What can I say about A Night of Trance (ANOT) that hasn’t been said already? Great music, friendly crowd, quality trance music… How about a neon nation theme, free entry before 11 and a shuffling competition?

Upon my arrival, I was briefly entertained by my glowing appearance and, heading upstairs to the Neon Arena, I saw people already taking advantage of the oxygen machine available for the night. I was amazed at the numerous neon-coloured decorations, which reminded me of miniature chinese lanterns, which surrounded the famous JAFP disco ball. With UV lights in place, the room glowed an array of neon colours, adding a level of sophistication to the event. To open the night upstairs, Ruby provided two hours of melodic trance, building his set up gradually to a more driving-melodic sound. At this point in time there was already al ot of people in the club dancing away.

The next destination was downstairs in the Neon Vortex room to catch the second half of Luke Sykes set. Let me mention yet again the success of JAFP’s effort in enforcing the neon theme. I walked onto the dancefloor to see what seemed to be a neverending amount of glowsticks hanging from the ceiling. I have never seen so many glowsticks in my life (and I have been to my fair share of raves!) In the DJ booth a neon green backdrop gave the DJs a spooky-looking (and yet awesome) setting for the clubber’s entertainment.

To match the quality of trance upstairs, Luke Sykes opened the Neon Vortex room with his trademark progressive trance. His set, also played to an impressive crowd, was followed by newcomer DJ Amo. After missing him at the last ANOT I was keen to check him out. And this guy had it all – from melodic trance to driving trance; from simple melodic texture to heavily padded synth tracks. If you were there to hear him play Andain ‘Beautiful Things’, and my favourite Rank 1 ‘It’s up to You (Symsonic)’, you could appreciate the diversity he delivered in his set.

Next, I found myself running up the stairs to the Neon Arena, where Karvan and Condivi were into their final tracks. I’m happy to say my timing was perfect to hear them drop Above & Beyond vs Andy Moor ‘Air for Life’. Following on, Jayde and Marishka proved to be the most talked about set of the night. For one and a half hours they delivered to a full room the most euphoric set. With tracks like Selu Vibra ‘Divine,’ Ferry Corsten ‘Adagio for Strings’ and ending with Gouryella ‘Gouryella’, these were only a couple of great tracks played by the duo. If they weren’t mixing, Jayde and Marishka were working the crowd up, who responded with delight. To have strangers randomly come up to me to comment about their set says a lot on how great it was.

Following Dutch in the Neon Vortex room was JAFPs first ever shuffling competition, with music provided by Arbor and Mully. Not being the biggest fan of shuffling, as well as not wanting to miss out on Jayde and Marishka’s set, I only made a brief appearance to check the competition. It was a success, with a large group crowding the stage to watch shuffle after shuffle. All I can say is who would have thought shuffling was such a popular dance!?

Before the end of Jayde and Marishka’s set, I commented to Patrik Carrera that ‘this is a hard act to follow.’ Not seeming phased about my comment, Patrik and Selby took their place on the stage. Patrik opened their set with an introduction he had personally worked on, and the tech trance duo took off from there. Track after track was a delivery of energising tech trance, with the occasional, slightly harder tracks, and the inclusion of an anthem here and there. For their first time playing together, they received a great response from the crowd, proving tech trance had its place on the bill.

Following Patrik and Selby were Frantic residents Oliver Leighs and Paul Doran. Another great uplifting driving set for the night, they reminded me of how I came to love Frantic, as their melodic set was beautifully overpowering, and their lively presence on stage added to the overall enjoyment of their set. Whilst it was hard to tear myself away from their set, it was inevitable as the Neon Arene was closed, leaving people to wander down to the Neon Vortex room where Ange was well into her performance. Ranging from classics such as Scot Bond vs Solartone ‘3rd Earth’ to more recent tracks like Ronski Speed and Terminal’s ‘Incognition’, Ange had a packed dancefloor from beginning to end, before stepping down for Digital Pimp to make his second performance of the night.

To cut a long story short, it has been a long time since I have been in awe over not only the quality of music played at an event, but the effort put into making a theme stand out. The fact that I had difficulty choosing which room to be in just shows the effort from the JAFP crew to ensure the night was a memorable one.