Cocoon In The Park

I like to think I am good at writing but I am not convinced that I can do Saturday justice.

I have been to so many Cocoon nights over the last 6 years; Ibiza (6 times), London (4 times), Birmingham (twice), and Frankfurt. And seen so many amazing DJs and performers; Loco Dice, Laurent Garnier, Steve Bug, Luciano, Onur Ozer, Len Faki, Dubfire, Ricardo Villalobos, Reboot, Minilogue, Extrawelt…and of course Sven!

During the years one by one I have introduced so many friend to Cocoon, some of whom were a little reluctant at first, but all of whom have loved it, to the point now where 15 of us quite happily travelled 200 miles to Leeds to go to Cocoon In The Park, and everyone seemingly loved every single minute of it from start to finish. And I think we gained a few more converts to the techno ways of Cocoon again!

Everything about the festival was absolutely brilliant, I loved every single minute of it!

Very important to me is the sound-system, I am used to the best; fabric, matter, Cocoon, Amnesia – and this was by far the best sound system that I have ever heard at a festival. Superb, truly superb.

What also helped was just having one stage, it meant that everyone pretty much stuck together, there was no randomly walking around losing everyone.

And the small things were perfect – such as queueing systems for the bars.

The crowd was fabulous, as all Cocoon crowds seem to be. Very musically knowledgeable, ridiculously friendly, all with huge smiles on their faces and all well-dressed, it really felt like any of them could have been a close friend – though my theory is that Cocoon is such the perfect party that everyone aspires to be as fabulous as everyone else…and as fabulous as Sven, Ricardo and all the team behind the party.

Musically my extremely high expectations were met, Adam Shelton provided a good warm-up, Loco Dice really did get me into the groove with an excellent house set – loving my house at the moment. Ricardo was then his usual brilliant self, I think he purposely lost the crowd a bit at the beginning but long ago I learnt that to get the most from Ricardo, you have to stick through the warbling bits, the calmer bit as before you know it he will take you to a whole other level. And he did. Ricardo is my second favourite DJ and probably my favourite producer so there was no chance that I was not going to come away having loved every minute.

And of course there was Sven, who predictably calmed it down for a while, before playing some real Cocoon classics from years gone by, then played almost kind of rave tracks which took me by surprise before then really slamming the techno out, much more than the last couple of times I have heard him. Predictably absolutely superb.

Finally I have to mention my amazing friends, who are like my second family who keep me sane and happy, delightfully so at times, as though I would have really enjoyed it on my own, having so many of them come to Leeds and truly enjoy it too, made it far far more special than without. And to top it all off, being a northerner having lived in Reading now for nearly 12 years, and know most of my second family for 4 years (though it seems like a lifetime), it was even more special to have taken them up north, many of whom had never been anywhere near the north, and for them to come back “wow, everyone is so friendly and talkative”…brilliant, just brilliant 🙂

Definitely the highlight of my year so far, and probably won’t be beaten until (hopefully!) Cocoon closing party in Ibiza.

Life just wouldn’t be the same without the music I love, friends I love…oh and Cocoon.

Videos to come too once I have worked out the password for my wifi connection at home! I’m hoping that they might be a bit special.