bennyhana22

My Berghain review: f**k me 😲 Right, I've got a plane to catch. As you were. Ben x

Great news, Adam! Likewise, would love to meet up anytime. I'm going with Mrs Benny and three of her friends, though they are in a rather nice clamping tent, whilst I will, naturally, remain with the great unwashed! I do, of course, see the ladies over the course of the festival, but am mostly flying solo, set-wise. Recs for dance stuff: Friday (Data Mine is mostly electro and DnB. Friday seems to be the electro night) Ekata - Data Mine 2300-0000 (tho' I will likely be watching Scaler on Solasta) Plant43 - Data Mine 0000-0100 DMX Krew - Data Mine 0100-0200 KKTA - Rebel Soul 0200-0400 (her set in 2022 was excellent) Saturday Sunden (Live) - Amniothèque 2300-0000 ADJ - Data Mine 0000-0100 Radioactive Man - Data Mine 0100-0200 Annx b2b Wednesday - Amniothèque 0130-0500 - set of the weekend; could be glorious Acidfairy & Sprocket - Squatter's Tights 0300-0500 (this will be hard acid techno) Sunday (Sunday night is a little bit thin for me...might be a case of following my ears) Possibles: babyschön - Amniothèque 0000-0130 Gallegos - Reflex 0200-0330 That's It - Reflex (0300-0500) Hope to hook up sometime. Ben x

Hi Yog! Ditto - and my bad. I keep meaning to get in touch! I shall do so soon. I have news. Ben x

