Yesterday saw the invasion of the Dutch legend that is Armin Van Buuren at the famous Ushuaïa beach club, and let me tell you it was an absolute banging edition for the opening of A State of Trance.
Before I even entered the lavish surroundings of Ushuaïa I could already hear the steady drone of music wafting towards me on the Playa d’en Bossa strip; and as if the Pied Piper was playing, I trickled into the club with my fellow party goers following the sound of the music.
The tunes that greeted me were played by the young and talented Andrew Rayel who, at 22 years of age, has produced several hit tracks that the supers like Armin and Tiesto aren’t shy to play. And I don’t think “shy” falls into this guys vocabulary as he frantically jumped up and down in sync with the audience, and even took a minute to jump on to the DJ booth to revel in his moment of a State of Trance.
Beautiful World by Blasterjaxx & DBSTF ft. Ryder was playing and as I looked around and saw the colourful clan all dancing a long with the blue skies overhead, I couldn’t help but agree with the vocals, that it was indeed a beautiful world. Other anthems that came flying by were a selection of trance and EDM hits such as Dare You by Hardwell ft. Matthew Koma, and The Hum by Dimitri Vegas, Like Mike & Ummet Ozcan.
As expected there was a predominantly Dutch crowd in attendance, and maybe because Armin has been in the scene for so long, he also has a number of older fans happily dancing a long to the high power ballads being thrown our way. The balconies surrounding the dance floor were dotted with happy visitors who would have the honour of saying that Armin Van Buuren was playing for them in their own back yard. And speaking of Armin…
It was about that time for the man to make his appearance. The crowd surged forward and took to their phones to make sure that they would miss not even a moment of Armin van Buuren’s performance. As the eyes were all trained to the stage, all of a sudden there was a flash of light by the poolside and - what a trickster! There was the man we had all been waiting for, blonde coupe in perfect shape, arms up in the sky in his signature pose and a huge grin on his face. Instead of playing the customary shell shaped stage, Armin opted for a makeshift DJ booth right in the centre of the pool, complete with led lights and pyro technics that had the crowd ooh and ahh-ing as if on cue.
His 360° stage allowed for Armin to work the crowd from every angle, jumping and fist pumping, egging the crowd on to break the dance floor. Preparing for a nice long set he worked us from the beginning with slow but heavy hitter All Of Me - a John Legend track remixed by Tiesto - and as everyone was swaying their arms side to side, the music picked up and somewhere along I caught two Dash Berlin songs fly by Till The Sky Falls Down and Waiting ft. Emma Hewitt which the crowd went absolutely wild for. You could tell that everyone was really enjoying themselves, in awe of the trance legend.
At this point the sun had truly set, doing justice to all the Ushuaïa production work, the crazy laser shows, the led lights, the pyro technics and of course the sexily clad dancers. Armin's move to the pool booth had worked wonders and when I eventually exited stage left at close, I left with another good night out under my belt and trance anthems ringing in my ears.
WORDS | Maya Dupont PHOTOGRAPHY | Ushuaïa
