It!, Valley Forge Convention Center, Valley Forge, PA May 24, 1997 It! was an incredible party music wise, other things were less well. Let me highlight the good things first! The music at the party was simply incredible - no matter what room you chose to be in. I got to hear a whole bunch of talent for the first time and some others that I have not heard for a while. I was in the main room for most of the time. Stacey Pullen pulled an amazingly tight and playful funky mix - I really loved all his jazzy mixes along with the classic detroit techno Casjere / Green Velvet was wearing his crazy green wig, and putting out some incredible sounds - lots of classics - I really enjoy live PAs as they can be so smooth and flowing - letting the artist have full control on the mood and feeling of his set Sadly missed Mark Farina as he is one of my favorite DJs, but I hadn't memorized the lineup times from the flyer (props for listing the times and STICKING fairly reliably to them during the party) Robert Hood was another fun minimal technoish DJ The No U-Turn live PA set was hard and crunchy, sadly didn't spend enough time there, but it was hard with the competition of Stacey Pullen / Green Velvet and Robert Hood Josh Wink's set was good, but I think I prefered the last time I heard him here in NYC at Vinyl The night came to an end for me finally in the House room listening to the warm sounds of Dante - I really enjoy his "instrument" instrumental style house and the slightly less hectic BPMs with the bright sounds made for an excellent wrap up set. The visuals and lights were absolutly top notch. I prefer a darker dance floor, but scrims were set up in the ceiling making for double projections and spaces for laser reflection - quite nice animations and designs. Also the sound was okay - best near the speakers and really never too loud. The only time I popped my ear plugs in was at the very end of the party while in the House room. I was impressed by the very little bleed through between the rooms as they were right next to each other... --- Bad news: - ticket holder's line which moved a couple of steps every 20/30 minutes? untilthey just started letting us in - plus having us wait on an incline essentially setting up an early demise for my feet. No organization on the lines - the promoters essentially let people figure it out. These weren't lines, rather crowds - which can be fun for meeting and talking, but when you don't know if you'll get in. Plus no beats to be heard while on line. - Once inside more lines just to get into the freaking rooms of music - whats up with that? Also people were shoulder to shoulder and pushing and thats plain scary. The promotors either need to sell less tickets in the future, or try and help provide some order as the crowd took you where you went not where you would want to go at first. - Worst of all were the slick convention center floors - after about the first 2.5 hours or so of dancing I was dead - essentially had to sit until the end of the night when I finally got back to serious dancing - but its not so fun, while the music was excellent and good to just listen to - such quality calls for serious dancing! And had a few near slips because of the humidity and slickness of the floor - thats no fun - this list seems too long, but I'll wrap up soon! ;) not many places to sit The party was TOO big - I knew a lot of you were there, but I did not see that many, and those I saw I maybe ran into once and sadly did not see later. Oh well, next time :) Overall the music quality was excellent, but I doubt I'll go to another party at the Valley Forge Convention Center, unless I just intend to listen to the music - the atmosphere and floors were not extremely condusive to dancing - I guess I can understand all the sitting in the techno room (although it looked like more people were dancing in the other rooms...) I was impressed by the fact techno was giving top billing after all the primarily house parties I've been to. So for music Quality A+, but Other conditions D