My first and the final ever Qountdown was about to start. We were outside lining up, experiencing the Dutch new years at its best with fireworks being legal here in Holland, most of the crowd had there own personal supply of explosives. Every few seconds more and more were going up into the sky. Once the gates finally opened at 8:00pm someone (or multiple people) set off a huge amount of fireworks to celebrate us all going in. Was a great start before we were even in the event! The theme of the event was also a bit more fancy so they said you should dress up a bit but it wasn’t compulsory. I loved it though because everyone did wearing all sorts of top hats cocktails dresses and suits.
As always with Heineken Music Hall (HMH) there were 2 arenas one called Beatbox which opened at 8:00pm and the Mainstage Blackbox, which didn’t start until 9:00pm. The setup in Blackbox was incredible! HMH isn’t the biggest venue but somehow with the stage and setup it made it look longer and bigger then normal. There were so many disco balls on the roof and screens everywhere. There were also 5 massive mirrors an the roof which added to the effect. The stage its self was very large, consisting of multiple screens and spotlights and what we should assume many lasers to shoot us into the New Year. The Q-dance Showcase started at 10:30 which featured many DJ’s in a relatively short period of time. The DJ’s included, D-Licous, Arkaine, E-Force (Live) and finishing up with the other half of Gunz For Hire, Adaro! All of these DJ’s played tremendous sets but Adaro ‘took the cake’ cranking a very hard set which included “Put It On”, “Under Attack”, “Haunter Of The Dark” & “Hit You With The Bang Shit”, “Sorrow – Gunz For Hire” to name a few. He actually played a lot of new stuff I hadn’t heard, but new doesn’t mean bad it can mean better and in this case it definitely was.
Straight after Adaro it was 11:45pm and it was time to start counting down. For the the next 15 minutes it showed clips from every Q-dance event during the year starting with X-qlusive D-Block & S-Te-Fan following with Defqon.1, Q-dance @ Tomorrowland, Dominator, The Qontinent, Q-dance @ Mysteryland, Q-base Raveolution, Defqon.1 Australia, X-qlusive Italy, Qore 3.0, Qlimax and Q-dance @ Mysteryland Chile (the first time Mysteryland has been held out of The Netherlands). Qountdown is such a great event and I love the idea behind it especially for Devoted Q-dancers you can re-live all the amazing events you have visited in the last year. It made me realise how many events we have actually been too and how many of them have been Q-dance. When the Qore 3.0 clip came on, Tegan and I were in it and we were played on the big screen in front of thousands! Although it was only a few seconds it was still a thrill. As it was going through the events, the lasers slowly started to warm up and move slowly building up more and more, until the final countdown to the end of 2011 and the birth of 2012.
As the montage of different videos and events finished we heard a new edit of “Lose My Mind – Wildstylez & Brennan Heart” the vocals started a little slower then in the usual version then as the melody was slowly fading in it everyone counted down and the screens showing a Giant slot machine with symbols from all the past events. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6….0 it was finally midnight, HAPPY NEW YEAR! The main melody started to build until it reached the climax, “Back off, Back off” The beat dropped! Everyone in the arena went completely nuts. Some smaller fireworks went off inside the arena, smashing us into the new year with a BANG! The lasers were also playing a massive part in this spectacular show. We just went around to everybody and wished them the best night and year. Straight after all this and the song finished we quickly ran off to Beatbox to see Jack Of Sound. I was very excited to see him on the line up but was disappointed because he was on the same time as the Showcase. So I missed the majority of his set but none the less the 30 minutes of his set we heard was unreal! Unfortunately everyone was at mainstage for the showcase and for the New Year presentation but not long after people started flooding back into the room. Jack Of Sound Played a good mix of some older things like “Front 2 Back – Zany & Tatanka”. Also some newer stuff like: “Destination Nowhere – Alphaverb & Intractable one” & “Promises – Noisecontrollers”. A lot of the tracks I did not recognise but they were ‘bloody’ amazing, I wish I could get his set so I could listen to the whole thing. Just after Jack of Sound we headed back to mainstage to see the rest of Zatox.
