm saw the opening of main room upstairs with a uplifting anthem trance set by Josh van Aalst, which amongst others, resurrected such classics as 7 Colours, Destination Sunshine, and Communication.  As more punters came in to fill the dancefloor, Josh built up the only softer uplifting set in the main room towards harder uplifting sounds of later DJ’s.   In contrast, in the Vortex room downstairs music turned darker and harder at the hands of Marc Davis.

In fact, overall the music seemed to include more hardstyle than anticipated from Ultra – fact which was appreciated by some, but disappointed others.  However, the set times design allowed for different styles being played in the two rooms, which ensured that punters had an alternative if they were not entirely happy where they found themselves initially.

Matrix and Micky D’s set was driving and hard – darker than expected, however it would’ve been harder to take advantage of the 3 deck, 2 mixer setup with more melody-based hard trance, as it does not lend itself to being chopped and layered as well as less melodic, darker tunes.  Their prowess with this genre and skill in making use of setup was commended by those appreciative of the style.

At this time, uplifting tastes were catered for downstairs by Jayde and Rossco, who, despite for the a-la-sauna temperatures in room, filled up the dance floor with a selection of harder, uplifting and melodic tunes, including Exploration of Space, Alphazone – Revelation, and Altitude – Altitude.  Unfortunately the MC-ing did not sound as good over trance as one might have hoped.

Back upstairs, Yoshi brought the tone of this thankfully cool, airconditioned dance floor back up with his trademark driving uplifting set, including the likes of Human Beings by Cosmic Gate.  This built up towards the uplifting, bouncey sounds of the happy hard sets that followed, which set the floor into a frenzy and became the highlight of the night for many.  Plenty of happy melodies and anthems, including my personal favourite ‘Your Shining’.  By this time the crowd had started to thin, however what was lost in numbers was made up by effort of those left standing (or dancing, rather).  Suae’s set, yet again, proved to be the most appreciated highlight of the night by many.

Overall, this was an awsome night, which pulled a good crowd despite being run on the weekend that followed NYE festivities.  Production impressed with the lasers, and the iceblocks being handed out was a nice touch.  That, plus somewhat outstanding efforts from DJs and the friendliness of the punters ensured that the atmosphere was not dampened excessively by the post-NYE lull.