When I saw that Eddie Halliwell was on the bill for Future Music Festival this year, I was excited to say the least. I didn’t care who else was playing, I knew that no matter what, he would impress! I arrived at 1pm so that I could start taking in the vibe as the crowd was building up. The security upon entry were pleasant and helped ensure that you didn’t start the day on the wrong foot. As I walked around the grounds I was again blinded by fluoro and colourfully-framed sunnies.. Arrggh! Nonetheless I enjoyed checking out al lthe different areas. The stages seemed like they could have been positioned a little better, with sound clashing frequent unless you were up front and centre, and the dancing area being in the blazing sun. Many people tried to capture as much shade as they could on the outskirts of the stages; some of my friends even stayed under the same tree pretty much all day. That’s what 39 degree heat will do!

After 5 hours of hearing a non-stop barrage of electro and minimal across the different stages, not to mention a few ‘anthems’ stuck on repeat (time to start looking for a different record to bash other than Show Me Love) and Don’t Hold Back guys!), 6pm struck. YES! Time for Halliwell, my favourite DJ and in my opinion the best in the world – big call I know… Challenge me I dare you! This guy’s skills behind the decks, and his energy are phenomenal to say the least. And when he took over the decks, his presence was known, jumping around like a crazy man, hyping up the crowd and generally having an absolute ball behind the decks. And having fun is something that I think is vital for any dance music DJ. Halliwell rocked it, he came out blazing more electro, but he played it better… He didn’t just play the tracks, he chopped them up, scratched all over them and gave each track it’s deserved justice. The crowd was loving it, and although the music style was similar to what was being played all day, I was loving it. When he dropped a new electro mix of the Chemical Brothers smash Hey Boy Hey Girl, needless to say the crowd went mental!

This by itself was a little concerning for me; maybe I’m being a tad cynical because I’m a DJ myself, but it made me notice how little most of the crowd knew about the DJs playing throughout the day. The crowd only ever got hyped up when a track was dropped that had a bit of commercial recognition. Which wasn’t many… Eddie even dropped another mix of Do It Again another smash from the Chem’s and my personal fave, although I’m not sure many people out there even realised who the song was by, and even when the Chemical Brothers themselves played it later on the crowd was rather flat. Anyway, back to Halliwell. He continued to play techier and techier before building up to some pumping techno… I was waiting for the trance, he was playing a two hour set and we were three quarters through… But I was thwarted!

it wasn’t until the last couple of tracks of his set he managed to squeeze some trance in, the recent remix of Bedrock’s Heaven Scent and Sasha’s Xpander. Surprisingly the crowd went wild, my girlfriend and I both had a rush of tingles through our bodies: this was the ‘moment’ of the set. It seemed like he’d tried to build it up to this earlier, but the crowd didn’t want to dance to anything other than electro or commercial. All in all, I was very impressed by Halliwell’s set, even if he didn’t play much trance, he definitely proved himself to be a DJ who can adapt to any situation that he’s placed in.

Markus Schulz took over the decks and didn’t muck around, playing some solid trance to begin with, before getting a bit techier and even uplifting throughout his set. Taking off from where Halliwell left it… Nice! It was hard for me to stick in one place constantly, with the clash of Chemical Brothers at the main stage. I found myself bouncing between to the two on every second track! Markus had a solid crowd dancing though, despite 70 per cent of the punters being over at the main stage. I have never seen Markus play before, and I was disappointed that I couldn’t stay there for his entire performance. But I did manage to catch him play my favourite trance track at the moment Vincent De Moor Fly Away (Cosmic Gate Remix). The crowd went mental as they always do when this track drops, it’s one that I personally love to unleash and clearly Markus was enjoying its power too. Tingles all round!

Overall I had a great day, and while I wouldn’t say that it’s the best music festival I have been to, and in spite of the heat, for myself and all my friends it still proved to be a blast! And I’m looking forward to what next year might deliver… Possibly a lack of fluoro in the crowd? Who knows what the fickle tides of dance music might bring.