Well that was truly remarkable! Awakenings as a rave has been delivering the finest techno music since its inception almost 20 years ago. The Dutch sure know how to throw a party and the first edition in Manchester lived up to the high expectations surrounding it. As a location I could not think of a better place in Manchester than Victoria Warehouse.

The huge red brick Victorian warehouse seemed barely touched since the day it was built. It had a very honest feel to it. The perfect place for techno. You could really sense the excitement as the queue was filling up. As we entered the techno temple you could feel just how much effort had gone into creating a magical sensation with visual effects and artist selection.

Area V hosted Rebekah who got going with some thumping techno. The Birmingham DJ started the night as it was meant to go on. As I walked into the room I couldn’t quite believe the size of the floor, even more so the size of the stage! It felt like I was in the middle of a large festival rather than an indoor rave. Lasers beaming in all the colours of the rainbow perfectly leading up to the drop, it was truly mesmerising.

Up next to grace the decks was Berlin based Rødhåd. As the gigantic stage was lighting up the whole room you could really see the pure enjoyment this brilliant DJ was creating through the decks. Techno euphoria.

At 00:45 it was time for the Baron of Techno, Britain’s Dave Clarke. With Clarke’s opening track, the lighting engineer completely lit the room with a bright green laser breaking into a strobe light effect as the drop of ‘The Advent & Industrialyzer – F Da Switch’ sent everybody into jubilation. It was our first time seeing Dave Clarke live and we sure hope it wont be the last.

At 01:45 Israel’s Guy Gerber finally stepped onto the stage and took us onto a wonderful journey of minimal techno. We couldn’t help but be reminded of DC10, Ibiza.

A highlight of Guy Gerber’s set was the mind blowing track ‘No Distance- Guy Gerber & Dixon’. The dancefloor was in pure ecstasy.

The time had finally come that we had been waiting for. The Irishman Gavin Lynch AKA Matador stepped into the limelight. We have been admiring this extraordinary producer and DJ since he first signed for Richie Hawtin’s ‘M-nus’ label.

He has well and truly taken the techno scene by storm in the past three years. After Gerber had left the crowd absolutely buzzing, Matador really pulled something special out his collection for the first track of his live set, ‘The Enemy’.

Not a single person was left standing still in Area W. It was then we knew that he had set the tone for the rest of his set. Beats thumping in his typical fast paced and hypnotic style he was playing mostly his own productions.

A personal highlight was his hard hitting remix of the the Chemical Brothers ‘it began in Africa’. The basic vocals perfectly suiting the deep, minimal techno baseline. A very distinct M-nus trait. We didn’t stand still for the entire hour long set.

Overall Awakenings absolutely exceeded the already high expectations. Having already seen so many aftermovies and heard many stories, but nothing prepared us for such a fantastic party!