Innercity, together with the Mysteryland festival and Sensation, is one of ID&T’s major events each year, and it has been changed completely.

Innercity, together with the Mysteryland festival and Sensation, is one of ID&T’s major events each year, and it has been changed completely. Looking back at last year’s edition, which had a Las Vegas theme full of entertainment and over 30.000 people, this year was brought back to a more basic party and the theme was, like it should be, Music. There were 7 rooms with different styles of music varying from hip hop and (minimal) techno to urban, progressive, house and electro. The dj’s programmed were not the usual big names, like Sven Väth or Tiësto, but there was room for young talent and more unusual names.

We decided to go early because Steve Rachmad was scheduled at 22:00hrs to kick off his 25 year in music tour. Steve’s music was my first experience with techno music, for his choice of records and mixing skills, and therefore has always been a little special for me. He did a great job and blew me away with real deep pumping records and great mixing. His own productions and some old Swedish records from Mull and Beyer gave me the shivers and delivered a great start to what was about to be a great night.

After Rachmad it was time to move to the main hall for 2Many Deejays. Unbelievable what these two Belgian guys can do with a crowd. Where the crowd was very quiet when Rachmad played, the main room exploded when they mixed Prodigy after Abba, electro, pop and house music all in a high pace and full of energy. Happy and smiling faces all around us proved the energy these two guys produced with their set. A nice thing about this night was that there was enough room to dance. Usually, on events like these, walking from one hall to another is quite an adventure, but this time we were able to move fast between the different areas.

When it was time for Tiga, the crowd was screaming like hell. This Canadian talent, well known for his superb mix of electro, pop and house tunes, took of where 2Many Deejays had stopped. So much energy in the hall, so many happy people, it exceeded all expectations. Meanwhile, Booka Shade was scheduled in the small minimal room upstairs. It was really nice to see these two guys doing their act. They combined a live set with live percussion, which gave the whole show a lively effect. Great tunes with a deep groove pumped into the small room, and the audience, like the two guys themselves, seemed to enjoy it very much.

The last few hours my legs were killing me, because of all the danced kilometers so far, and I noticed a little lack of energy when Alter Ego came up. They failed to catch me with their show. Some parts of their set were nice to listen to but, in my opinion, they lacked the energy. Hence, it was a nice moment to sit back and relax on the couches in the end of the main room, to have a little chat and prepare for the Collabs 3000 thing that Speedy J and Chris Liebing would be doing next. The way I know these two, I expected a real hard schranz like set, but the opposite was true. They gave an energetic mix of dark minimal oriented techno tunes with a great drive that made me dance the last hours without any problems. It was great to see how these guys were doing their show together. They were very well prepared, which left plenty of time to joke around with the audience and create the right atmosphere. At half past seven the last bass was squeezed out of the sound system, and that meant the end of the eighth edition of Innercity. Exceeding all expectations, it was a very good night, full of high quality music and – with the exception of the fucked up young guys looking for a fight - really nice people.

Report by: Luit