Godskitchen has carved a name for itself as a major player in the EDM arena over the last decade and with their recent Boombox tour they had clearly aimed to raise the bar. Touted as “a spectacular fusion of architecture, multimedia, visuals and pumping dance music” the basis of the event was a huge multisensory elevated stage/wall backed by top notch visuals and music from leading trancers Blank & Jones, Cosmic Gate and John 00 Fleming. I was therefore interested to see if the reality could live up to the spin.

The Hisense Arena seemed to be a good choice for the event; easily accessed by public transport, plenty of trained medical staff, on site catering and sufficient space for a second arena though the trained security seemed like a bit of a laugh, they didn’t make me feel very secure. That said, entry was relatively pain free and the lack of Police and sniffer dogs seemed to make people more relaxed.

The Boombox in the enormous central arena looked fairly cool from afar and the DJ booth was positioned in the centre of the structure. Around 11.30 Chardy was polishing off his set with a nasty remix of Fatboy Slim Star 69 at which point he handed over to local stalwart Steve Strangis who opened with Jerome Isa Mia’s remix of Michael Jackson Stranger In Moscow for cool start.

Unfortunately though it was impossible to ignore the complete lack of crowd participation which was a continuing problem throughout the night, initially we thought it may have been because the lighting and visuals weren’t on and it was early but as the night progressed this rarely improved.

I headed over to the Angels At Play second arena to check Dr. Willis, no easy task due to the lack of signposting and the requirement to walk across a freezing cold courtyard to get there, something that put many people off going. It was however worth the walk and he was pummeling the small crowd with his own dark blend of hard trance when I arrived. Behind the main stage were tall arched metal structures shaped like cathedral windows, suspended from the ceiling were blow up GK angels and there was also some serious laser action going on, sweet. The crowd was much looser here and with space to dance the talcum powder was out and people were even doing backflips.

Guessing that the Boombox would finally be switched on for the opening of Blank & Jones’ set I made my way back to the main arena which by 12.30 was ridiculously crammed and still filling. The crowd did seem to be showing some form of motion by now as Steve Strangis rounded out his set with Richard Durrand Into Something.

B&J entered centre stage and switched the Boombox into ignition mode with countdowns, alphanumeric visuals, launch sequences and an impressive flurry of light and sound. The images then flicked over to simulated record decks either side of the stage and they set it off with the huge Smile When You Kill Me from Jerome Isma-Ae. They played a middling sort of set, highlights included remixes of their legendary track The Nightfly and a neat remix of The Eurythmics Sweet Dreams which got a huge reaction but on the whole they didn’t tear the roof off.

Back in the side arena at 2.30 Papa Smurf was ripping it up and the heeled girls and fat pants crew were making the most of the ample space. Unfortunately there was a muzza stage invasion near the end of his set but it was more comical than anything so no harm done.

Jes came on at 3 and was surprisingly warm and friendly. She gave renditions of Tiesto tracks Like A Waterfall and Everything as well as her new track with BT called Every Other Way and although I’m not a Tiesto fan she did a fine job and the small crowd seemed to enjoy hearing mention of his name.

Cosmic Gate back in the main room gave the punters something of a show tag teaming and playing such classics as What You Need, PVD Home and the awesome Veracocha Carte Blanche.

Come 5AM many people looked like they were about to give up because the crowd just didn’t want to get involved when the baton was finally handed over to John 00 Fleming to take the night home. He opened with 00db Magna and Junkie XL Beauty Never Fades (gms, pixel & domestic remix) and from there he never looked back. He blended his own style of Psytrance superbly for the whole of his two hour set and towards the end when he dropped the most evil reworking of Carl Orff’s choral piece Carmina Burana people just stood in awe, utterly mind blowing and the visuals of different cities were cool too. Just as we were leaving he capped the whole thing off with Push Strange World (Astral Projection remix) and with that the deal was done, Fleming had stepped in and salvaged what could have been a disappointing debut for the Boombox.

Whilst Godskitchen suffered from a bunch of outstanding issues such as an under utilised second room and a lack of lasers in the main arena, dampening the night’s proceedings, the sets I heard offered up some good sounds and J’00’F took the whole event to another level, sealing the deal. If you missed him, then you definitely missed out.