ALDA MAGAZINE

DEAR VISITOR You were just part of one of the most memorable moments of my life. After touring for 1 year and visiting more than 30 different cities around the world, this weekend it’s time to say goodbye to “Intense” — the biggest project I’ve ever worked on. We finish where we started after literally tour-ing all around the world. This is how it must feel when you’re in a band that’s breaking up. I will really miss this crew and the artists. We experi-enced so much together that we all grew close and became friends for life. It was very exciting to work on this big project with all these people, and I can’t thank them enough. From the very first try-outs in Den Bosch in the fall of 2013 to now, I think the show only got better and better as everybody got more and more used to their own parts in the show. I think everybody had to really learn something new on this tour in order to meet the demands we had for the show, in-cluding me. Every Armin Only set on the Intense tour was different. The fact that I played a track with show elements more or less randomly during my set was something everybody had to get used to. Working with people from the world of theater was a very new thing for most of us. They didn’t really know the dance music world, and we didn’t really know their world either. That was one of the reasons why this tour was so special to me. I got to try a lot of new things and interact in a totally different way with the audience.

Now that over 500,000 people have seen this show, we end the Intense world tour here and now. No more dropping balloons, no more hands that lift the ball, no more hugging my brother or Laura Jansen on stage. It will be a great memory. But where one door closes, another one opens. I’m already working on a new album, and I hope to come back with a new Armin Only tour soon.

I want to thank YOU for visiting us tonight and making this show possible. And remember, what-ever you do, make it Intense! -Armin

THANK YOUPRODUCER DENNIS DE BRUIN, ALDA EVENTS TOUR MANAGER DANIELLE STOKMAN, ALDA EVENTS PROJECT ASSISTENT

CAROLINE BROEKHUIZEN, ALDA EVENTS TECHNICAL PRODUCER MAARTEN HOOGLAND, ALDA EVENTS MARKETING MANAGER EVELIEN BODDAERT, ALDA EVENTS MARKETING DIRECTOR CHANTAL MUSQUETIER, ALDA EVENTS DIGITAL MARKETING

MANAGER KOEN BLUIJS, ALDA EVENTS JUNIOR CREATIVE MARKETEER SEBASTIAAN BEK, ALDA EVENTS SHOW DIRECTORS JOS THIE, ALDA EVENTS AND SANDER RENEMAN, 250K MUSIC ARMIN VAN BUUREN AND ALL ARTISTS WHO WORKED CLOSELY WITH

HIM ON THE “INTENSE” ALBUM SHOW CALLER MARGUS SPEKKERS VISUALS CARLO RUIJGERS, EYESUPPLY LIGHT DESIGN MARC HEINZ AUDIO WOUTER ASSELMAN, 250K CHOREO THOM STUART & RINUS SPRONG, DUTCH DON’T DANCE DIVISION

COSTUME NANCY STEEMAN, MARIEKE VAN DER KLEIJ, LINDA GERRITSEN GRAPHIC DESIGN FAKTORY6 TECHNICAL TEAM JAN KONINGS, BJORN VANDERBROECK, RONNIE SANTEGOEDS, CHRIS DAS ARTISTS ARMIN VAN BUUREN, TREVOR GUTHRIE, FIORA CUTLER, CINDY ALMA , RICHARD BEDFORD, LAUREN EVANS, LAURA JANSEN, ELLER VAN BUUREN, MICHIEL EILBRACHT, KOEN HERFST ACROBATS JEROEN KASLANDER, TARA FOKKE DANSERS NATAN PRINS, ROBIN VOSSE, ALEXE JANSEN, MYRTHE KAARS

250K SANDER RENEMAN, MICHAEL SEEVERENS, ANDRÉ BEEKMANS, BAS SCHEIJ, WOUTER ASSELMAN, BOB ROODENBURG, CASPER DE JONG, KARIEN HORSTEN, ILONA VAN DEN BROEK CORRINO CHIEM VAN HOUWENINGE, ERIC LIMBUG, JAIR MAHAZRI, ATILLA MEIJS, ILJA HAPPEL EYESUPPLY CARLO RUIJGERS DAVID LEWIS PRODUCTIONS, ARMADA, SPONSORS KLM, PHILIPS,

