Last night in Newtown, Sydney, ITM became a dance music ‘Starlight Foundation’ of sorts when it made one lucky dance fan’s dreams come true. UK trance icons Above & Beyond, a key act on the Global Gathering festival that’s currently touring the country, played at the apartment of Marek Panasko to an intimate audience of only 30 people. The energy in the cosy living was every bit as electrifying as you can imagine, check out the photos of what went down!

> Check out the Snap! featured gallery from the party here, or for the full range of pics head here!

It was a balmy Thursday night in Newtown that set the scene perfectly, and as Marek’s friends gathered in his living room and balcony there was an excited nervousness shared by pretty much everyone there. To ease the tension, the party had some impressive DJ talent on warmup duties in the form of Australia’s own Jaytech, a high-profile recruit to Above & Beyond’s Anjunabeats label who’s only just arrived back home after several months in the UK.

When Tony McGuinness and Jono Grant finally arrived around 8.30pm, they took the time to meet and share a few drinks with everyone gathered, with Tony sharing his excitement over the chance to play at a house party. Apparently, it’s the first time they’d had the chance since an infamous kick-on in Sydney several years ago that also saw Dave Dresden spinning some tunes. When they hit the decks just after 9pm, they kicked it off with the progressive trance of Signalrunners’ Meet Me In Montauk, the signature opening track for the boys recently.

The set climbed to a trancey peak fairly quickly, with Tony and Jono taking requests galore and even finding the time to drop in seminal classic Three Drives Greece 2000, which drew a smile from the over 30s in the room. As the two-hour set drew towards a close the anthems were whipped out in quick succession, with their own Satellite and Alone Tonight wrapping things up and encouraging an unabashed singalong among the intimate crowd. Prize winner Marek floated around like he was on cloud nine for the whole performance, and the energy in his living room built to the sort of euphoric craziness that you only ever see at the most memorable of club nights and events. Well wicked indeed!

Global Gathering completes its run of dates around the country with shows in Sydney and Brisbane this weekend! Keep your eyes peeled to on inthemix.com.au/globalgathering for all the latest info on the tour, including interviews, news, DJ mixes, videos and more.