Awakenings came to Manchester last mobth.. we went up to check out it!
No one does techno like Awakenings. The Dutch festival is known around the world for putting on incredible line-ups that bring together every producer, DJ and live act worth his or her salt. As well as that, the festival is celebrated for having an incredible attention to detail when it comes to production. It means every stage they put on is resplendent with mind bending visuals, lights and lasers and so much more.
Closer to home, Manchester has always been a place for real, raw techno to play out in the industrial areas of the city. The many forgotten mills and warehouses all make great settings for techno parties, and so it was that Awakenings decided to exploit that fact recently when they made the trip across the channel to Victoria Warehouse. The date for this was February 6th, and the party ran from 9pm to 6am, which was more than enough time to get fully lot in the many different musical offering as well as explore the different spaces on offer.
Those doing so were a super cool and in the know selection of people from around the Uk and further failed, Some were in proper rave gear and fully dressed down, whilst some made more effort There were plenty of women, too, meaning this was not some macho sausage fest. Everyone was friendly and felt pulled together as one to share this rare techno treat on such a large scale.
Each different space was kitted out with a killer sound system that really made the most of every DJ’s distinctive style. For us an early highlight was catching Rebekah dropping some supple sounds in Room V. In fact this room was the one that stood out all night long for its clued up, truly underground sound. After rebekah came ginger man Rodhad, who upped the ante and raised the sweat levels without ever going too mad. Later in this room, Dave Clarke, Chris Liebing and Speedy J all played, but we headed to catch some of Soma artist and Glaswegian Gary Beck’s set, which was awash with big synths and a dubby undercurrent that got lots of hands in the air.
For our final stint we headed to catch some of Paco Osuna. He is a big Spanish techno talent with EPs on labels like Minus and his loopy, infectious, futuristic sound was high energy enough to keep us going until sun up. Many other also stayed to the death, which was testament to the fact that this was such a well programmed party with something for everyone. Here’s hoping it becomes a regular thing each and every year.