Cream has been one of the islands most talked about parties for many years now and their opening party is always a highly anticipated event. This year was no different especially as the party was held a little later than most other openings which allowed for a real level of excitement to build up in preparation for the grand opening fiesta.
Gareth Wynn began the party in the Main room with Sean Hughes tearing up the Mixmag Terrace and with a very impressive line-up continuing throughout the party the night was set to be a success from the start. Deadmau5 and AN21 & Max Vangeli continued things in the Terrace whilst Eddie Halliwell and John O'Callaghan completed the Main Room's line-up.
With the crowd slowly but surely filtering into the Main room to enjoy Gareth Wynn's set the DJ booth's display read 'Boom!' as he blasted out trancey tech sounds and dropped Roger Sanchez's track 'Another chance'. Clubbers were already wacking out the foot tap and the fists were creeping steadily up their sides into a full on pump. A little suprising but nevertheless a crowd pleaser Wynn played Emile Sandé's single 'Heaven' to which everybody joined in. As usual the lighting guy was in his own element being a strobe 'DJ' and encouraging cheers from the crowd and at one point the dance-floor even erupted with a spontaneous chorus of The White Stripes hit 'Seven nations army'.
Moving into the Terrace to check out Sean Hughes' set - who was earlier quoted saying 'playing three hours on a packed Amnesia Terrace tonight... for those that dont know what that is like, it's like a footballer playing a final at Wembley' - the pretty excited DJ and an equally as enthusiastic crowd worked together to get that famous Terrace atmosphere at an all time high. With deep bass electro pumping through the air and purple lighting surging through the crowd all you could see was a river of people with their hands in the hair glowing with the unique energy that a Cream party brings. I was personally surprised by the laser show in the Terrace last night as it steared away from an over the top strobe attack to a classy and futuristic wave of green light which formed shapes on the backdrop opposite the DJ booth.
Sean Hughes played a good selection of house and electro tracks which were infused with fruity melodic and almost circus like sounds but keeping in sync with the crowd the Cream regular dropped 'Body language' by M.A.N.D.Y, 'Calabria' by Rune and 'Les Djinns/Walk a mile in my shoes' by Coldcut and Djuma Soundsystem. Bringing his set to a close Sean Hughes took a more uptempo turn making way for the evenings headline act... Deadmau5.
As the clock struck quarter to 3 the crowd turned and Deadmau5 plus his amazing production entered the stage in a pretty dramatic way. A black curtain which had been draped over the opposite stage to Sean Hughes was lifted and the man the crowd had all been waiting for began pumping out some hard hitting electro beats accompanied by a jaw dropping visual feast of lights, flashing lasers, the infamous mouse head and a pulsating bassline. Words flashed across displays and the customised Deadmau5 DJ booth flicked from a rubix cube to a lump of cheese from track to track. Deadmau5 continued to bob his head and wave to the crowd throughout the set and the whole Terrace was packed within minutes. With a true Deadmau5 army stopping to his hard bass electro beats infused with sounds from other genres such as Dubstep; he played a mixture of old and new and the fists were out in full force as he smashed 'Arguru' out of the speakers. The whole set was fast paced and exciting and made the way for a wicked night.
AN21 & Max Vangeli then took over from Deadmau5 and took the party into the early hours with their proggressive electro style whilst Eddie Halliwell continued the equally as exciting party in the Main room. Unfortunately Paul Van Dyk was unable to attend so Eddie alongside John O'Callaghan had to take care of the trance heads for the latter part of the night and boy they did good. Dropping 'Bullet in the gun' by Planet Perfecto Eddie Halliwell had the crowd pulsing with good old trance euphoria.
Cream as usual pulled another banging opening party out of the bag and catered to both the electro enthusiasts and the trance troops. During the season they will be bringing back Laidback Luke's Super You&Me parties to the Terrace as well as a Main room take over by Above & Beyond's Anjunabeats imprint and with their 18th birthday in sight this season is bound to go off!
