Melbourne had a barmy New Year’s Eve with storms, lightening strikes and blackouts all around the city, thankfully though none of that managed to dampen Australia’s biggest NYE event Sensation at the Etihad. Stepping out from the train, walking down the pathway all dressed in white listening to the booming sounds emanating from the stadium it was hard not to feel the anticipation and excitement for the night ahead. Unfortunately though, some people had their evening cut short as the police had gone into full crackdown mode and all entrances were covered by officers and drug sniffer dogs.

In addition to the main arena and a trance room hosted by Sied van Riel & friends, this year’s event also included a number of VIP areas which offered lucky guests drinks and snacks, a bevy of local DJ talent, water features, glamorous models dressed as mermaids and all sorts of other goodies in white furnished rooms.

In line with this year’s theme, ‘Ocean of White’, the main arena was aptly decked out in under the sea scenery and a 160-meter long stage embezzled in water fountains splitting the arena in two. At the heart of the stage was the 30m high circular rotating DJ booth which was adorned with visual screens and covered by a huge light system shaped like some alien creation suspended from above. Also suspended from the ceiling were movable giant jellyfish which bobbed around throughout the night. This centre spectacle was made even more impressive by the surrounding visual screens, laser shows, projection systems, a top class sound system and an endless of white.

On the music front the lineup did not disappoint either; Richard Durand was an admirable choice for bringing in the New Year, straddling the line between commercial and quality trance. Close to the New Year countdown he brought out some reworked classics such as Underworld Born Slippy and The Eurhythmics Sweet Dreams (both which got played several times during the night) but it worked well and got the crowd ready for the big moment. Then, just moments before the countdown began, a voice from above sparked up with some nonsense about remembering your past and where you have been before finally making way for an impressive fire and lights show that included firecrackers, huge sparklers attached to the ceiling, rockets of colour and water fountains.

After failing to get into the trance room to catch Sied van Riel (no thanks to some over cautious security) we chose to hit the main area to see local boy and remix guru Dirty South. At that point he was smashing out his own reworks of EvermoreIt’s Too Late and the hands in the air Axwell/Dirty South remix of Temper Trap Sweet Disposition. Accompanying the music was a stage show featuring dancers with huge jellyfish umbrellas which was enough to mar the surrounding army of tops off beefcakes there making for a great mood on the floor as people danced, hugged and made the most of their experience. South also treated fans to a very smooth live performance of his own track Let It Go and while overall he played a good set it did seem to lack the pace required for a New Years celebration.

Next up came The Mix, a staple sensation event in which a pre-recorded mash-up mix completely destroys everything you knew about musical genres. The set, which draws together just about every tune from the last 15 years in one half hour, included everything from Fat Boy Slim Praise You to Faithless Insomnia, De la Soul Ring Ring Ring and Everything But The Girl Missing, pretty amazing really.

Headliner Roger Sanchez took the reigns at 2am and kept things chugging along nicely with his usual fare of classic house strings and vocals with modern reworkings along with dirty bass bombs and that New York underground feel he is famous for. About halfway through his 90 minute set we decided to try our luck in the Trance Room again and finally badgered our way through the crowd to catch Trent McDermott smashing up the place to some filthy psy-trance, heaps of genres and sweaty hugs all round. The vibe was very different from the main room being more stripped back, a lot louder and more like a club night. Just when we thought it couldn’t get more insane we were proved wrong when Papa Smurf cranked up the bass and sent the crowd reeling with his usual bravado and showmanship.

Dragging ourselves away from the Trance Room we went to visit Sebastian Ingrosso as he finished off the night on centre stage. One third of the highly influential Swedish House Mafia he is no slouch and certainly not unaccustomed to playing to large crowds, hitting them with reworked trance tracks, tribal style house and gritty electro. A superb choice for a closing international and those that were still going at 4am clearly had an awesome time.
Sensation was a very slickly put together event with plenty of attention to detail and impressive production values. Some issues gaining entry need to be addressed and navigating around the venue could be made easier, that said though the music was great, performers were professional, the crowd was a real pleasure and the show was very stylish. A wicked start to 2010 and a great way to begin another year of music in Melbourne.