Heading to the Spit a little later than usual we were met with a lengthy crawl in first gear up to our final parking destination. The slow trip from Seaworld to the Doug Jennings Park was caused by party goers having to choose between free parking and a short bus ride to the venue, or to pay a $10 parking fee and be able to park right outside the gates. This was a no-brainer for our car, $10 was a measly sum to save us a 20 minute bus ride to and from our cars at the completion of partying. While this parking fee may have infuriated a lot of party goers, I personally thought it was a fantastic idea and one that should be kept for future events.

Walking through the gates at 1:45pm I had missed two of Brisbane’s favourite DJ’s, Cosmo Cater & Ian Nearhos playing a storming opening set fusing house, techno and progressive sounds. Highlights was Fuzzy Hair’s Dub Mix of Mousse T – Right About Now, and Cosmo’s very own Aussie Nash Edit Remix of Infusion’s – Love & Imitation.

Walking through the gates I headed straight to the Family Stage where one of the Gold Coast’s best dj’s was playing, Raye Antonelli. Raye is one of the most flexible dj’s in QLD, spinning with ease sounds from house right through to hardhouse. While his set last year was filled with tech-trance sounds, this year he pumped out an uptempo, tough and energetic tech-house set, pleasing all that were present.

2 o’clock and it was time to hit the Summadayze Arena for the first time, where co-promoter and DJ Mark James was taking the rather large crowd through some big floor filling tunes. Deep Dish’s massive hit ‘Flashdance’ had the crowd going wild, while for the trainspotters in the crowd Der Dritte Raum’s legendary ‘Hale Bopp’ really hit the spot. But it was the mix of Soul Central – Strings of Life into Delirium – Silence that sent the punters (especially me dancing front and center) into pandemonium.

2:30pm saw the first international of the day, electro-house maestro Moguai. Having seen Moguai play a ridiculously early set at Sounds on NYD in Sydney only a week earlier, I was keen to see how well he would work the already large crowd. Kicking off with SI Begg – Revolution, certainly was something different. One of the best sets of the day, Moguai’s uptempo electro fused house set, that was definitely a crowd pleaser. Highlight’s of a storming set was the Have A Break Remix of Luke Chable – Ride and Moguai’s very own crowd pleasers ‘Freaks’ and ‘U Know Y’, tracks he surprisingly didn’t play in Sydney.

Nearly 4 o’clock and it was time to check into the Field Day Stage for the first time of the afternoon, were I was met with the lush house sounds courtesy of Miguel Migs, with the heavenly voice of Lisa Shaw on vocals. Unfortunately for this reviewer my time was cut short grooving away as it was 4 o’clock and that meant it was time for cult hero’s the Stafford Brothers & Bongo Boy to really kick-start this festival in the locals Arena.

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you still would know how big a following these brothers & bongo boy have in Sth East QLD. Playing at virtually every club on the Gold Coast & Brisbane, they have built up a cult like status, drawing crowds wherever they play, and Summafieldayze is no exception. With last year’s storming set still in the minds of the punters, over a 1000 punters squashed into, to try and dance in, around, and out of the now seemingly small Locals Arena. With Matt Stafford on the decks, Chris on the microphone, and Luke on the Bongo’s, the festival was about to go to a whole new level. Even with international superstar’s 2 Many Dj’s in one arena, and Australia’s favourite DJ Kid Kenobi in the other arena, Matt, Chris and Luke still had the locals arena overfilling with hysteric punters. Up-tempo, party, fun, driving, uplifting house is the best way to describe their style of house music, a perfect fit for the SFD atmosphere. Highlights of their set included remix’s of Blur – Song 2 and Lenny Kravitz – Are You Gonna Go My Way. Pumping the crowd up with Red Bulls flying off the stage, it was the Stafford Brothers very own track Palace City (Stafford Brothers Remix) which nearly tore the roof off the Smirnoff Experience Stage. Once again they proved why they are the people’s champions, and it is only a matter of time before they gain interstate accreditation and gigs.

5pm and it was time for a bit of rest and recovery after what was an hour of non-stop dancing and mayhem. Half an hour later and feeling a little more re-fuelled it was time to check in with the world’s best mash-up artists, the 2 Many DJ’s. Renowned for their ‘As Heard on Radio Soulwax’ albums, it is not uncommon for these Belgium maestro’s to mash The Rolling Stones into Fatboy Slim into Blur into Roger Sanchez. With a pedigree for being festival favorites, I was delighted to boogie away to a song a minute set. Playing a lot heavier on the tech and electro side than I would’ve thought, it was air guitars a plenty as AC/DC and Franz Ferdinand were played.

6pm and with the sun starting to set over the beautiful surroundings that is The Spit & Broadwater, it was time to see Underwater head honcho Darren Emerson. Making his name as part of the legendary Underworld, Darren broke off from them a few years ago to pursue life as a DJ and promoter. In both fields he has been extremely successful, his Underwater parties in London, Ibiza and now around the world have become huge successes, with the nights up-tempo party house style a definite global favourite. Having downloaded a few of his live sets off the internet, and knowing that he regularly plays back2back with Tim Deluxe, I had an idea of what to expect. But my socks were completely blown off when he start with one of the greatest dance tracks of all time; Underworld – Born Slippy. The next hour and a half divided a lot of punters, but for this reviewer I thought it was a perfect SFD type set.

