Many of you questioned the name of the event being the last hoorah, wanting to know if it is the last Kandy? It is not! It is simply the last Kandy Carnival, moving onwards and upwards in the years to come!! What’s in store? Well, you’re just going to have to wait and see!!
I can honestly (and cheerfully say!) that I am one of the only few punters left that have been a patron of Hard Kandy since its inception in 1999. From when it began as a weekly club until today, it has always built up to be even more amazing since the first night until the events we have now…. and this is the biggest Kandy Carnival ever since it started in December 2015. In those 3 years, with this being the 4th Carnival, it has gone from a standard nightclub event to an amazingly huge crazy show attracting around 4500 people!!! So, why the interest? What’s the reason everyone wanted to attend?
DJ’S, PRODUCTION, PERFORMANCE, STAFF, PATRONAGE AND ALL ROUND GOOD VIBE JUST TO NAME A FEW!!!
The lineup was incredibly impressive, with the biggest names from around the world, even including one of our own, the amazing Synthsoldier, who WAS just a local name, but has since gone far and beyond, known not just here but also overseas. The full line-up ran as follows:
Probably the largest line-up Kandy Carnival has ever had, we have gone to extreme lengths, bringing Melbourne an insane line-up that will ensure our punters have the best night EVER to end the year which is 2018. Superfried joined the Hard Kandy merchandise stand with their unique rave items for sale such as kaleidoscope glasses, ear plugs and Hardstylerz clothing and local crew Dancewize were on hand walking through the crowd, handing out lollies and spraying people with water to relieve them as it was an incredibly hot 38 degree day! There were also water stations on each side of the dancefloor where people could grab themselves a free cup of water to keep themselves hydrated throughout the night.
The night kicked off at 6pm, with Synthsoldier opening the festivities as punters poured in the doors in droves ready to party. The room filled pretty quickly, with most people flocking straight to the front of the dancefloor, meeting their friends and ready to have a good rock! Pretty soon, it was hard to see a spare spot on the dancefloor that wasn’t occupied by groups of people dancing! Synthy played an amazing set as per usual, totally working the crowd up for the night ahead!
Next up were Sound Rush, I had the privilege of meeting the guys and they were the sweetest, nicest people! We had a good chat before and after their set, which was an absolutely amazing set mind you! They have come a long way since their inception into the scene and keep getting bigger and better everyday, with amazing tunes and collaborations.
Psyko Punkz was the next to bounce onto stage and the crowd started cheering like crazy! The vibe was insane! Best parts of his set was when he played an old favourite ‘Follow Me- Spacefrog’ which had the entire room going off, and one of my personal favourites ‘Unbreakable – Psyko Punkz, DJ Isaac and Sound Rush. Hearing that track made my night, I must say!
Then came Code Black, ALWAYS a crowd favourite. Belting out tracks such as ‘Castles in the Sky’ and ‘I am Australian’ the entire room completely went OFF. Every single person was on their feet and the cheering was earsplitting even over the music! Can’t wait to see him back here in January!
D-Block & St-e-fan – what can I say? AMAZING. Love these guys! So does everyone else, I noticed! Pulling out some of their biggest tracks such as ‘Angels and Demons’ and ‘Twilight Zone’, they were so full of energy it was insane! It’s easy to see why they are one of the number one names in hardstyle, always producing hotter and harder tracks over time!
Ahhhhh, Frequencerz. Played my other favourite track of the moment, ‘Hurricane – RanD’. This track puts me in the best mood! They also let one of their edits rip – ‘Pump it Low-The Pitcher’. The screams from the crowd when this one dropped was absolutely insane! Needless to say, looking around you could see everyone on their feet, fists pumping. The energy in the room now was completely CRAZY.
Radical Redemption. What else can I say, but OMG. ALL OF THE RAWNESS !! Having had the pleasure of speaking to him also before his set, he was really excited to be back here again and showing us what he’s been up to since he was here last. Dancing that hard I could barely breathe by this point, the man NEVER fails to put on an extremely explosive set, with only one way to describe it: DON’T FUCK WITH THE RADICAL :D
This brings me to last but definitely NOT least, the one I was waiting for. By far and away my most favourite set of the entire night, GAMMER. So worth waiting until the end for! The man has a stage presence that is huge and just cannot be ignored. kick-starting the set with his hit collab track with Darren Styles – ‘Party Don't Stop’ and belting out favourites such as ‘Zombie’, ‘Alone’ and ‘Cinema’, you could hear everyone singing the lyrics to each and every track. You could see tears on patrons faces (as well as mine!) at the same time as smiles as some of these tracks hit home to a lot of people.
All in all, WOW. I can honestly say this was not only the perfect way to end the year, but it was the event of the year. After speaking with a lot of people after the event, this is the general consensus! Everyone had an amazing night, all sets were perfect and the crowd behaved well. It’s 4 days after the event took place as I type this, and am still smiling at remembering the night, it was definitely one in a million.
Many thanks to Hard Kandy, Finders Keepers and HSU for providing us with an evening that will never be forgotten.
Photography: Garth Lategan and Hard Kandy.
Video: Dirty Workz on YouTube