Great news, Skip. Sooooo looking forward to it. Three weeks today! Ben

Well, team...where to start? Apologies for taking a while to get to this. Unfortunately, on Wednesday my usual post-Farm recovery (by gods, needed this year!) evolved into something altogether more...erm...biological. Feel pretty shocking atm, but was it all worth it? What do you think? I'll restrict the ol' missive to just dance, if I may, as to attempt the lot might finish me off - for example, on Saturday I saw 10 band and 5 DJ sets from 1130-0600h. What a day/night... Wednesday I have a love/hate relationship with Glastonbury Wednesdays. I get so ridiculously excited about the festival, and arriving, getting to camp, getting set up, re-pegging everyone's disgraceful tent corners etc. is just one of my favourite times of the year. As I don't drink, and extracurriculars are not for Wednesdays, the night can be a bit...odd. BUT! Having been fortunate enough to acquire Block9 wristbands, I took a pal into Maceo's for his first time around 9-9.30pm. Showing him where the toilets were I noticed an unusual, but conspicuous, absence of a steward at the little gap between Maceo's and backstage NYCD. Oh my giddy aunt. Heads up, chests out, we strode through like we belonged, to find ourselves behind the Downlow, surrounded by cast and crew, with no-one giving us a second glance as if we weren't supposed to be there. Then, the key decision: into the Downlow through flap 1, or onto the stage with the Queens via flap 2. Rationalising that it was only Wednesday, discretion took the better part of valour and we decided to leave the artistes to their thing. But, into an increasingly busy Downlow we went for my pal's first ever experience of the club. We had lots of fun for an hour or so, seeing the Meat Rack etc. An absolute bonus for us on a night when I generally do not expect to dance. Thursday What is it with Blawan and Glastonbury and me?! More of that in a moment. I had a great Thursday, probably one of my best ever, dotting myself around site and seeing loads of really good sets (a nod to TORS in the Wishing Well). My Farm2024 dancing proper started in earnest, as planned, with Sugar Free b2b Fonte in the new Assembly in Silver Hayes. My impression: Yeah, nice addition. It's bigger than I had anticipated, well laid out with the DJ as far from the door as possible, so no disruption from punter churn. They've done a good job of making it feel genuinely 'indoors' with the blackout, and it does have a club feel. It was pretty rammed, so dancing in Position A required some gentle but obvious use of space-personal creation! The crowd felt like a 'Silver Hayes' crowd - I don't mean that disparagingly at all, just that the vibe has become quite distinct from, say, the SEC for me. Sound was good. Not great, but good - I'd give it a 7. The set was really enjoyable and, considering it was only 9pm on Thursday, it was just right for me. They played what you'd expect, starting with a lot of minimal, gradually upping the techy-ness and I had a good time and met a nice chap who knew a lot about them (hadn't realised they were a couple) and the parties they throw in London. Solid start. And off to the SEC for one of the UK's most significant techno DJs of the last couple of decades, and a real treat to be getting something is amazing as Blawan on IICON on only Thursday night. YES!!! No... FFS, man, did I wrong you in a former life? This is the second time that Mr Roberts has cancelled on me in Block9. As I arrived in IICON the word was that the gap was being filled by extended sets by the other DJs on that line-up. Just a few minutes confirmed to me that that wasn't going to do it for me, and so I stomped off! However...it only took me to get to Genosys to find the silver lining in the Blawan cloud - I saw almost all of the live Lance Desardi set and it was blistering. And, more importantly, oh my days, Genosys is back. I'd say the sound was at least as good if not better than before, and for that particular unanticipated live set it was nothing short of incredible. Visuals were as mind-melting as ever, and I was so, so happy to be back at my favourite Glastonbury stage. So, great first half of the game. I won't bore you with the details of the second half, other than to summarise that: (a) The Bimble Inn is a rubbish venue for dance music, not least of all as dancing on the north face of the Eiger is unpleasant and the sound is dreadful. (b) I can confirm that there was NO psytrance at all at Glastonbury 2024, as hopes of psytrance DJ Regan playing me 45mins at 0215h on the Thursday night were dashed when, following a Ghanaian Afro-rap artist in the Wishing Well, said Regan launched into some squelchy, scratchy funky house. My pal was so kind as he knew how much I'd been hoping for just a little bit of one of my favourite genres...but alas, no. No bother, as we'd had a fun night and that Genosys set was sooooo good. Friday I always see any good dance before the Friday as a real bonus, so I was already ahead of the curve. And, tonight was Dragonfly night, oh my goodness. After leaving a very fun Kate Nash set in Avalon (who knew she was that amazing a performer...?), I sprinted up to SH to try catch half an hour of Kelly Lee Owens, getting my only chance this year to see something on The Levels and leaving myself enough time to get to Arcadia before the big stages emptied out. YES!!! No. It seems that the Silver Hayes queuing of last year has now found its, ahem, level - f**king ridiculous. I was there by 2245 and it stretched from the entrance lower left side, waaaaaay back towards Lonely Hearts. Bonkers. Realising immediately that Ms Owens and I were not to enjoy one another's company tonight, I had a gentle wander and made my way to Arcadia. As ever, the mechanical monster had a significant tourist crust which, once passed through, opened up to plenty of space close to and under the Dragonfly. That was the good news. The bad news was that my early arrival meant I had to endure 15 mins of Norman. I really, really don't want to be dance music snobby, but Jeez, Louise - really?? Anyway, once he'd finished, loads of people buggered off and for the first half or more of Joy O's odd set, it was very spacious right under the belly of the beast. I tried a few different positions, quite keen to be able to see a bit more of the amazing structure if I could, only to find, predictably, that once again the sound is best right underneath. And not just best - STELLAR. Easily as good as the Spider at its best, when you are under the speakers attached to the body itself, and so triangulated to the meeting point of the sic outer, and four inner speaker arrays - bloody health, that it amazing sound. As said, I didn't get Joy O at all really, other than a few tracks (more a me thing...), but I do admire DJs with the variety and versatility he has, and he knows how to curate a setlist really well. And so to HAAi b2b KI/KI - if I had felt any anxiety about potentially over-recommending this set, my concerns were assuaged within about 90 seconds. I loved how you could tell who was on the decks by a clear, but rather lovely demarcation - HAAi hitting us with peak time techno weapons, interspersed with KI/KI building up trancey bangers. 