After an ominous week filled with lightning, thunder and torrential rain the heavens made way for a glorious day that heralded the beginning of our pilgrimage to the second ever Secret Sessions.

Admittedly, we didn’t get off to a brilliant start; the directions we’d hastily printed out had been cut off resulting in us taking an extra 45 minute ‘shortcut’ through winding mountainous roads and dodgy dirt tracks, however some with the advent of a few roadside stoners possessing a map, some quick thinking and a helpful policeman we managed to find the location set amongst a lush bush backdrop.

We were greeted with the sight of a brilliantly decorated psychedelic playground decked out with multiple massive projector screens, lasers and one of the best sound systems to ever grace our ears. Away from the dance floor cars had started filling up as people began to arrive, unlike most bush events there were no tents in sight, back down the hill nearer amongst the action, the layout consisted of a few large tents housing refreshments, a chillout area, stall and DJ booth.

Despite our ‘shortcut’ we managed to arrive early, just in time to see Gold Coast favourite, Raye Antonelli. Pryda – Aftermath set the tone for his set until taking a trancy u-turn into the Nu NRG mix of Basic Dawn – Pure Thrust, Hertz – Recreate & Cirez D – Rematch, to name but a few. His track selection hit the spot, certainly one of my favourite sets of the night. Midway through his set the dance area had filled out with the arrival of many enthusiastic people decked out in everything from shorts & bare feet contrasting to Tsubis and Havianas.

Nomad followed in Raye’s footsteps busting in with some breaks & electro tinged house. Records by Steve Angello & Royksopp received a solid rinsing and went down a treat with the intimate crowd gathered. Afterwards Sammy Gee banged out a mental chunky tech-trance set & Tranceducer & Etron kept everybody’s feet moving through to the early hours, with the volume slowly creeping up as the vibe grew ever outrageous and it wasn’t log before there was an inevitable visit from the fuzz who were not overly impressed at the 3 hours it had taken to locate the source. As a result, organisers reluctantly pushed down the levels.

The JT Effect came on later at 2am, and within moments the dance floor had reached critical mass, people seemingly came out of the woodwork to witness the energy exuded by the duo. The pace quickened with tunes from the likes of Marco V, James Lawson, Nick Sentience and Mark Sherry all making an appearance. From here things went twisted, with Xerox & Illumination, X-Noize and GMS coming out of the record bags, slowly – but surely the sound levels increased also which further fuelled the debauchery.

Blaylok & The Bear followed up with some warped psy trance full of quirky samples, which despite near exhaustion still managed to put a smile on my face and force some more dancing out of the survivors.
Daylight saw us make a break for home, warm beds and clean showers, however we left behind a sizeable crowd which looked like (and we’re sure they did!) partying throughout the day.

Secret Sessions was an absolutely amazing production – thanks to the Bear Essentials team and a plethora of QLD’s best DJs. The organisation and effort put into the event was faultless – no doubt it was the highlight of many people’s year so far! If you were one of the unlucky ones that didn’t make it – don’t despair from what I have heard, the 3rd iteration of Secret Sessions will be held in August / September, so keep an eye on InTheMix for future details.