Once we had descended into the valley we wandered through each of the arenas (there were 9 altogether).  I saw Scott Bond and Judge Jules before the relentless cheese of the Slinky tent got to me.  Jules' performance is worth special mention for his robot impression - he played a set of uplifting commercial trance with flair, although I felt like I was being sold a pair of "Limited Edition" jeans… 

We stopped for a while at The End’s two tents which presented the most ‘underground’ sounds, one housing techno, the other saw Fabio, Grooverider and posse’ mash da rhythmic disfunction ala’ Drum n’ Bass.   Wicked tunes but the sound system was a little below standard.

The afternoon wound up, the atmosphere was hot and drunk, with my friends and I embracing the vibe as the evening came on. I slid by the Chemical Bros, totally missed Fat Boy Slim, and found myself grooving to Seb Fontaine in one of the larger tents.  I was looking forward to seeing Paul Oakenfold play, with his quasi -psychedelic background (Fluoro’s MWNN, Transa, etc) and was far from disappointed.  It must have been 3 or 4 in the morning as he slid into his great black leather commanders chair, and when he dropped ‘Teleport’ I went absolutely fuckin’ nuts!  Say what you like about the guy, he was the only ‘trance’ jock there spinning tunes as we love them, the music which sears the neurons and lifts the heart into space where it streaks amongst the cosmic rays.

As the sun rose Paul Van Dyk teased the thousands with some longwinded mixes, nudging us towards the inevitable march up the hill and snoring on the train.  Cool festival - I was there with a great bunch of people which always makes the night.

12/7/1999