DENHAM, RADIO 538

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INHOUD

THE ARMIN ONLY FACTS AND WORLD TOUR 2013/20147-8

INTERVIEWS SANDER AND JOS11-12

COLOFON

ARMIN ONLY MAGAZINE ALDA EVENTS B.V. P.O. BOX 75577 1059 CP AMSTERDAM

CONTRIBUTORS SEBASTIAAN BEK EVELIEN BODDAERT MARC DON LEILA DE JAGER KOEN BLUIJS SOPHIE VAN DEN ENGH DRUKWERKSTUNTER

PHOTOGRAPHERS MARC VAN DER AA FRANK EMOUS RUDGER GEERLING FLORIS HEUER

DISCLAIMER ALDA EVENTS 2014

NO PART OF THIS MAGAZINE MAY BE REPRODUCED OR SOLD WITHOUT CONSENT OF THE PUBLISHER. ALDA EVENTS RECOGNIZ-ES ALL COPYRIGHTS CONTAINED IN THIS ISSUE. WHERE POSSIBLE WE ACKNOWLEDGE THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER. ALDA EVENTS HAS NO LIABILITY FOR ANY SET OF PRINT ERRORS, PRICING, OR ANY OTHER BUSINESS REGARDING PUBLISHED EVENTS.

INTERVIEW ARMIN VAN BUUREN6

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WHAT’S THE THING YOU’LL BE MISSING MOST ABOUT THE SHOW AND BEING ON THE ROAD WITH THIS INCREDIBLE CREW FOR OVER A YEAR NOW?I think the moment 30 minutes before the show, when we made a massive circle with the whole crew — I called it the “group hug”. It was a special moment to connect and focus. WHATS NEXT!? WHAT’S 2015 GOING TO LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?ASOT700 is coming up, and it will be transformed into a festival with several stages. Also I hope to finish my new artist album in 2015, which is a lot of work, but I’m already very excited about what I have so far.

WHAT’S BEEN THE MOST CHALLENGING SHOW DURING THE INTENSE TOUR?I think you have to ask the production crew, but I think almost every show was challenging. The bar we set for this show was very high, and we demanded a lot from the local crews. Most of them had never

done anything like this before. Sometimes the stage was perfect but then the trampo-lines were missing, sometimes we worked with failing lights during the show and sometimes it was simply raining during the construction of the show! The funny thing was that I feel the audience hardly noticed anything. Especially the technical crew did such an amazing job. They worked togeth-er with the local crews to make sure every-thing was done in time. WHATS THE CRAZIEST THING YOU ENCOUNTERED DURING THE TOUR?I still don’t know how we did it in India. The stage was almost completely made out of wood! But it was a very good show I think. And then we had the thunderstorms in Buenos Aires, the only outdoor edition of the show. It stopped raining for the du-ration of the show, even though the weath-er prediction said otherwise. WHAT’S THE FIRST THING YOU’RE GOING TO DO THE DAY AFTER THE FINAL SHOW?Sleep! Haha. Oh and work more on these tracks I’ve been working on for so long…

WHAT DESTINATION HAVEN’T YOU BEEN TO, BUT WOULD LIKE TO GO TO DURING THE NEXT TOUR?Because the demands for the stage were

quite high, we simply couldn’t do the show in every venue. I would really like to do shows in the Middle East and Asia. WHAT SHOW IMPRESSED YOU THE MOST?I think all the shows were special. But for some reason the show in Mexico City was extra special. More than 20,000 fans showed up and it was simply insane! WHATS THE WEIRDEST GIFT YOU RECEIVED FROM A FAN?I got so many gifts during this tour, es-pecially in Ukraine and India. Somebody gave me a beautiful violin in Buenos Aires. I will keep that forever! WHAT CAN THE FANS EXPECT FROM YOUR NEW ALBUM? I’ve got quite a few tracks ready, and I’m really excited about what I have. Some of it will even be a little bit oldskool!☺ WILL THERE BE A NEW ARMIN ONLY WORLD TOUR NEXT YEAR?Working on it

