Thousands of festivalgoers, decked-out from head to toe in white, made there way to Spotless Stadium in Sydney Olympic Park for Sensation: Celebrate Life.
The festival originated in the Netherlands in 2000, and has since made its way to five continents and 34 nations. The event was promoted as "Australia's biggest open-air nightclub".
The dress code was tight and specific: if you weren't dressed completely in white ("no beige, brown or grey, regardless of the shade"), you wouldn't be let in whether or not you had a valid ticket. The colour white is supposed to celebrate unity and promote togetherness, and it looked pretty cool too!
Holding the festival at this stadium meant the benefit of facilities like real toilets (as well as portaloos), but there were nowhere near enough bars. Punters had to wait up to an hour for a drink and the selection was limited, to say the least. Lines were short for food outlets and options were pretty good, although these obviously resembled the range you'd get at a sporting event.
There was only one stage, but it was over 88 metres wide and this supposedly made it the biggest outdoor festival stage in Australia's history. A string of Dutch DJs were the first big acts to take to that stage - Amsterdam duo Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano, Put Your Hands Up 4 Detroit producer Fedde Le Grand and Oliver Heldens. The weather was perfect — warm with blue skies — and the stadium looked like the closest thing to an outdoor Ibiza club that you could get in Sydney.
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English EDM producer Gareth Emery played his first-ever Sensation event. The crowd sang along as he played one of his biggest tracks U, which features English singer-songwriter Bo Bruce. His set consisted of EDM staple Darude's Sandstorm, some psytrance beats and a remix of Ed Sheeran's Castle On The Hill.
Confetti cannons kicked off the start of Dutch DJ Don Diablo's set as people made their way to the front of the stage. It was nice to see flags of different countries as well as pride flags stand out against the sea of white at this event, which is about celebrating unity. Diablo played remixes of a few well-known tracks including DJ Snake's Let Me Love You (feat Justin Bieber) and Avicii's Wake Me Up.
Towards the end of his set there was a bit of drama as 20-or-so police officers ran to an area just outside one of the VIP area, where three officers pinned down a man who was shaking, bleeding from the mouth with a gash across his forehead. Security kept the large group of people who began gathering around the scene back, no one really knowing what had happened.
Sensation's resident DJ Mr White's set was announced with white smoke in the middle of the stadium. The DJ, painted entirely in white, played a short half-hour set made up of some sweet house and tech-house tracks including a cool version of Disclosure's Latch (feat Sam Smith).
The music stopped and silence fell over the stadium as anticipation grew for Canadian producer Deadmau5. The sun began setting just in time to get the full effect of his iconic visuals. The mouse-masked DJ appeared in his signature Cube 2.0, which he'd brought with him all the way to Australia. Ambient synths that seemed to be building up to something played out throughout the stadium, but never evolved into something bigger. His set was pretty subdued overall and the crowd didn't dance much for the first half as there were little to no rhythmic beats; instead, they stood around captivated by the insanely cool lights and visuals.
Security closed the still-half-empty moshpit area shortly after Deadmau5's set started, which left people fairly annoyed. The vibe was lifted as Deadmau5 played his big hit Ghosts 'N' Stuff and people began moving and getting into it. He began mixing in some dubstep elements towards the end of his set, which was an interesting addition, before thanking everyone for having him with, "It's been a pleasure and a privilege".
There was a prolonged technical changeover and the Showtek set started late (which would prove problematic later on). After an attempted, "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie," chant failed, Mr White came back out and played some Flume and Yeah Yeah Yeahs to keep the crowd hyped.
Fireworks announced Showtek's arrival to the decks as they launched into a remix of Show Me Love by Robin S. Impressive laser lights, confetti, Co2 jets and giant, white inflatable balls enhanced the atmosphere in the stadium. The crowd got particularly excited when the Dutch duo played Men At Work's Down Under and their collab with David Guetta and Vassy, Bad.
They stopped the tunes to ask the Sydney crowd how they were feeling before playing some old-school hip hop in the form of Kris Kross' Jump, some new hip hop in the form of Kendrick Lamar's HUMBLE. and their collab with Major Lazer, Believer. Showtek spoke about how beautiful it was to see everyone coming together as one, dressed in white, before appeasing hardstyle fans and giving them something to finally gabber or hack to with Booyah.
Fluorescent gloves were handed out to everyone prior to Belgian brothers Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike's set, which they built-up to with some pyrotechnics and a Kanye West track. They were incredibly entertaining and had 30,000-plus people stomping, clapping and singing along to Queen's We Will Rock You.
Before the event, it was boasted that one million dollars would be spent on production, that there would be over 1,000 individual pyrotechnic shots, over 23 Co2 jets and the release of over 200 kilos of confetti and streamers, but the crowd - a sea of people dressed in matching white - turned out to be the biggest visual spectacle.
The stadium's seats audibly rattled with the heavy sub bass as they played remixes of retro game songs, Crazy Frog and No Doubt's Don't Speak.
At about five minutes before 11pm, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike took to the mics and announced that they'd been told they needed to cut the music, but as the earlier acts had run late they hadn't yet finished their set. They asked the crowd to "take it to the next level" so they wouldn't stop the music, but right on 11pm the sound, including their mics, was cut. The crowd kept singing the track hoping that it would continue, but as the stadium lights came on the singing turned into loud booing.
It was an event that was hyped up a lot, ticket prices were high and a lot was promised, but some punters felt a lot was under-delivered and were left sensationally underwhelmed.
