Turning up at just past midnight, we park up and sort ourselves out with a few warm clothes. We'd been weather watching on the TV all day, and knew there would be a high chance of rain and a freezing cold wind. As it turns out, we were to be lucky. It only rained for a while, and that was a light shower. The wind was cold though, but we've been in far worse.
A couple of the rigs were already setup by the time we arrived. Koruppd (I've now been informed!) from Reading were the first system we came across, they pumped out an incredible bass line from their stack of speakers. Drum and Bass was played all night long. They had quite a crowd, which they managed to keep right through the night, especially as they were one of the first to get going.
Adrenalin had a smaller rig, but were first up with the techno, MC included. We stopped around here for a while, kept warm by the fire, and enjoyed the atmosphere.
Next to arrive were Panik from London. They positioned themselves right down the far end of the party. They had a small system (additions to the rig from HP21), but had made a lot of effort to make it to the site. They had also been in contact with the United Systems London phoneline people who were giving out directions to the site. Not sure how many people this enticed to come all the way out to Oxford, but at least 500-600 people were there at the peak.
A J14 rig, turned up out of nowhere, and got themselves together pretty swiftly. They played a range of tunes - Acen's 'trip to the moon' had the small crowd going when I went over for a while.
Turning up around 2am, 'Dat Sound from up the road in Oxford, started getting together a superb marquee which did a great job of keeping the wind and rain out. The crew members had to keep chucking people out of the tent, while they put together the rig. By 3.30-4am they had finally switched on, and well worth the wait. Loads of people took advantage of the shelter, and danced away to the techno coming from the huge speakers they had connected up. The legendary Easygroove played, before moving on down to the Adrenalin rig. Followed by Mr McFuzz playing a funky techno set to a rammed 'Dat Sound dancefloor. Lots of effort by the Oxford crew, big respect going out to them!
Only police presence of the night, involved a helicopter hovering over for a while, and a lone police car blocking off the main entrance for a while. Didn't worry too many people, and a few cars managed to find the back way in... which unless you have 4x4, is a nightmare.
Wicked night up on the Ridgeway, with plenty of old friends and faces coming out of the woodwork, as well as a few new ones making a surprise appearance.
Bugs