“FOR SOME REASON THE SHOW IN MEXICO CITY WAS

EXTRA SPECIAL”

“SOME TRACKS OF MY NEW ALBUM WILL EVEN BE A LITTLE

BIT OLDSKOOL”

INTERVIEW ARMIN VAN BUUREN

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V ARMIN ONLY INTENSE WORLD TOUR 2013/2014

AMSTERDAMAMSTERDAMKIEVMUMBAISOFIASAINT PETERSBURGMINSKHELSINKINEW YORKTORONTOSAN JOSEVANCOUVERLOS ANGELESSAN DIEGOMONTERREYMEXICO CITY

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ARMIN ONLY FACTS

3D SCAN OF ARMIN TO CREATE A FULL BODY 3D ANIMATION

OVER 500.000 VISITORS DURING THE YEAR MORE THEN 3,5 HOURS OF TIMECODE VIDEO CONTENT AROUND 2000 FLIGHTS DURING ONE YEAR

45 DAYS OF PROGRAMMING IN THE STUDIO 33 SHOWS IN 5 CONTINENTS 3 MONTHS & 11 PEOPLE VIDEO PRODUCTION

3 HOURS PRE PROGRAMMED TIMECODE LIGHTING 22 EPISODES OF THE ARMIN ONLY ROAD MOVIE CREW OF THIRTY PEOPLE PER SHOW

388 MOVING LIGHTS 20.000 PING PONG BALLOONS 270 FULLY CUSTOMIZED FREESTYLE VIDEO CLIPS 67 STROBE LIGHTS

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INTERVIEW SANDER RENEMAN INTERVIEW JOS THIE

TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR-SELF AND YOUR ROLE IN THE ARMIN ONLY INTENSE SHOWSander Reneman, 36 years young, CEO and Founder of 250K and Eyesupply and creative -show director for the Armin Only Intense World Tour.

IN THE ARMIN ONLY INTENSE ROAD-MOVIE WE’VE SEEN SOME VERY CHALLENGING SITUATIONS. WHICH ONE WILL YOU MOST LIKELY, NEVER FORGET?What happens on tour stays on tour so I can’t tell all the details and luckily not ev-erything is in the Roadmovie. Show wise the one I will likely never forget is probably the one with the firework cue’s in Quito. I gave the cue to the local pyro guy during the show and the shot he fired contained an outdoor effect! The explosion was so hard and loud we all ducked down. I still haven’t apologized to Armin for the big bang, he was standing on stage at the mo-ment, so sorry Armin.

WHEN YOU’RE WORKING WITH SO MANY DIFFERENT PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, WHAT’S KEY TO KEEPING THE QUALITY UP TO YOUR STANDARDS?We travel with a big group of highly trained professionals that have extensive experi-ence in every discipline of the trade, which made it possible to provide the local part-ners with the best possible show. However, key for keeping up quality is sharing our know-how with our local partners. A good quality show as Armin Only Intense can

only be achieved by work-ing together as one group.

DID YOU EVER FACE A SITUATION WHERE YOU WERE AFRAID THAT SOME ASPECTS OF THE SHOW WOULD FAIL?Off course, some may-or problems crossed our path, but if you’re flexible as a group and you know what you’re doing, you’ll be able to anticipate to certain situations and re-

act accordingly. This entails that you’ll have to make decision that can influence the show or have consequences for the dancers, acrobats, singers and even Armin. However, when you stay focused on creat-ing that certain moment you can achieve the same impact even if it’s completely different from what we scripted.