Zatox as always never disappoints dropping his usual tracks like “BPM Track”, “Bring The Funk – Zatox Remix”, “To The Top”, “Afrika – Tatanka”, & “The Revolution – Zatox & Vamper”, to name just a small list of the tracks that were played. During his set the lasers were still building up to the peak of the night.
Isaac was the next familiar face on stage. I hadn’t seen much of Isaac since I had been in Holland. He dropped one of my favourite tracks of 2011, “Promises – DBSTF Bootleg mix” along with a few others like: “We Are Your Friends”, “Gimme Love – Noisecontrollers”, “Dream Goes On – Deepack & DBSTF”, “Bring The Club Down”. You don’t seem to hear as much from Isaac as you do other DJs but when you do hear him he always blows you away with his tracks and his live performances.
The man behind “Midifiles” Brennan Heart was up next. In 2011 I really think Brennan Heart has started to ‘think outside the box’ again and has been producing some extraordinary music. For example his collaborations in “Wake Up”, “Lose My Mind” & his own track “Running Late” have all been exemplary and have now become some of the most well known tracks of 2011! At least one of these songs has been played at almost every single event I have been to, including this one which played all three. Every time they are played the crowd becomes a choir. Everyone knows the lyrics and it almost drowns out the speakers with how united everyone becomes with these songs. He also played “Red Planet – Code Black” & “Your Moment – Wasted Penguins & Code Black”, it was great to see him play at one of my last events before I go home.
Frontliner yet again another DJ I was really excited to see again before I go home, especially with his new album release. He dropped many engaging tracks, some from his new album, others just new remixes or other big hits he has had. For example: “Discorecord”, “Dream Dust”, “You Want It”, “Creative Community”, “External Life”, “On The Rise – Frontliner remix” and his new remix of “Rage” which was awesome, I loved it and so did the rest of the crowd by the sound of it. My only criticism not at him, is that I heard the song “On The Go – Frontliner & Max Enforcer” at least 3 times being played by various DJs throughout the night. After Frontliner they thanked him for coming and MC Villain came out to get ready to introduce the next act. 
Inbetween the sets the introductory voice also said they had Psyko Punkz on the phone and then you briefly heard them say something in Dutch while the screens behind displayed traffic on the A4. Then they hung up the phone and introduced Wildstylez. Yet another DJ with some great success in 2011 and one who I have seen at many events. After his unique intro, he opened with his new song “Shadow” which was amazing! During the night we heard a lot of new releases played for the first time live. For example he played “Feel My Fire – Wildstylez Remix”, also dropping one of my new favourites from The Pitcher “I’m Alive”. During the song the screens were showing videos of various things including a woman standing in the rain with it all dripping over her face which created a relaxed feeling (well as much as you can be at a rave on New Years).
Psyko Punks played their average set. . . Unbelievable and wouldn’t let me stop moving! Dropping ‘bombs’ like: “Utta Wanka – T’n'T”, “Left With The Wrong”, “Eternalize – Headhunterz”, “Disrespect”, “Are You Ready – Da Tweekas” and the “Kick It To The Bone – The Pitcher” just to name a short list.
The final set of the night went to Ran-D & B-Front. Being the last set of the night as you can imagine the lasers were at their peak! We stood up the back of the arena so we could properly embrace the collaboration between music and the light performance. Playing a track which I had been long awaiting all night “Crump – Noisecontrollers (Ran-D remix)”. He has done a great job with this song to keep its original feel but with a new touch to it. It also has an really nice kick to it during the intro and main beat drop. They also played a remix of “Up In Here – DMX” along with a few Gunz For Hire tracks and B-front’s new tracks. 
I couldn’t help but think what was in store for me in 3 weeks, X-qlusive Noisecontrollers! My 12th and final event before we go back home to reality. The whole of The Final Qountdown was amazing as always, even on New Years when no one wants to work Q-dance still out did themselves yet again.
Written By Tim Hunt
Last Event X-qlusive Noisecontrollers
