Seven years ago, the Vooruit concert hall in Gent saw the start of the first  event. In those days, Daft Punk, Richie Hawtin and Jeff Mills attracted some 700 techno fans whose reactions were overwhelming and meant the beginning of the hype. One year later, we increased the amount of tickets to 3400, which were all sold out weeks before the actual event took place.

In no time the  event came apart at the seams, forcing it to move to the much bigger halls of Flanders Expo, also in Gent. There the event continued to grow, becoming as such the biggest techno festival in Europe. With 35.000 visitors, the latest edition, which took place at 10th November 2001, was completely sold out again weeks beforehand, being the temporary high point in the  saga. We prefer quality to quantity, so this year we deliberately chose again not to expand our capacity. If you want to get in, make sure you buy your ticket weeks in advance.

But what's the difference between  and those many other festivals that in the meantime have been added and try to claim their place under the techno sun (or rather the techno moon)?
The main difference is, without a doubt, the fact that time and time again the programme knows how to combine leading techno figures with techno newcomers. Last edition saw storming sets of Green Velvet, and Sven Väth, but less known artists such as Christian Varela, Umek and Chris Liebing also made a great impression. All of them great artists who know how to combine a DJ career with a production career. There are thousands of good DJs trying to make a name by sending tapes and delivering creditable work in the local dance temples, but only a few of them have the gift to also produce hit records that make a dance floor set alight.

Besides, we don't want to be a festival presenting 'more than 100 DJs and live acts'. We'd rather let nearly all the artists in the five halls play 2-hour gigs so they can tell a story and have the time to build up their set. Giving a top DJ a 45 minute set is simply ridiculous and has only one goal: bringing together as many artists as possible into one line-up.

And finally: each year we take our time to thoroughly listen to the visitors' reactions. In fact, they tell us how they really experience the  event. By listening to them and taking into account their reactions we succeeded, year after year, to make each new edition better than the previous one: we stay working on a sufficiently large cloakroom, enough drinking stands, enough toilets, as short as possible waiting periods for entering. Those are just details for someone quietly sitting in the VIP room, but for the visitors these are pretty important details that can help turning the event into a real party.

Besides, we don't want to be a festival presenting 'more than 100 DJs and live acts'. We'd rather let nearly all the artists in the five halls play 2-hour gigs so they can tell a story and have the time to build up their set. Giving a top DJ a 45 minute set is simply ridiculous and has only one goal: bringing together as many artists as possible into one line-up.

And finally: each year we take our time to thoroughly listen to the visitors' reactions. In fact, they tell us how they really experience the  event. By listening to them and taking into account their reactions we succeeded, year after year, to make each new edition better than the previous one: we stay working on a sufficiently large cloakroom, enough drinking stands, enough toilets, as short as possible waiting periods for entering. Those are just details for someone quietly sitting in the VIP room, but for the visitors these are pretty important details that can help turning the event into a real party.

If the artists are satisfied and the visitors are satisfied as well, the  event can be called a success. And we are working hard on it for the next edition. You could be surprised …

Keep on Loving!
The  crew
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