DID YOU EVER PRESS THE WRONG BUT-TON DURING A SHOW?Never, and otherwise it’s always some-body else’s fault….hahaha. No seriously, everybody makes mistakes including me. I remember a moment in Toronto, our time code system allows us to start tracks that are selected on Armin’s CDJs. The intro was playing and during that track the ball

comes down. We lost control of the ball so you could only hear the audio but the ball didn’t come down, so I stopped the track and wanted to go back to the beginning of the song and start the show all over. In-stead of stopping the track, I mixed up the players and started the track ‘Intense’, se-lected in the second DJ booth on another CDJ.

WHAT’S THE FIRST THING YOU’LL BE DOING AFTER THIS FINAL SHOW?Drink and party with everybody and the entire Armin Only family till sunrise and

postpone the moment that I’ll have to say good bye to everybody. A goodbye that will be very emotional, because it has been an absolute privilege to travel with such an amazing group.

ANY NEW CHALLENGES AHEAD?I just became a father, which is very spe-cial. The funny thing is, that I met my wife during the previous Armin Only tour and at the end of this tour she gave birth to our beautiful daughter. I’ve always been pas-sionate about my work and will jump from one project into the next one and as Armin is most likely to release his new album mid next year, we’ll also need to start thinking about a new tour that will hopefully start the end of next year.

WHAT WAS THE COOPERATION BETWEEN YOU AND JOS LIKE? CONSIDERING THE FACT THAT THE INTERACTION BETWEEN THE SHOW ELEMENTS AND THEATRE IS WHAT MAKES THIS SHOW SO UNIQUEFirst of all I admire and respect Jos as a director. He has a phenomenal reputa-tion in the world of Dutch theatre and as a young director he gave me the opportu-nity to learn a lot from his theatre back-ground. I probably said it before but the good thing of working together with Jos, was the chance to explore each other’s background. This really shines through in the show. In my opinion the show is really good and together we have reached a next level DJ show that will hopefully set the standard for EDM shows in general

ANYTHING YOU WANTED FROM THE DANCERS, BUT JOS TOLD YOU COULDN’T BE DONE?Everything is possible and we always had open discussions about everything. We reached out to each other for good suggestions and always found a way to reach our collective goal.

LOOKING FORWARD TO A NEW ARMIN ONLY TOUR? ;)In my mind I’ve already been working on this for a few month’s now and slowly we are discovering which direction we need to take for the next Armin Only Tour. I’m defi-nitely excited to explore and conquer the world with another show’.

Jos Thie is a theatre director known for the spectacular. Music always plays a central role in the countless theatre productions directed by Thie. Audiences were blown away when he presented his raw and Dutch version of the rock opera Tommy and his hit musical Doe Maar, about Holland’s most popular band from the eighties, had people dancing in the isles for two years. Jos Thie is not easily shaken by scale, as he proves with this mega show that he has created together with Armin, Sander and a team of outstanding artists.

YOU WERE ONE OF THE FIRST TO BRING THEATRE TO THE WORLD OF EDM, WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR YOU IN DOING THIS?The biggest challenge for me was, creating a show that would last for over 6 hours. In the world of theatre, this would be similar to trying to achieve a world record.

LIVE ON THE ROAD IS PHYSICALLY CHALLENGING ESPECIALLY FOR THE DANCERS, EVER HAD THE FEELING YOU WERE PUSHING THEM BEYOND THEIR LIMITS?Besides being incredibly motivated, the dancers are also very experienced. They know exactly what their capable of and what their limits are. I just made sure I didn’t overstep these limits and risk over-

exerting the dancers. On top of this, the dancers took really good care of them-selves.

AFTER DOING THIS TOUR, DO YOU FEEL A WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES OPENED TO THE WORLD OF THEATRE, DANCE AND EDM?I experienced the tour as a unique collab-oration between theatre and dance. After a year on tour, I believe we may conclude that a whole new world has opened up

to us. Sparked by nothing but positive reactions from the audience, this collabo-ration has definitely been a success. WHAT WAS THE COOPERATION BE-TWEEN YOU AND SANDER LIKE? CONSIDERING THE FACT THAT THE INTERACTION BETWEEN THE SHOW ELEMENTS AND THEATRE IS WHAT MAKES THIS SHOW SO UNIQUEIt’s literally been a first in every sense of the world. The way stage designs and visuals are developed was something completely new to

me. I fell from one amazing discovery into the other. I had no idea that these techniques had come this far over the last few years and the talent surrounding Sander is abso-lutely amazing! I believe I speak on behalf of Sander when I tell you he probably had a similar experience with the world I came from. Things like the power of repetition and rehearsal were completely new to him too!

