On November 11th I visited my first REBELLiON. The festival of the organizer Rebirth Events took place under the motto „One With The Tribe“. What I experienced there and why the festival will not be missing from my party schedule from now on, can be read in my review.
From 11:30 am to midnight on November 11th, 2022 you could party to the sets of over 35 different Rawstyle acts at two stages: the REBELLiON Mainstage and the Reborn Raw. With over 12 hours, REBELLiON is the longest „indoor“ day event I know and have ever been to.
A whole day of just Rawstyle
At REBELLiON the whole spectrum of Rawstyle was represented. – From „Euphoric“-Rawstyle acts like B-Front and Vertile to current scene stars like Malice, Bloodlust, Rebelion, or Riot Shift to DJs who usually only play at smaller parties.
This fact particularly appealed to me, because I had already seen the „big acts“ a few times this year. So I was especially looking forward to DJs like Exproz, Kruelty, or Adjutz vs. Element, whose sets I had never partied to before, and Unresolved because I haven’t seen any of his sets this year so far. So for me, the line-up didn’t leave any wishes open but rather fulfilled some.
The stages were hosted by MC Livid and MC Flo. I liked the booked MCs very much and in my opinion, they were fitting to the DJs.
The special features of the REBELLiON location
Unlike any other daytime event during fall or winter, REBELLiON festival was held in tents. – Yes, you read that right: Rebirth Events had extra tents set up and did not book an existing indoor venue.
Luckily the tents were heated, so you didn’t have to freeze inside. And certainly not on the second stage, because the sweat there was literally dripping from the tent ceiling at some spots sometimes later that day.
Only the locker and the smoking areas were outside but still covered. – Perfect to cool down and get some fresh air after an exhausting Klaplong session.
Everything you need besides the music….
The two stages were connected by a bigger „lounge tent“. There you could find everything your physical well-being desires at a festival: token counters, a food court with a bunch of food stands (even with liquid food), seating, one of the bars, and the merchandise booth.
Additionally, a nostalgic chain carousel in the middle of the „connecting tent“ offered some extra fun. Right at the beginning, I challenged myself to the carousel experience and did the amusement ride for one token. I felt a little bit sick afterward. So I wouldn’t necessarily advise those with weak stomachs to do something like that at a festival, especially not at a late hour. Nevertheless, I found it a fun idea and also visually enhancing.
No free drinking water
What I missed, however, was free drinking water! Unfortunately, there was no free tap water stand, nor were there any decent sinks. You had to operate the „water taps“ with a foot pedal. At the end of the day, not even water came out there anymore, only air.
Fortunately, there were enough bars, so I never had to wait long for my water. Still, all that water was quite a drain on my wallet. For an event that lasted more than 12 hours, I really expected to get some free water.
My personal highlights
The festival featured some exciting sets, such as The Brootherhood premiere, and Rejecta pres. The Keymaker or the last time of Rebelion presents Overdose. If I would write about all the specials, this article would probably be half a novel, so here’s an overview of my three highlights:
Element vs. Adjuzt at Reborn Raw
One „vs.“ I hadn’t seen before and was really looking forward to was the one between Element and Adjuzt. They played at 9:30 p.m. as the third last act on the Reborn Raw. After a crowded The Purge set, there was finally enough room to klaplong extensively during their set.
I had the time of my life, as well as Element and Adjuzt obviously. The two smiled almost continuously during their set, while they played their banger tracks such as the Decibel Tool or In my Zone, and also presented new ones. The atmosphere and energy were at a high level. Especially at the end of the set, when they played Adjuzts track „OUTRAGE“ and therefore co-producer Exproz joined them on stage.
The Anthem Maker E-Force on the Mainstage
One of my highlights of the day was also the set of the Anthem maker E-Force on the mainstage. He opened his set directly with the anthem and brought the co-producer Dissary on stage during the track. The visuals, which were shown on the huge LED walls paired with the fireworks and many colorful lasers created a truly spectacular, goosebump-causing feeling! I could hardly take my eyes off these impressive visuals and really felt a bit like I was in the jungle…
In the middle of his set E-Force even surprisingly played an uptempo track already. After that came to a lot of tracks with relatively dull and partly somewhat same-sounding kicks. However, E-Force then ended his set with a bang – namely the Dimitri K edit of his track Seven. This was featured by another impressive laser show, this time in every color you can imagine. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many lasers in different colors at once in my life….
The first REBELLiON Uptempo Closing ever
Rebirth Events decided for the first time to close REBELLiON with an Uptempo Hardcore set. Dimitri K and Deadly Guns had the honor to play the last set of the evening. – In my opinion, an interesting combination that I hadn’t seen anywhere before. So this B2B was one of the sets I was looking forward to the most that day. And for a good reason!
They filled the stage even at 11:30 p.m., 12 hours after the start of the festival, and completely freaked out the crowd! I don’t know where I got my energy to dance after this day… Probably my favorite Dimitri K tracks, like Stop the boat, Master, or Fresh new kicks, just didn’t let me stand still.
So in my opinion, the hard closing was definitely the right decision of Rebirth Events and a worthy end to an absolutely awesome festival!
Admission stop to the Reborn Raw
One of the „must-see sets“ for me would have actually been The Purge. However, I unfortunately, didn’t had the chance to see it from the beginning.
That was because already 10 minutes before the start, nobody was allowed on the Reborn Raw as it was too crowded there. Fraw had already filled the whole stage during his 30-minute set. But even more people wanted to see The Purge’s set…
So a huge crowd formed in front of the entrance of Reborn Raw. After about 20 minutes of waiting, the security finally let smaller groups of people and at some point luckily also me onto the stage.
Of course, I was very sad that I couldn’t see the whole The Purge set. Nevertheless, I thought it was very good that the security intervened in time. When I finally got inside, I also noticed that the organizers and security had done their job well. – The second area was already well-filled, but it wasn’t too uncomfortably crowded.
The part of The Purge’s set I caught was definitely worth the wait and quickly turned my sadness of waiting in line go to into an incredibly euphoric energy for dancing. The Purge really got everyone in the crowd stomping with some of his recently released and already popular „Trippin tracks“ like Trippy Space (currently #4 on hardstyle.com) or also with exciting edits of for example my favorite trance track Exploration of space.
Furthermore, he even brought Omnya on stage when he played the ID „Down the rabbit hole“. For the track that he played afterwards another fellow DJ, Griever joined them all on stage too.
What a great festival that was!
You probably know this feeling from some festivals: After a long exhausting day everything hurts and you just want to go home and sleep. But have you ever experienced that you get into the car, bus, or train after a event and think something like this to yourself: „WTF – how fucking sick was that„; „Life can be so beautiful“ or „Can we please start the day all over again„? That’s how I felt on Saturday because I could hardly get out of my grin and just didn’t want to leave yet.
And I was probably not the only one. Most of the other visitors, as well as the DJs and even the bar staff, could tell how much fun they were having and that they really love and feel the music. Even during relatively „soft sets“ like the one by B-Front, people were busy kick-rolling, klaplonging, and animating each other to dance. The DJs heated up the crowd and even partied in the crowd themselves.
Besides the wide selection of Rawstyle acts and the specials organized by Rebirth Events, the atmosphere made the whole event a highlight of the year for me.
So if you are into Rawstyle, awesome visuals, and show effects as well as long parties, you should definitely go to REBELLiON next year!
Another event I recently attended was Welcome to the Gang. Read all about Rooler and Sickmode’s first event here.