65 minutes of pure joy, and I knew immediately at the end that no dance set was going to top that over the festival. They had no time to warm us up, so went hard from the start and it was utter joy. WOW. Amelie followed them with a great set, tempering her more recent style of too hard, too fast, too much reverb on the kick, to more 2019 Amelie - she still does like to break the tracks down to just kick, add hi-hat and build from there a little too often, but she knew how to keep the momentum going and was the perfect segue from the ladies before. Possibly my favourite ever time at Arcadia. I pulled my mate out 5mins before the end to try to get a jump on the Arcadia and SH crowds, so as to minimise delay to the SEC. Sadly, my other mate, who had been at the side of Arcadia, seems to be having an inordinate amount of trouble working out which Arcadia bar was the one opposite the head (to clarify, it's the bar opposite the head), and so once that cat was herded, all time advantage had evaporated! We went as quickly as possible to Bella's Field to find a huge crowd, held at the turnstiles into the SEC who had already been there for 20 mins. After a further 20 mins of the very nice stewards trying to paint a picture of the area being so full and emptying so little that we were never going to be let in...we were let in! I had wondered about stopping into a bit of Azyr, but given the delay and slight anxiety about getting stuck out of Block9 if I went to Unfairground, we did a bit of Python (sounded pretty special on IICON), wandered past Midland on Genosys (just not for this raver, sorry), and ended up at Blind Tiger for 45mins of breakneck speed, breakbeat rave courtesy of Origin8/Propa b2b Hypershe. Bugger me, those guys play fast! But it was fun, and we shuffled off to bed at 5, with the glory of HAAi and KI/KI still ringing in our ears. Saturday Saturday night is camp rave night. Sadly, four of the very best ravers in our team chose not to come this year (WHAT?!), but the less frequent dancers did not let themselves, or the tradition, down. After seeing Orbital play a fantastic hit-heavy set on Park (the sound on there now is just magnificent), we made our way casually to the SEC. Popped into Maceo's for a wee while and as it was starting to fill up in there (Maceo's, Saturday night is one of the biggest parties I've ever seen) we made our way to Genosys for OK Williams. Not great. For about FIFTEEN MINUTES!! She started with some slightly suspect bassline, but swiftly moved more into techno which, by half an hour in, was just phenomenal. Absolutely loved this set, and she seemed to enjoy it a lot - thanks for such a strong recommendation, Child 1. Saw the end of Afrodeutsche and then into Stingray who, as many in the thread have attested, was off the scale good. I'm not sure I've ever heard a DJ sound better on IICON - every transition was into another absolute killer track, each time the crowd looking at one another with that "awwwww!" face of pure joy. But, a plan ain't worth anything unless you stick to it and so, as I had promised myself, I headed over to Genosys in time to see Madison Moore start. This had been the one set I had really targeted, again as another huge rec from Child 1, and also as I had never seen them play before. Oh dear. What is THIS?! They've only gone and done an OK Williams on me. Worry ye not, young ravers, within 15mins they had also found their stride, oh yes indeed. The combination of a killer set, my camp mates who don't really rave, there having the time of their lives, the impeccable sound and visuals of Genosys and the luxury (at Glastonbury) of that non-typical 2 hour set made it one of my favourite sets ever on the Farm. Incredible. I've seen Partok before. I've never enjoyed Partok as much as that. He was fantastic, immediately realising that what we wanted, what we needed was very much more of the same. That, at 4.30am, we just wanted him to smash us with propulsive techno. And did he ever. Without question the best set I've seen by him, and I don't think I've ever seen a bigger, more absolutely up for it crowd at Genosys at 6am. No gurning mass of shuffling zombies here - everyone was just so up for it. What a night! Sunday I spent some time in the day pondering my strategy. I knew I had to leave dancing at about 2.30am to go and get my coach, so I needed to be on the money in my plans. I settled on getting into the Temple for the beginning of Manni Dee's set at 10.30pm, rather than risk the queue getting too big that it impacted on my limited night. Good decision, Benjamin. Joined the queue around 10.10pm and waltzed in about 5mins before Manni to hear the last bit of truly unpleasant tech-house from East End Dubs. I actually laughed out loud when, as Mr Dubs finished, the floor of the Temple more than half emptied. What is wrong with these people?😆. And so to Temple Techno Sunday. Manni Dee warmed up to some bone rattling stuff in the last hour of his set. Now, you know that I knew immediately that HAAi/KI/KI had no chance of being bettered. WRONG!! It wasn't by much but... Location (when it all comes together, the Temple must be one of the best rave venues in the world, surely?), crowd, Sunday night and none of us want to go home, and then Daria Kolosova playing a faultless 90 mins of the most perfect techno for that time and place. Breathtaking. Chatting to Child 1, I know she can be seen as one of the 'successful, pretty female DJs'. All of that may well be true, but on that evidence, the first adjective has nothing to do with the second. She. Was. On. Fire. And, again, seemed to absolutely love playing the set. @Supernintendo Chalmers - I only wish we'd found each other there 😢. My brain, by this point not necessarily at Krytpon Factor levels of functioning (one for the kids, there), was doing gymnastics, trying to work out the absolute minimum period needed to go from Temple to Oxlyers lock-up to PGA. Despite my earlier plan, I decided that an hour would be enough or, bugger it, I'd just run it. So, I stayed for the first half hour of Kettama who, after a rather predictable first two tracks, unleashed such brilliant techno until I ran out of there at 3am - he closed my festival as well as I could possibly have wished for. OMG. Was that my favourite ever Dance-Glastonbury? I never like to compare too much, as they're all so different and wonderful in their own ways. Was it spectacular? Holy moly, yes. Massive love to @Madyaker for being the best dance buddy one could have - more fun than I can possibly describe ❤️. Was just amazing to meet and dance with @Talcroft - thanks for so much fun. And lovely to see @GrumpyRaver as always. To anyone else I saw who posts in our wonderful thread - thank you for coming to say hello. And thanks for making this such a fab place to share our experiences, as I, most likely, shuffle off to my customary post-festival hibernation. I'll be around a bit, I'm sure, and will likely put in a little report post-Shambala. Let's do it all again next year, you beautiful people. Benny xx