With 7 o’clock fast approaching it was time to refill the water bottles, and head into the Summadayze Arena for the world’s No. 2 DJ, dutch trance superstar Armin Van Buuren. De La Soul was rapping up their hour of Hip Hop, with hundreds of punters up on the stage grooving away to their finest tracks, including ‘Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)’. Having a Hip Hop act appear at SFD was a first and once again I think minds were divided on whether it was a good or bad thing. I personally don’t enjoy listening to Hip Hop, but in saying that was happy to have yet another different genre at the festival. What I think was wrong was having a major Hip Hop act play before one of the world’s best trance DJ’s, I thought it was extremely bad programming and scheduling by the promoter’s.

7pm and it was time for me to see Armin Van Buuren play for the 4th time. This reviewer is a die-hard AVB fan, so the next 3 hours were spent dancing away to the lush trance sounds of Mr Van Buuren. His CD’s and live sets are consistently playing through my stereo at home, he has been absolutely amazing every-time I have seen him play, and this was no exception.

Starting off on a tech-trance tone was a little different to his more uplifting euphoric trance sounds, but was certainly taken by the crowd with great appreciation. Katana – Fancy Fair really got things moving, as the Summadayze tent was absolutely rammed with pleased punters. Armin’s three hour set really put all that were present into a state of trance (no pun intended) and the best of new and old trance classics were played. Spine tingling, arms in the air moments were felt by all as Delerium – Silence (Above & Beyond 2004 Remix), U2 – New Years Day (Ferry Corsten Remix), Paul Van Dyk – For An Angel and Tiesto’s – Anchient History were played. But it was Ferry Corsten’s Remix of Thrillseekers – Synaesthesia that was the defining moment of this year’s festival for this punter. It was a spine tingling moment that was felt by all. As I turned to face the back of the Arena during the breakdown all I could see was a sea of arms in the arm and smiles on very content faces, this is what dance music is all about.

While the Summadayze crowd was sent through a 3 hour journey of trancetastic proportions, the Field Day stage punters were being delt with what was described as ‘Good breaks, no sh*t’, courtesy of Lee Coombs & Meat Katie. Those present said that these two delivered the set of the day, with breakbeat fans in heaven. Following these two was Lee Rous & Andy Gardner, or better known as, Plump DJ’s. The Plump DJ’s are two of the most popular and recognizable DJ’s & Producers in the breakbeat industry, and are definately fan favourites here in Australia.

But it was back in the Summadayze arena were the last 2 hours of this year’s festival would be danced out with tiring legs for this reviewer. 10pm and it was time for the 1st lady of hardhouse, Lisa Lashes to give us an hour of mayhem. As usual she did not disappoint with an hour of the freshest and hardest hard dance tunes, highlights included the Euphony Remix of Veracoche – Carte Blanche and DJ Isaac’s – Nobody Listens to Techno. But it was Nirvana’s – Smells Like Teen Spirit (BK Dodgy Bootleg Remix) that was the peak of a power packed set.

One hour to go, and while international Phil Fuldner was churning out a fantastic electro-house set in the Family Stage, it was Family Nightclub’s very own, Hakka, that would end the festival for 2005. Keeping up with were Lisa left off, one of Brisbane’s favourite DJ’s finished off the festival in style.

Another year and another extremely successful Summafieldayze, the event just grows every year from strength to strength. I don’t know the official numbers but it felt like there were more people here this year than last year, which I think can only be a good thing.

In summarizing a few highlight’s and lowlights of what I thought was a great festival. For the lowlights first. Water Stations: Last year there was two, this year one? Hopefully two will be installed for next years event. Passouts: Thousands of punters were left wearing their sunglasses all night long because the passouts were only from 4-7pm. This may have been a council regulation and not in the control of the punters, but with the sun setting at 8pm, that is the time the punters would like to put their stuff back in the car. If punters have to pay $10 for parking they should get the convience of that by being able to frequent their cars. Parking: A hot topic this year with the new pay parking system, I for one thought it was a FANTASTIC idea, and should be kept next year. $10 is a minimal amount, and maybe people should think about carpooling next year, in which it’ll only be $2 per person. Toilets: Like every major festival they were absolutely terrible after about 6 hours of partying, a thought maybe that there could be a ‘VIP’ section next year like at other festivals around the country were punters pay extra for their own section of the festival. Field Day Stage Sound: Was cut around 10pm and was extremely poor. Lighting & Production: Last but not least, lack of lighting & production, especially with no lasers for a world leading trance dj? SFD has become a very big event, and I think the promoters should put a little more into this area for future events.

Now for the good news! Parking: The paid parking may have put a lot of people off, but this reviewer thinks it was a fantastic idea, and as previously said if you carpool like we did then it’s only $2 per person, a tiny price to pay. Programming: I thought the scheduling & programming of set times was fantastic this year, especially in the locals arena. Having the two most popular locals sets playing from 4-5 and 5-6pm ensured that most punters didn’t miss out on anyone. The only downside to the programming having Phil Fuldner placed in the locals arena, De La Soul playing before a trance superstar, and Lisa Lashes only playing for an hour; apart from those three things, I thought the programming was spot on. Overall I thought it was one of the best Summafieldayze I have attended and I think if they can sort out the toilets and the passouts then the event will be near perfect. Until next year…