ANYTHING YOU WANTED FROM THE STAGE, BUT SANDER TOLD YOU COULDN’T BE DONE?Many dreams have been left unfulfilled. I would have liked to have 4 stages surround-ing the audience for instance. However, that’s how it works when creating a show of this cal-iber. It’s all about the art of leaving things out, so only the most powerful elements remain.

WHAT’S THE FIRST THING YOU’LL BE DOING AFTER THE FINAL SHOW?Get some much needed rest and contin-ue the roller coaster ride with the opening nights of three new shows.

LOOKING FORWARD TO A NEW ARMIN ONLY TOUR? ;)I would love to do a similar production with this team. There is always room for improvement. Armin, being the only one in the business who understands this, will hopefully initiate another tour.

“IT HAS BEEN AN ABSOLUTELY PRIVILEGE TO TRAVEL WITH SUCH AN AMAZING GROUP”

“THE ART OF LEAVING THINGS OUT, SO ONLY THE MOST

POWERFULL ELEMENTS REMAIN”

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A STATE OF TRANCE FESTIVAL Last year we brought you A State of Trance: New Horizons! This year, we’ll venture into new territories by bringing you on a brand new musical journey that infallibly cap-tures the true spirit of A State of Trance. This year, we proudly present you: ‘A State Of Trance Festival’. Divided over several continents at the most incredible loca-tions, A State of Trance festival will deliver the unique ASOT vibe and electrifying at-mosphere in its ultimate purest form.Staying true to the roots of ASOT we’ll be kicking of this edition with a celebration weekend, ASOT style. The home of this celebration weekend will be Australia,

during which an awe inspiring selection of trance Djs will take the stage during a live recording of the 700th episode of A State Of Trance on February 6th in Mel-bourne and February 7th in Sydney. On February 21st, we will proudly host A State Of Trance Festival with the first show in Utrecht.

This year, A State of Trance hones in on you! Together with you, we want to cre-ate and share that feeling of togetherness through our shared passion for everything that is Trance. The very thing that makes us part of something unique! Being part

of the ASOT story, celebrating Trance and sharing this with the rest of the world.

Been lucky enough to have you and your friends’ ultimate State of Trance moment captured by one of our lovely polaroid girls? Share your photo on facebook.com/asotfest and get the chance to witness A State of Trance Festival up close, on Feb-ruary 21 in Utrecht!

“Its time to go back to the essence. Back to where it all started. That incredible feel-ing. Together in A State Of Trance.”

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2019

WE’VE FLOWN SO MANY MILES. I COULD DO A LOT MORE THOUGH. TRAVELING THE WHOLE WORLD

SEEING SO MANY HAPPY FACES IS TRULY ONE OF THE BEST THINGS I HAVE SEEN. ARMIN ONLY INTENSE IS A BIG PACK OF EVERYTHING, FOR

EVERY SENSE. ELLER VAN BUUREN

“WE MADE MUSIC TOGETHER ALL OVER THE WORLD, WHAT COULD BE

BETTER THAN THAT!”WITHOUT QUESTION THE THING I WILL MISS THE MOST IS THE

AMAZING PEOPLE ON THIS TOUR THAT BECAME MY FAMILY. AND

HEARING CROWDS ALL OVER THE WORLD SINGING ALONG WITH ME…

AND PING PONG ;-)FIORA

THE CHANCE TO CONNECT WITH AND SHARE MY

EXPERIENCE WITH THE AMAZING CROWDS AND

SUCH AN AMAZING TEAM OF CREATIVE GENIUSES IS BOTH A PRIVILEGE AND A HIGHLIGHT OF MY CAREER

THIS FAR. RICHARD BEDFORD

WE’VE LEARNED A LOT, SAW EVEN MORE, PARTIED HARD BUT WORKED EVEN HARDER AND EN-JOYED EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF THE RIDE!!! WE’RE GONNA MISS EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU SO MUCH! ARMIN, THANKS FOR THE

