To celebrate his tens years as a DJ and producer, Armin did another Armin Only at Ahoy, with 9.5H of DJ'ing this time (9H last year). The 12,000 tickets sold out weeks in advance, but luckily, my Dutch nephew Justin, was able to find a few for me.

Since I was tired of missing the best trance parties in Holland, and that's while living next to one of the 5 US cities that at least gets some trance and visits of the best DJs once in a while, most people in the US aren't that lucky. So, I decided to start going to Holland for the top parties, and Armin Only seemed like a perfect way to start :) (yes, it was an expensive trip, but it was well worth it)



It took a while to get everyone in, even with a reasonably speedy search. I get a bit annoyed when they steal my water at the entrance to later sell me some quite tiny unsold bottles from DanceValley 2005, but whatever I guess... Eh, at least they had enough sense not to disallow cameras like at Monster Massive. Thanks for that.

My cousin Justin properly set me up for the evening :)




a few people showed up indeed, and lines went outside in the rain

For the first 3 hours, Armin hid behind a drape, and spun from behind it, probably as a way to tease the crowd a bit, and I'm sure it also gave him the opportunity to get a potty break and get something to eat, because at 01:00, 3 hours into his set, the drape went down, and he didn't go anywhere and spun for us for the next 6.5H, all the way to 07:30 (indeed totalling 9.5H).

Armin had some nice surprise guests, like Justine Suissa who performed several of her well known songs ( Burning Desire , Wall of Sound , and Sky Falls Down ). Justine just did the best performance hands down again, you could tell she had all her soul in it, and she does have an amazing voice.
That said, Isle the Lange sung a nice track, The Great Escape , and Susanna was also here, singing Shivers .

Justine Suissa is just amazing: great voice and great performances




Isle the lange


Susanna from Shivers

Of course, let's also not forget Armin's brother, Eller van Buuren, who was the first performer, and played some nice tracks on an electric guitar ( clip 2 ). Other welcome guests included Rank 1 , playing live .

Eller Van Buuren playing the guitar for us


Rank 1, playing live

Many people stayed until the end (luckily it was easy for me, because my body was still on california time, i.e. the party was more or less daytime for me). Armin finished with Words for Love , and the never dying Motorcycle, as the Rush Comes ( clip 1 , clip 2 , and clip 3 ).
Armin then went to thank the crowd as much as he could without getting mobbed (the one guy he got up on the stage with him was very enthusiastic and would almost not let Armin go :), and we headed home in a grey, overcast, morning, with memories of one of the best parties ever.
So what's all this about PvD still being #1 with his self DJ'ing laptop? Come on, Armin deserves the #1 spot already, by a long shot. He also deserves an award for being the only DJ to have done close to 300 weekly mixes. Just like ASOT 250, thanks for the last 10 years Armin, and we're looking forward to the 10 next ones, since Trance will not die :)
In a word like in a thousand: "Armin, thank you"

Anyway, you can have a look at the rest of the pictures and videos of Armin Only at Ahoy to get a small taste of the event (before you Email me to ask, the videos require the divx video plugin as microsoft video at similar bitrates is pretty poor)

While I thought to myself that the lasers and decors were poor during the first 3 hours, before the curtain went down, they were quite nice after that. Very colorful indeed




Y'all go home now, you hear? :)