Having already toured Roger Shah and with Lange and Bart Claessen coming soon, White Sands is quickly making a name for bringing out quality international trance acts but in between big name events they gave some local names time to shine at Room 680 on the weekend. With the main room closed off when I got there, the crowd was packed into the side room which made things quite cosy. While I got there just in time to miss Vincent Manuel’s set, I was regaled with tales of woe and technical difficulties. I smiled and nodded politely while he rambled on about file formats and CD players, with hand gestures and everything. Looking around frantically for an exit as he detailed the differences in cd burning processes, I caught sight of a random stranger that I claimed was an old friend from high school and managed to bound away.

The soundtrack at the time was provided by XMike and Huddy and while I liked what I heard, I couldn’t help but feel they were ramping it up a little too much too early. When the main room was opened up with Alison Spong and Beck Greenaway I felt the same way in there and my sentiments were echoed by some friends. Mark Norman’s tech trance tune Restart is one of my favourite tracks but hearing it in both rooms before midnight seemed strange and I thought they could have done a better job of progressing through the night.

By finishing with the banging Godd by Marco V, Xmike and Huddy didn’t leave much room for debutant Nick Asker to maneuver but he handled it well, opening with the classic We Came by Vimana and played a fantastic first set. Z List Uber Star by John Askew and Tiberium (Activa Remix) by Neal Scarborough stood out as favourites for me and his mixing was spot on. Even though some of the tunes were starting to sound a little samey we were all dancing away and he was having a blast up there. I couldn’t stay all night though and popped in to the main room to see Steve Strangis and Ahmet playing some quality tunes before heading off home. White Sands seems to be doing everything right with a mix of great local talent and international acts so hopefully these sands aren’t washed away anytime soon!