Rave: Utopia 3 : The First Birthday

Date: Saturday, 20 July 1996

Production: Powerhouse Productions

Venue: Sydney Dance Company Building, The Wharf, Pier 4, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay

DJs: Pee Wee, Fenix, Mik-e, Shade, Daydream, Crisis, Rev vs Pillwa, Vic, Drew vs Slammin J

Description: Ray's Reviews - Utopia 3: Probably THE BEST NIGHT that I have ever had at a rave! This was absolutely unbelievable, and KILLED the previous utopia event. Situated at Pier 4, this was probably the best venue I have ever been to (maybe with the exception of Crisis Point 3 – hmm all the No. 3 events seem to be the best – crisis point 3, fod3, utopia 3 – 3rd time lucky I spose) It was at the Sydney Dance Company, in a huge warehouse type venue. There was tonnes of parking out the front too. As you walked into the event, you could see the 2nd small room (which you thought was the main room as you entered). This room had house and hard house mostly, and was quite a good room in itself. The DJ for this room was on a walkway which was looking down on the room. The main room was still to come – to get to it you had to walk down a corridor of flashing strobe lights, which was one of the best little additions I have seen at any event – it was extremely atmospheric, and pumped up people as they journeyed into the main room (and it also funnily made it very difficult to walk, as the lights stuffed up your balance a bit). The main room was a big checkered (yes black and white checkered) dance floor, with the back wall a huge mirror. This room was going ballistic all night without stopping! When I went in there everyone was jumping and dancing very hard, and this lasted for hours and hours. The vibe here was absolutely awesome, like nothing I have seen before. The laser show was also one of the best I have seen (besides FOD4) and they made the crowd go beyond their limits. The mirrored wall at the back of the room reflected the laser light back into the crowd again – it was just an unbelievable room that has to be seen to be believed. All night the DJs were playing great music which everyone liked, all the classic hard tracks, and some newer trance, techno and hard house. The music quality was great and the bass reverberated around the room. Everyone involved in this event is a genius – the lighting crew, the DJs and most of all the promoters who would have gone to a lot of trouble securing such a great and new venue. And I just lurved the strobe flashing corridor – a great touch! The only problem is that some people did some graffiti, and someone else dropped a cigarette down a crack, causing a small fire which the fire brigade had to come and put out, closing the rave at 6am. This means that this truly great venue will probably never be used for a rave again. But anyway, a top score for this event – TEN OUT OF TEN!