Timewarp 2012 experience and advice for 2013

[Rockstar]

This year was my first trip to timewarp and I was very impressed with my trip from start to finish. Our group flew to frankfurt on the friday and also stayed in frankfurt. On the friday night we made a decision to go to the cocoon club for the pre party with Sven Vath and Gaiser which wasn't what some of our group had planned but turned out to be a great night.

On the Saturday after getting our heads straightened out from the previous night and getting ready for timewarp, we decided to catch the train to Mannheim as it was free for people traveling to timewarp. After arriving in Mannheim we found our only option was to get taxis from the station and we got there around 1am. There was hardly a queue as most people would of already been in by this time and we headed straight for floor 4 where Davide Squillace was playing. This was a good way to start our night as his set was brilliant.

After Squillace we went to see Jamie Jones who I thought was good but after listening to a few recent sets I thought he could of been better. After a few discussions within our group as to who to see next we had a split, half went to Carl Cox and half went to Loco Dice. Whilst im told Loco Dice probably played the best set this year I was happy with my choice to see Carl Cox who can be abit unpredictable at times but really impressed me with a hard style set similar to how he plays on his Tuesday nights at space.

After watching a quite average set from Marco Carola we then headed for Visionquest which was the set I really wanted to see the most. I don't think it is unfair to say it was a big let down especially from Seth Troxler who seemed more interested in getting wrecked rather than playing a decent set. His mixing was way off and he made the needle slip off the vinyl twice. At one point, towards the end, no one was dancing, he was a big disappointment!

The last set for me was the best by a long way. Richie Hawtin played one of the best sets I have heard in a long time. If you can find it on the net I would recommend it to anyone. He kept me going despite feeling abit worse for wear as the end approached. As we were staying in Frankfurt we could not make the after party which probably was a good thing as most of us just wanted to get some sleep by this point. Overall I could not of been happier with my timewarp experience and all of my group fancy returning next year. Does anyone have any advice about what to do differently next year? Would anyone recommend staying in Mannheim? Is there any other pre parties apart from cocoon? What did you think of your own trip this year? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

 

[TM78]

rockstar, where you from? was our first trip to timewarp as well, we flew from aberdeen to frankfurt on the friday, stayed in frankfurt (booked hotel the 3 nights), train to mannheim on the saturday, then back to frankfurt on the sunday night, then flight back to aberdeen on the monday afternoon....

just done my wee review to people about our first night in frankfurt and our trip to cocoon as well....


So frankfurt on the Friday night, off we set to cocoon for sven vath & gaiser (we had pre book tickets which were €13 (with the booking fee, it was 18€ on the door), got a taxi from train station up to cocoon which was in the middle of nowhere (probably has to be for the noise/crowds), was about after 12ish, hardly any q so in we went, place was quite busy inside though, would fill up to create a great atmosphere inside (although don't think it was sold out and wasn't too busy to be a put off) from the outside the club looks more like an office complex (a fancy german one mind you), inside it does look the business though, the whole 'cocoon' / underwater/alien type décor, corridors look like something from star treklol which ciricle round the main dance area..you go into the dance part, there are raised sections with female dancers, decked out in the kind of Cocoon Heroes futoristic outfits, the dj booth hangs over the floor below like a big pod (there is also an opportunity to sit under the dj booth, lounge back which is pretty cool)...crazy amount of lights/strobes, some video screens and CO2 cannons that go off...at times you cant see anything just a blur of smoke & white light...but its actually rather refreshing and cools you down!...when we went in, Vath was on (think he might have just started, he would end up playing til about 3:45)..crowd was very international with loads of people seemingly doing same as us, stopping off in frankfurt then off to timewarp next day...loads of italians, probably more italians than germans in the place...was a few scottish/irish & english as well...music from vath was excellent, light house to begin with then a good house/techno mix for the big finish the last 1hr/1hr 30
Vath finished then on came gaiser, but he was playing from a separate area to the side of the main dj booth...he started ok, but combination of his more minimal techno sound, people seemingly just there for vath (and maybe saving themselves for timewarp), seen the place begin to slowly empty...cocoon was on til 7 I think but as it came round to about 5 decided to go try our luck at Robert johnson where magda & marc houle were playing, got outside, and got in with a 3 italins who were for the same destination so got a cab over there with them...they did forget to mention that they were on the guest list for robert johnson so got in....we didn't!!...ended up being the only slight negative the whole trip that we never got in, girl on the door was a bit off with us, gave us some line about members only, needing a 'green card' to get in...a german guy out having a fag came over and tried to be a bit more diplomatic about our knockback, which just seemed to anger the woman on the door even more...she was not a happy camper this girl....so that was the end of that, no robert johnson for us...maybe next year..got back about to hotel about 6ish I think so pretty early finish to the first nightlol
Overall, bar robert johnon kb, excellent first night, cocoon is definitely a club im glad ive been too, very impressive , & sven vath totally rocked the place..a great warmup for the next day & onwards to timewarp

