Easter Saturday, 15th of April, and the Mayhem Easter Music Festival came to RNA showgrounds for 10 hours of dance debauchery. With 40 act’s spread over 5 big stages with the usual standard of production you expect from a Mayhem event, all was set for a long, long night of partying…. Mayhem.

Walking into the RNA showgrounds a little after 9 o’clock I was immediately taken aback by the surrounding areas and the detail the Mayhem crew had put into decorating Brisbane’s favourite rave venue.

This was my first ever Mayhem, and I definitely wasn’t disappointed. The Mayhem crew is one of Brisbane’s most respectable promoter’s and while usually renowned for running predominately hardcore & freeform events, had branched out for this big Easter festival with the main stage hosting an array of trance, hard house and hard dance act’s from all corner’s of Australia and the world.

Walking around at first to get my bearings of which stage was which, was actually a hard task at first. I recognised the main stage because Baby Gee was up there playing a fantastic set. The other stage’s, at first, I couldn’t recognise. Maybe a little bit more signage might’ve helped the situation as I know I wasn’t the only one that found themselves a little bit lost on the night.

Finding myself in the Freeform/NRG/Happyhardcore (F/N/HH) room I was able to see the final 10minutes of Kurroption’s set, which I had a little stomp to. The crowd was small but increasingly growing. Next up was BiPolar. In the post-event wash-up BiPolar was one of the best set’s of the night for a lot of punters. I only found myself in there for the first few songs as I made my way back over to the main stage to see up n coming superstar, Tydi.

Finding a good spot on the dance floor the crowd I thought was still small, although I did have in mind Two Tribes and previous Advent*jah’s, so maybe I was expecting a bigger crowd than the 1500 or so punters they got on the night. Tydi played a fantastic 2hr set in which I saw basically 80% of. He kept me dancing for the majority of the set with a number of hard dance anthems. The only down time that I left the stage was for a walk around to chill, regroup, rest, get some water, and the head back in. I tried a few times to impose myself on the F/N/HH room and the Dutch Hardcore Room, but the BPM’s were a little bit too quick for me and I continually found myself back at the main stage enjoying great hard trance, hard house and hard dance set’s from all performing DJ’s.

Midnight and Sydneysider Steve Hill was on the main stage decks taking things up a level. I’ve seen Steve play a number of times at Family, and unfortunately he’s been far, far, far too cheesy for my liking. To my surprise he was a lot less cheesy this time around and played a very enjoyable set. 1am and it was time for Alphazone to grace the decks. I was told by some very knowledgeable DJ’s to check out Alphazone and they didn’t disappoint. Playing a high tempo trance set much to the admiration of all present. The highlight personally of the set was hearing their  track ‘Flashback’. The crowd was a little small for Alphazone, so I went searching for the majority of the punters. Those in the know were over at the F/N/HH room dancing merrily to Brisbane’s very own Seventy-7. Now I’m not big on the freeform/hardcore/happy hardcore or whatever other genre is at that speed and BPM, but Seventy-7 along with the now retired Void, is about the only DJ that will get me dancing to it. His set was no let down either, an array of anthems that I couldn’t possibly train-spot, with a big crowd, and a great atmosphere. Definitely one of the highlight sets of the night!

Next up was the UK’s Robbie Long, one of the big headliners of the night. For the hour he played I bounced between his set, the main stage where Tiamos was playing, and over to the Dutch Hardcore (very briefly) to check out another international headliner in Tha Playa. From what I heard from all three, those present obviously enjoyed it, my legs needed rest time though, and from 1-2am the majority of my time was spent drinking water, resting, recuperating and getting ready for the final 4hrs of the night.

A little bit past 3am and I was back up and dancing to the sounds of local DJ Kasey in the mainstage room. A message on my phone 15minutes in purely states ‘Ephexis tearin shit apart, get in here’. I followed suit and went straight into the F/N/HH room where Ephexis truly was ‘tearin shit apart’. He for most of the punters was the highlight of the event and played the best set of the night. To be honest it wasn’t really my style and so I went for a walk for water and then another sit, getting the legs ready for Ed Real.

4am and FINALLY, after 7hrs of being at the event, the man I wanted to see, Ed Real, was starting on the main stage. This was a set I was bound not to miss, and spent the entire hour dancing my legs to jelly, as he destroyed the arena with a mish-mash of all things hard dance. Unfortunately for a lot of people they had already used their legs for earlier acts and the majority of punters all around the event in general were found sitting on the ground or were starting to leave. A little bit past 5am, and it was time for this weary body to head all the way home.

In the post-event post-mortem definitely the set of the night for the majority of punters was the live set by Ephexis. Personally for this reviewer tho, the set of the night would have had to gone to Ed Real on the main stage. An hour of absolute mayhem from the Riot boss was topped off with Matt Williams remix of the eternal classic Prodigy – Voodoo People.

The promotion, production and execution of all their parties has left the Mayhem crew held high in regards by their beloved punters. To quote a fellow ITMer “I just want to say to the Mayhem crew that to the 3 Mayhems I have been to and other events mayhem co-hosted, they have been amazing nights, extremely well organised where I have felt safe and have had fantastic nights.” That basically sums up the strength of support from the dance community for the stellar work the Mayhem crew are doing in trying to keep the, some would say, fledging rave scene in Brisbane alive.

In an era where the legendary Advent*jah’s parties are no more, Brisbane can be thankful that Mayhem has taken over the big rave party scene in Queensland and we can hopefully look forward to more big events in the not to distant future from the Mayhem crew.

This was my first Mayhem event and will definitely not be my last. They have a solid fan base that can only get bigger and better. One only hopes that they follow the lead of Advent*jah parties and progress into more stages and more genre’s of music. Including trance and hard house into this year’s Easter Music Festival was the start, than it can only get bigger and better from here. Big kudos to Mayhem for a wonderful event.