Category: Lifestyle

Despite the negative publicity, I’m still going to blog about Freedom 08.

Cosmic Gate
The main area was extremely packed. Rubbish was over the place. Getting one place to another was a hard task. Our gang got broken up few times but were fortunate to find each other. Johnson on the other hand was a little bit unlucky as he disappeared without realising that his digital camera was with me. I had to carry it throughout the night.



Huge booth just to sell cigarettes

Performer

Man surrounded by rubbish

SASAU MAXIMUM HAHAHAHA, They were lying on the grass for quite some time.

ivN, Me & Eric

As you can see, it’s Acidtripping Ben’s first time hanging out with us. Only part of his face is revealed.

The gang. Acidtripping Ben saw some hot chick up there.

JohnsonTeoh.com

Acidtripping Ben – I’m a butterfly!!

Like high school photo. Rombongan sambil belajar.



Acidtripping Ben tired. He partied so hard until he had fever the next day.
At 12am, Tiesto replaced the Cosmic Gate. His 3 hours set was excellent – dropping all time favourite hits. Great laser beam show complimented his songs. It was also the first time I see such laser beam show in Malaysia. The only place I’ve seen them was in UK.

This was also the first time I see people selling Domino’s Pizza and Friday’s. They had booths set up just to sell them. They also have a booth selling sandwiches at RM5 per piece. It was quite tasty.

Domino’s Pizza

Friday’s

Sandwiches

Redemption Booth
It ended with a video of him walking away – with his back facing the crowd.
The rave ended at 3am. The gang went back to their rooms extremely tired.

The Star Newspaper ran an article on Freedom 08 two days after the event.

Port Dickson folks irked by youths’ out of control behaviour at rave event

BY SARBAN SINGH

Residents of Port Dickson are unhappy that the seaside town is being used by certain quarters to promote booze, drugs and promiscuity among the young.

Port Dickson assemblyman M Ravi said a recent wild party at the seaside was a real shocker to him and the community here. He said that such parties did more damage to the young than promote tourism.
“I made a surprise visit to a so called world music event in the wee hours of Saturday morning and what I saw was shocking.

“Thousands of teenagers, many drunk and wearing skimpy clothing were misbehaving and some were even involved in substance abuse,” he claimed.

Oblivious to his surroundings: Two teenagers trying to wake a ‘fallen’ mate.
[Note: HAHAHA SASAU MAXIMUM!!]

She said it also made little sense to see some female teenagers wearing swimsuits and other skimpy clothing although it was 4am.
“When I asked them if their parents knew if they were here, they shied away. Most of them are from Kuala Lumpur,” she said.

A friend of hers said it was quite a sight to see several youths lying on the ground clearly intoxicated.

“Medical people were on standby but some of the party goers were too hysterical. Beers were sold openly and some had been drinking for hours,” he said.

Ravi said the authorities should not treat the matter lightly.
“If the idea is to promote PD, then we can do without such events since it creates such a bad image,” he said

He said government departments which give out permits for such events should not “close an eye” when granting permits as this would be tantamount to endorsing social ills.

Source: The Star Newspaper

First of all, this article paints an extremely bad light on raves in Malaysia. As boob_omatic put it, “only sohais go to these kind of sohai events”. This article no doubt has caused negative effects on the public.

My group of friends and I went in free of drugs and sober. The ultimate aim was just to enjoy ourselves and meet up with friends that we’ve not seen for ages. On the 2nd day, the rave ended at 3am. Music was off and everyone was ushered out. If the patrons wants hang around the are until 4am, there is nothing the organisers can do if they are not within the perimeter of the rave. Further, there was police all over the place. They could have just asked everyone to go home. There may be bad apples that tainted this event but I personally think that it shouldn’t be a bar for raves to be held in Malaysia.

I hope they don’t ban all raves in Malaysia cause my friend Abang Fai (Fai Kor) wants to pei (trip) and he needs to do it outdoor. FAI KOR! YOU STILL GOT NEXT WEEEK!!

It’s been a while since I went for a rave. The last time was probably at Speedzone @ KL Tower in April 2007.
Freedom 08 was a 2 days dance event held at Admiral Marina, which is around 78km away from Kuala Lumpur. first day consists of DJ Ferry Corsten and DJ Tiesto. Second day was Cosmic Gate and DJ Tiesto again. Patrons have the option to opt for a 2 days ticket or a 1 day ticket. It’s the second time a rave was held at Admiral Marina. The
The gang, Acidtripping Ben, Angeline, Elaine, Eric, ivN, Sharon Dilirius, Jimmy, Heidi and I battered the traffic jam before reaching Port Dickson in the evening. We were stuck at one slow moving stretch near Seremban for half an hour – only to realise that the cause of the jam was one stupid hole in a divider.

Jam aaaaa!
Jimmy and Heidi came all the way from Jakarta, Indonesia to attend this rave. Acidtripping Ben on the other hand joined us to a rave for the first time.
We stayed at one hotel by the name Selesa Beach Resort, which is 2 hotels away from Admiral Marina. The room was pretty crap. ivN and Acidtripping Ben’s room smells of wet dog. And they don’t have warm shower too.
We had dinner at one waterfront restaurant nearby our hotel. It’s a very nice place but the food was crap.

Port Dickson beach – looks nice but polluted like hell.


They also forgot my order. I was so frustrated that I screamed, “WHERE THE F*** IS MY BURGER??”. It came few minutes later and they were nice enough to give me a complimentary ice lemon tea for the error. I hope they didn’t use my buns to wipe their armpit.

My 2 Litre Asahi Beer from Langkawi
Getting into Admiral Marina was painful. It was extremely crowded and hot. We had to endure a pushy crowd through their ticket and security counter to get into the venue. The crowd control was terrible. There were a few lanes opened for everyone to enter and everyone had to fight their way into the lanes – loads of queue cutting and pushing involved.

The crowd at the entrance

Someone actually wore this slipper to the rave. It’s our hotel’s slippers. Oh, one guy came in wheelchair too.
Security was pretty tight this time. They went through everyone’s pockets, wallets, handbags, cigarette boxes and even shoes to check for weapons, drugs and forbidden items. Some girls had their bags flipped upside down and shaken.
I was told that one of the forbidden items was candies (including chewing gum) and many had their candies confiscated. The worst bit is that recording gadgets are not allowed. Some friends had their camera batteries confiscated.
On the first night, some people were arrested after they were caught for drugs. A friend was arrested after they found pills hidden in his pocket. Hope he’ll be fine.
The venue made up mainly of 2 rooms, electronic dance music (main area) and R&B music. The main area was located on a sandy field. By the end of the night, I had sand everywhere.
Just as we stepped into the main room, someone screamed, “WOOOHOOO FERRY CORSTEN!!!”.
Elaine: What a noob. Cosmic Gate is spinning la. Ferry Corsten was last night.
It is unfortunate that Cosmic Gate had to play before DJ Tiesto. It would be great to see Cosmic Gate to go all out.

Part II Coming up!
In the meanwhile, check out the following movies I took.

Tiesto’s first track of the night.

Tiesto – Love comes again