Having just got back from playing at HTID in the sun i thought i would do a decent write up of the weeks events as i saw them, ive just had the time of my life in the last 7 days, so here goes starting with the first day i got there....
Tuesday - 12th June - Vibealite night
Arrived at Liverpool airport at around 7am for our 8.45am flight to Gerona airport, was greeted by Clipper and met up with Joey Riot, Kurt, Sqaud-E, Smiley, Recon and more with everyone buzzing that we were finally off to sunnier climates... Flight out of Liverpool wasn't to bad until we started the desent into Gerona which for me was awful as im not a big fan of flying, and we pretty much crash landed at Gerona bouncing down the runway with the plane picking up speed despite the fact we were braking heavily, i think the look on most peoples faces said it all. Having collected our luggage we were greeted by a HTID member of staff who drove us direct to our hotel with no messing about, bumped into Brisk in the hotel who was looking very worse for wear, dont think ive ever seen him that bladdered before, but it was a very funny sight to see with him sat in a massage chair wasted. After that it was a quick unpack then off to explore Lloret and find the venue and beach.. Having got to the beach yer could feel the atmosphere was building very nicely with the beach being over run with hardcore ravers taking over Lloret and taking over the beach bar which for the rest of the week was a hardcore ravers zone and the perfect meet up place. The weather was superb and very hot and it wasn't long before the suntan was starting to show. One of the first things i noticed in Lloret was the presence of HTID staff, everywhere you looked they were there making sure the ravers were ok and keeping out of trouble...
Was also nice to see all the DJ's sitting drinking at the beach bar and mingling with everyone and having such a wicked time, stayed down the beach till about 7pm then it was back off to my hotel to get ready for the evenings event and mentally preparing myself for my set in the 2nd room at 1.30am. Arrived at the venue at about 10pm and was well impressed with the club, the sound system in the main room was rocking and sounding very clear and the crowd was proper having it with Clipper playing the opening set of the night which was a fat set. Next up was Joey Riot and Kurt who blew the place away. I then ventured into arena 2 to see Marc Smith & Unknown playing a classic set of oldskool tunes that brought back so many memories and was one of the best sets of the whole week... Next up it was my turn to play and i had a bit of a knightmare with the monitors for the first half of my set but once they were sorted the rest of the set went sweet, i finally got to play my own tracks out for the very first time and was pleased that i never cleared the dance floor when i played them... after that the rest of the night was a bit of a blur due to the beer we had consumed and drinking shots...
Wednesday - 13th - Project USA night
This was probably my most wasted day of the holiday as i started drinking very early on with not much sleep, spent most of the day drinking on the beach chattin total bollox to everyone we met. Jumped in the sea and it was proper refreshing, only pisser about the beach was that there was no golden sand just a gravel beach which was a bitch to walk on for the first couple of days until our feet got used to it. by the time 8pm come i was in my hotel room chucking up the days beer and i'll as fuck due to living out of burger king and mc'donalds and having the worst case of ringsting ive ever had, what made matters worse was the fact that cos i was so pissed i missed the whole of wednesday night's event which i really wanted to see...
Thursday - 14th - Freeformation night
Having been severely pissed from the night before i awoke to the sounds of scooters racing up and down the road outside our hotel which was pretty annoying but on the plus side it was the first time in years i wasn't suffering a major hangover.. Thursday was more of the same, down to the beach to get sunburnt and drink more beer and meet up with everyone. Thursday was the one day of the week i was looking forward to the most as it was Freeformation night and musically it was definatly the best night of them all. The event kicked off with Mark Ashley kicking off precedings in the main room playing a tidy set followed by Arkitech who had the place bouncing to the sounds of freeform with the venue filling just nicely..
Midnight came and next up it was Luna C, this guy is simply amazing on the decks and played a very phat set what i saw of it as i was dragged out of the venue by Wilfee C for a short trip round the corner to the Surf bar for some lucky dip shots, after drinking ourselves silly and non stop pissing our sides laffin we went back to the club to see Sharkey smashing it on the decks with Wotsee by his side on the mic... Then it was back to the surf bar for some more crazy shots and by now wilfee looked like he was laggin as the pair of us were wankered good n proper... Missed Druids set but made it back to the club for the last set of the night which was probably the best set of the whole week, Kevin Energy & K-Komplex ripped it up with Sharkey on the mic and the whole arena was having it very large by now and when 4am came no one wanted to leave as it was going off massivly and the atmosphere in the venue was simply electric... what happened after we left the venue i aint got a clue due to being pissed but it was all good...
Friday 15th - Fusion vs Oldskool Till I Die
By friday i was finding it harder to get out of bed and go do stuff due to lack of sleep from lots of partying. Spent most of the day down on the beach and in the beach bar, and went for a drink or to in one of the pubs with all our crew, thought it was going to kick off in the pub with a load of pissed up french motherfucka's who were a disgrace to them selfes and abusing the girls who were with us and then chanting songs in french directed at us as they were dying to start a fight with us but the highlight of that was when we left the pub and stu starts singing to them there were 10 german bombers which was met with a round of applause from us all, nice 1 stu...
It was then off to the beach again to carry on where we left off and to watch the HTID football tournament on the beach. Hatty asked if i was playing and i ended up playing for the HTID team which was made up of myself, Hatty, Storm, Breeze, Rob JPS, ect.. After a minute and a half Hatty limped off injured after being clattered by Dj Breeze who was on our own team, it was probably the hardest game of football ive ever played as the beach was heavy and the tackles wern't tackles but more a case off lets kick seven shades of shit out of each other with some proper nasty tackles flying in, best tackle of the game was when i was clattered to the floor and as i picked my head up Storm was bundled over and accidently had his bollocks stamped on with a massive roar from all the ravers who were watching, we lost the game 2-0 and we went away battered and bruised with cuts on our legs, not sure who won the footy tournament as we left before it finished.