 

[Rockstar]

We flew from Manchester and we stayed just out of the centre of Frankfurt in an area called Offenbach. Our hotel was just round the corner from Robert Johnson's but we also had trouble getting in, a woman bouncer said it was guestlist only sounds like we bumped into the same person (the door where the small ramp is?). I know for a fact she was lying though as some people I know got in and they wernt on the guestlist. Just think they pick and chose who they want to let in, can't see what the problem is though it's quite clear tourists are more than likely there for timewarp and the music. I thought cocoon was great anyway you have given a good detailed description of the night I didnt realise till after that when Gaiser had come on he was playing on the right hand side and I was still looking upto the pod area where Sven played, one too many vodkas and the rest I think. Dont know if your group noticed but there was an R+B room round the back of the Dance floor which I thought was abit strange considering the music policy over that particular weekend. I would've thought a resident would of played in there as it was pretty well set out with alot of space for a 'back room'. When you walked round the club through the corriders it was just after the chill out bit. Who did you see at timewarp?

 

[cherryman]

we headed straight for floor 4 where Davide Squillace was playing. This was a good way to start our night as his set was brilliant.

For me the master of the night!!

If someone know the song around 1h05 in his set (see link below), it would be the bomb!
http://soundcloud.com/livesetsdjmixes/davide-squillace-live-time

We went also from friday but did a small pre-party in the 'gastenhaus' & since we went to bed pretty early, we did some sightseeing saturday. Around 8 pm we left for the walk to the trainstation and there we took a tram to Maimarkthalle. We did Hobo, Digweed, Dettmann, Dubfire, Squillace, Vath, Magda & Visionquest. Left around 6 with a cab back to the hotel.

For me it was also the first time, but 100% sure not the last, the only thing I regret I could not stay any longer because of my sick friend; he went to the toilet every 10 min. or so. Good atmosphere, great deco & lights on all the floors. Litteraly didn't stood still for longer then 2 min. Thinking of going to Italy also now...

 

[TM78]

timewarp8)8)

So Feeling fresh after an early-ish night & some good hours sleep after Cocoon, got train from Frankfurt to Mannheim before 8pm, train was only 40mins, and you get the train covered as part of your Timewarp ticket so its free just outside Mannheim train station is the tram stop so got tram from there to the Maimarkthalle centre where timewarp is held (again the tram is free as part of your timewarp ticket), expected it to be mobbed, but it was ok, only took about 15mins and dropped you off right across from the exhibition space.

Up til this point the weather had been pretty good, but was getting really cold as got dark, queue to get into the arena wasn't too bad (no police / sniffer dogs (never seen any police in timewarp the whole time we were there). was light searches, mainly of bags.....and that was it...into Timewarp!!!..reckon it was about 9:45 by time we got in....from here on, pretty much buzzing about the whole night, never sat down once until we left about 2:45pm on the Sunday!

So tried to find our bearings to begin with, for some reason I thought it was all indoors, but you had to leave the main hall (where floors 1,2 & 3 were connected) to come outside to access floors 4, 5, 6, the locker areas, food station & first aid parts...most of the toilet portacabins were outside as well...to begin with it was freezing but eventually you kind of got used to the cold after a wee dance about.

Also got our drink (food) tokens, a token was really 2€...so most drinks worked out 4€ unless you wanted spirits, water was 1.5 tokens. they had a recycling refund system in place, so meant (unless you wanted to keep paying an extra .05 tokens) you had to hold on to your cup/bottle/can until next time you went to the bar...personally that would provide a bit annoying for me, as I switched between drinking water, red bull cola/ red bull blueberry (really nicelol...still I suppose it did cut down on the amount of rubbish and you weren't dancing about on a sea of plastic cups by the end of the night