INSPIRATIONTARA & JEROEN

MY FAVORITE PART OF THE SHOW (NEXT TO MY DRUMSOLO

OF COURSE) IS LOVE NEVER CAME; WHERE

ARMIN, THE BAND AND RICHARD, THE DANCERS AND THE

VISUALS, THE LIGHTS AND THE SPECIAL EFFECTS BRING

TOGETHER A REALLY EPIC SHOW.

KOEN HERFST

I’VE BEEN MOVED TO TEARS, BEEN TIRED BEYOND BELIEF, PUSHED MYSELF FURTHER THAN EVER

BEFORE AND HAVE BEEN REWARDED WITH MEM-ORIES THAT WILL COLOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. IT

HAS BEEN ONE HUGE AND BEAUTIFUL GIFT.LAURA JANSEN

I THINK THE PEOPLE THAT WORKED TO-

GETHER FOR A YEAR ON THIS TOUR (AND NOT ONLY THE ART-ISTS) HAVE GROWN INTO A FAMILY. THAT MADE THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE OF

THE TOUR SO MUCH BETTER AND IT GAVE

ANOTHER DIMEN-SION TO IT ALL. NATVAN PRINS

THE OPPORTUNITY TO SEE THE WORLD AND PERFORM WITH SUCH

A GREAT TEAM FOR AMAZING CROWDS, REALLY MAKES THIS A

DREAMJOB!MYRTHE KAARS-GARCIA

THIS YEAR HAS BEEN INTENSE! THE SHOWS, THE FANS, THE TRAVEL-ING, SEEING ALL THESE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRIES

AND MEETING ALL THESE AMAZING PEO-PLE. I WILL MISS THE IDEA THAT I CAN CALL

THIS “WORK”! BEST JOB EVER!

ALEXE JANSEN

THERE’S NOTHING QUITE LIKE SEEING A STADIUM FULL OF PEOPLE SINGING

YOUR WORDS AND MELODIES WITH PAS-SION FROM THE HEART. IT’S MAGICAL!

LAUREN EVANS

I AM REALLY GONNA MISS EVERY PERSON IN THE ARMIN ONLY TEAM THAT SUPPORTED ME DURING THIS TOUR, I AM GONNA MISS ALL

THE GOOD TIMES AND EVEN THE HARD ONES! CINDY ALMA

WITH EACH AND EVERY SHOW WE DID LAST YEAR I’VE COME TO REALIZE HOW

MUCH I APPRECI-ATE AND RESPECT

THE FACT THAT ARMIN IS ABOUT THE ONLY DJ WHO DARES TO INCOR-PORATE SO MANY

ASPECTS INTO THE ARMIN ONLY

SHOW. MICHIEL

EILBRACHT

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Having fun! #AOEC #arminonlyintense #arminonly

#arminonlyintenseworldtour #madness

juliana Stadler

soramameliz

If only I could replay this night over and over

again

All ‘Aloosh’ Eldahoud

One of the

best night

s of my lif

e... Dreamin

g of

living it aga

in...

Love Armin

La Leti

#ArminOnly #Romania was awesome! Thanks

@arminvanbuuren for anot

her magnificent night

and for signing my flag!

Raul Rene Lepsa

One of the

best product

ions I’ve been

to!

Sound, lightin

g, costumes, ac

robatics, live

musicians, exte

nded vinyl se

t! How does

one

top that?