After a trip back to the hotel to shit shower and shave it was back to the club for the start Fusion vs Oldskool Till I Die, Chris Henry was smashing it in the main room when we arrived and it was very evident that there was alot of new faces in the crowd who had flown out from the UK that day, think there were approximatly 300 more ravers there that had flown out. The atmosphere inside the venue was superb and i managed to catch Dougal's set at midnight with Mc Magika. Next up it was the main man himself DJ Hixxy who played a wicked set with Storm on the mic... After Hixxy's set myself and Wilfee went back to the Surf Bar for another round of shots, and after taking pot luck on the shots menu we kept picking a shot called monkey brains and it looked evil, after knocking a few more back we went back to the venue to see Dj Sy's set only to find out he hadn't made it to spain, cant remeber who was taking his place but it was a phat set all the same... Managed to venture into the Addiction room for a bit to see Marc Smith b2b Scorpio b2b Vortex b2b Jay M which was pretty bangin and nicely done.. Once the event finished we invaded someone's hotel room but the noise was far to much so we left soon after and eventually made it back to my hotel at around 6am.
Saturday 16th - Raverbaby 6
By saturday i was starting to lag, not much sleep all week and to much beer was starting to take its toll and all i wanted was a good old english breakfast, brew and spliff. Spent the day on the beach after doing some present shopping and sniffing out the cheapest fag shop in Lloret. 200 lamberts for just 29euro's bargain... then more of the same beer beer and more beer followed by cocktails and more beer... Finally found a restuarant that served up good english grub on the sea front which was a relief due to eating out of burger king all week as there food wasn't that good and gave us the shits. Didn't do much for the rest of the day except sit in pain on the beach with purple ankles that looked like they had been spit roasted by the sun...
Went to meet up with Stu n Sally n co at there hotel ( Montavista Hotel ) only to get lost and it take me over an hour n a half to find it, sorry guys i walked past it 6 times and kept takin a right turn instead of left and nearly died from the walk round Lloret. Finally made it to the venue catching the last ten minutes of Kev Energy & Sharkeys set and the main room was completly rammed out and very hot inside.. Dont remeber much about the rest of the night apart from revisiting the surf bar with Wilfee C and gettin very wasted yet again, oh and gettin a phone call from laura freeform who was not a happy bunny after wilfee has passed out in his hotel room and locked the door and laura was unable to get in and then i got the blame for gettin Wilfee pissed lol.
Sunday 17th - HTID 22 & Foam Party
This was the final day of raving for everyone as the week was drawing to a close.. back to the beach bar and toppin up my radiation suntan, i was glowing at this point and also suffering with 3rd degree burns to my ankles, but that didn't stopped me catching more sun. Couldn't drink any more beer on sunday as i had consumed a seriously daft amount throughout the week so i stayed sober as i didnt want to miss the final nights raving. Went to the club at around 5.30pm to catch the last half hour of the foam party and by the looks of it everyone was having a mint time, especially Joey riot who was need deep in foam and having it large with the ravers. Eventually left there and off to stu's hotel to watch lewis hamilton kick arse in the motor racing
Got a taxi from Stu's hotel back to our hotel only to be stopped in our tracks by about a 1000 Real Madrid fans who were celebrating in style after they had won the spanish league title and had taken over the main roundabout in Lloret, what a sight it was to see, they were all mad, throwing fire crackers at each other and it was nothing but loud explosions and a proper party atmosphere and was the last thing i expected to see on the final night.
Eventually made it to the venue and yet again it was rammed out and probably the best atmosphere of the week but by now i was suffering with migrane headache and sunstroke and was gutted that my head couldn't take anymore so i spent most of the final night in the courtyard chattin shit with everyone. Bumped into Dj Force who i haven't seen since the days of bowlers and had a good catch up aswell as meeting loads of new faces and the main man behind the Die Hard events ( Respect geezer ), finally made it back into the venue for the last ten minutes of the event to see Hixxy absolutly smashing it in the main room, and the last ten minutes were what its all about, the ravers done themselfs proud with all the singin and chanting and it was the perfect end to a hard weeks raving.
Monday 18th - Coming Home
By now i was physically drained so i spent most of the day just wandering round Lloret and sitting on the beach with Astraboy reminising about the events of the week and catching the last of me suntan before our flight home at 10.15pm. Got picked up from our hotel at 7pm for the trip to Gerona airport and was dreading the flight home, finally got on our plane after the flight had been delayed by some 30 mins which i later found out had been caused earlier in the day when there was a security scare on one of the flights back to doncaster, also read about this in the sun newspaper the following day. Finally our flight took off and i was shittin meself as it wasn't a very nice take off and i remeber Sqaud-E asking me if i was ok as my face turned from suntan brown to pure grey with fear and a feeling of utter sickness. Finally touched down in Liverpool sometime after midnight and was relieved to be greeted by me dad who was my taxi service home..
Overall assesment of the week
Ive had the time of my life in the last 7 days and would like to thank Hixxy, Joe & Mark Lambert for what i can only describe as the most proffesional run event i have ever attended in 19 years of raving, they got it absolulty spot on despite the fact they were only managing 2hrs sleep a day, the organisation of the whole week was perfect from start to finish and considering this was the first time this had been done they deserve massive credit for it as do all the HTID staff who were out there looking after all the ravers and making sure everyone stayed safe thoughout the week.
There were a small minority of knobheads out there during the week who tried to spoil it for others but they were swiftly dealt with by the HTID team, Im already looking forward to doing it all again next year and it cant come soon enuff
Once again this was the best hardcore holiday in the world and i was proud to be a part of it.
Respect