271,906 😴 Ben x

Happy Glastonbury Eve, Ravers! I'm sure there will be some chat in here today, but to catch those leaving early, Campervanners etc, just a quick note to say have the blimmin' best festival, team. Dance hard, dance safely and, most of all, look after each other, because community is what we're all about. I hope I see loads of you this week, and it would be great to say hi and dance together at HAAi b2b KI/KI if that fits in with your plans. Have an amazing Glastonbury, everyone. Benny x

Cracking idea. I'll be at the meet at the Ridge & Furrow... Ben

@danbailey80 👆🏽 Just one idea, as it's really difficult trying to pull together the magnificent variety of dance interests in the thread! Ben

Field flags are going up 🙌🏽. Ben

Not sure what will happen re: FT, but yes, you can still go into Avalon from the railway line, unless they've changed it for this year. Ben

I'm not sure you're the oldest 😆. Ben

When do the field flags go up? They must be imminent...? Ben

Ok, team. So, I'm going to propose an E/D meet up at HAAi b2b KI/KI, Arcadia, Friday, 0045-0150h. Obviously there will be some challenges, both personal and geographical 😆. We don't know the set up of the Dragonfly yet - is it 'just' a front facing stage set up, or 360° like the Spider and Pangea? In general, I will be placed dead 'centre' of a stage/booth, at the optimum sound position 😂. That would be my plan for the Dragonfly, tho, as said, we do need to see what's what - with the Spider, the best place was right under the belly. I'll be wearing a cap, glasses and have a full beard. I'll be in shorts with a black Bandcamp T-shirt on. I'm...ahem...at the more mature end of the raver community! Though I always want to leave the world outside, and so don't ever use my phone for anything other than WhatsApp/SMS at the festival, I could happily nip in here close to the start of the set, to see if anyone is trying to meet up and to coordinate where we are etc. Anyway, that's my proposal. Obviously, other meet-ups, in the daytime etc, would be great, so do try to get together, team. I've had some pretty cracking dancing with some of the E/D crew, so let's do it again. Ben x

Important to say that the nudity is optional too. No-one cares whether you're nekkid or not. Ben