Sanvir Manill

a

armin is the king tranceeeeeeee

eeeeeee

Armani Code

Yo soy Intense... #armin #arminonly #intense

#baires #caras #destruidos #destroyed #duros

JoaanmfVictor Ming Zhang can

’t believe some where

across the globe, armin is still pl

aying, nostalgic

Michelle Kea

Every journey has an ending, but this one is special because so many people willl remember Armin Only Intense as one of the greatest ever

Sami Nyyssonen

ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC THANK YOU for your music

Handmadecorvera Corvera

My feet hurts... Amazinggg night

#OAROM #ArminOnly

Feel Alive

@arminvanbuuren THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR

THE SICKEST #INTENSE NIGHT IN

BUCHAREST! #ARMINONLY

Fathin Fauzy

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INTERVIEW DENNIS DE BRUIN FAN QUOTES

WHAT’S THE STORY BEHIND DENNIS DE BRUIN AND THE AO INTENSE TOURI am the tour director / producer of the Armin Only Intense tour. That basically entails that I’m responsible for putting together the team, overseeing creation, budgeting and setting up the planning for the tour.

FROM A PURELY PRODUCTION POINT OF VIEW, WHAT’S ALWAYS BEEN THE TRICKIEST ASPECT OF THE SHOW TO TAKE ON THE ROAD?The Intense show was initially devised in order to create an experience that was un-precedented in EDM concerts; to exceed expectations and blow people away in amazement. More spectacular and Intense than we’d ever attempted before, while at the same time, reach as many fans as humanly possible. However, we needed to take into account that the show would be taken on the road and had to be reproduc-ible in countries where the level of techni-cal advancements was way below those of the Dutch. Not everyone is as advanced in EDM productions as we are, thus making it feasible for others to reproduce the show, caused many headaches. In the end we succeeded in what we wanted to achieve and were able to produce and reproduce an unforgettable show in almost every country.

EVERY COUNTRY HAS ITS OWN CUSTOMS AND HABITS, WHAT WAS THE STRANGEST ONE YOU ENCOUNTERED DURING PRODUCTION?That must have been India! The Armin Only Intense show in Mumbai has been an unforgettable experience in every sense of the word. Hundreds of locals threw in everything they had to help out in build-ing the show. Small hammers, little saws and an incredible passion to get everything done in time for the show left a deep im-pression on me.

IN THE ARMIN ONLY INTENSE ROADMOVIE WE’VE SEEN SOME VERY CHALLENGING SITUATIONS. WHICH ONE WILL YOU MOST LIKELY, NEVER FORGET?One of the most challenging shows was the one in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Normally we don’t do outdoor shows, but we couldn’t just pass over on the chance to give the fans and an incredible country like Argentina the show of a lifetime. That’s why I decided to go ahead and do an outdoor show. However, this meant that a very challenging task lay ahead. And of course as the weathergods would have it; Rain…. More rain … And…. Incredibly heavy thunder storms. Lightning even struck the front of house during the rehearsals. At one point the weather threatened to put a stop to the show. However by some divine miracle, the skies cleared, and we were able to perform the show without a drop of rain.

HAVE YOU EVER COME TO POINT, WHERE YOU WERE LEANING TOWARD CANCELING A SHOW?We always did everything within our power to prevent this, even if this meant making certain adjustments to the show. As long as the end result wasn’t compromised. For Ostrava unfortunately, this wasn’t enough. Even though we did everything within our power to save the show, we couldn’t go through with the Ostrava show and we felt terrible about it.

WHAT’S THE FIRST THING YOU’LL BE DOING AFTER THIS FINAL SHOW?Down a bottle of champagne and party all night with the team. After a year on tour you become somewhat of a family. The to-getherness and the feeling of conquering the world with each other is something very special. That feeling and the experi-ence is something I’ll never forget!

ANY NEW CHALLENGES AHEAD?The preparations for A State of Trance 700 celebration weekend and festivals are in full swing. We’ll be doing something dif-ferent from what we usually do, which calls for a lot of adjustments. In addition a few major steps have been taken towards the creation of another Armin Only tour. It’ll be hard work to top the current Intense tour, but we’ll do everything within our powers to do so.

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THANK YOU