Got locker organised, 13€ for a 'big locker (which weren't that big, you get the key so can come & go as you please which proved handy, (you get 5€ deposit back on these at end of the night) stored bags and jackets and then off we went on a wander, had went with a notion of seeing HOBO live , but proved too late for him, so first person we heard anything of was Paul Ritch in Floor 1, never actually seen him as got distracted by the merchandise, decided to buy it there and then, get it out the way (then see what money had left afterwardslol...so after buying a few things, returned them to the locker, then back, ended up going into Floor 2, John Digweed was on, though he was really good, he was driving on to the climax of his set, so good atmosphere in the room, plus gave a good opportunity to really take in the décor, lights, setting....floor 2, looked and sounded amazing, Timewarp certainly put some effort into the production of this (and indeed all the areas)...the place looked fantastic, the visuals, lights, strobes, everything...first class indeed....stayed a while @ digweed then decided to cut through into floor 1 (despite only being a short interconnecting walkway between the two floors, was no sound distortion/pollution between the rooms...the sound engineering really was on form (German efficiency?)

Marcel Dettmann was on...again, was another opportunity to take in the sight of the packed area, and different minimal /harder sound from digweed next door, was enjoyable, but think notion to check out the whole place took over so then went on a tour round the other areas to see what they were like, first into floor 3 where Dorian Paic was on, I quite enjoyed what we saw, and would be back for his finish before Garnier came on, floor 3, was excellent space I thought, the visuals in there , excellent, with the kind of Water Gate/ceiling lights going, really was impressive...down to floor 4 where Tini was on, sounded ok, but for me floor 4 was the least impressive of the areas and didn't spend that much time in there, tried to get into floor 5 at that point but it was too busy, floor 5 was a glasshouse/observatory building and looked amazing from the outside, was only one way into it, and with a bar in between as well, so always seemed crowded.

Back into floor 3 to see start of Garnier, garnier would end up being one of my highlights of the night....just brilliant, the LBS project has made it a lot more interesting again, he was so good at the Arches last year, but in timewarp, just total new level, and again with the amazing lighting etc...so good was Garnier, ended up staying a lot longer than had bargained for, so missed Maetrik who I'd fancied seeing, but don't regret that, eventually moved through to Floor 1 to catch a bit of Sven Vath, mainly as he was so good in Cocoon the night before, wanted to see how it came across in Timewarp, again it was short but sweet visit to see Sven, then into Carl Cox next door in Floor 1.

Off to Floor 6 for the first time then for Jamie Jones, who I thought was really good, room wasn't as busy as I expected though, stayed for a good while at him, then off to see Magda in Floor 4...magda, was ok , nothing special I though, so headed into Floor 5 for the first time to check that out, so finally got into the room this time, karotte was on, really nice space, it was getting light 6/7am, ended up on the raised platform in the middle of the room, pretty cool looking about , huge mirror ball on the ceiling glitteringlol

Back to floor 6 (I think floor 6 was my favourite area, cool space, nice décor, good music, what's not to like?...visionquest....for me, another highlight, I really like their sound, and got into it, was it perfect djing mixing on display? Hardlylol And troxler & co. were poncing about a bit too much...but they got away with it, troxler also dropped my favourite tune of the moment (as did sven vath in cocoon the night before & in his set at timewarp) inner city - future (Kenny Larkin tension mix)...., visionquest were scheduled to finish at 10, but pretty sure they went off around 9ish.

Kevin saunderson in floor 3 (who was totally banging it out...the bass was going right to my ears, and for once I hung towards the back of the room, he did play a lovely remix of inner city - good life fro his closing number before Pan Pot came on....watched a good bit of them, mixed in with first visit to see hawtin who was well into his 6hr set...stopped off for an ice creamlol then back into hawtin in floor 2 from 11:15 til Hawtin closed at 2pm.....he was quite simply f%%king amazing, seen him a few times, but this was (as with garnier) another level...a total highlight, was down the front so was just perfect for me (despite my ears ringing after kevin saunderson!!

Hawtin finished, place starting to empty, so we just got our act together, just still buzzing after the most amazing eventlol locker emptied, and slowly to the exit, came out, had a debate about going to the after party, but at that point my ears were ringing, and had bags of merchandise! And had been out for a good while, so waited about 35mins for tram back into Mannheim city centre, (the more regular Timewarp tram service had stopped by time we came out), then train back to Frankfurt...although did manage to fall asleep on the train and miss the Frankfurt stop!;-)pmsl...well wasn't laughing too much at the time...so off train then another back to Frankfurt, still train was free anyway so no harm done, just more time added to the journey until back to hotel to crash out....

Its funny looking at the timetable, and the djs we just never seen/had time to see, big list of huge djs, but don't for a second feel like I missed out, we had such an amazing night, & don't feel like we wasted a second, just a total brilliant experience, cant rate the event highly enough and will hopefully return to Timewarp again & again.8)