Time Warp Holland 2010Written by Marijn van Laerhoven 
Saturday the 4th of December had been crossed out in BnB's agenda for months. It was the day – or rather; the night – of the third Time Warp Holland bash, a spin-off from the German series made possible through a collaboration between the German Cosmopop and the Dutch Evotions. With all tickets gone sold out and some of the world's leading techno artists tonight promised to be a very special night for techno lovers from Holland and beyond. The place to be? The Sporthallen Zuid in Amsterdam. It has been three years since the first edition of Time Warp in the Dutch harbor city of Rotterdam. After one club 'warm-up' edition and two full-blown editions in the beautiful industrial breathing Maassilo/Factory 10 the Time Warp circus left Rotterdam and moved on to the Dutch capital, Amsterdam. The venue; a sporting complex in the southern district of the city that goes by the name Sporthallen Zuid. It's a beautiful place where gabber raves took place back in the nineties. With a larger location that has been declared rave-proof long ago and is also much closer to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol the decision to move here is very logical indeed. The venue has lots of long passages behind and between the different rooms and has similarities with the Maimarkthalle in Mannheim. Four musical floors, two of which were tough to miss and then two more that required just a bit more effort. Thankfully we were handed out Time Warp booklets with a clear map of the venue and also a time table of all four floors. In order of scheduled appearance: Floor 1: Darko Esser; Matthias Tanzmann; Egbert; Sven Vath; Loco Dice; Marco Carola.
When we arrived we immediately found our spot in the front areas of floor one. Matthias Tanzzman was delivering a real great gig and the sound system made it sound stunningly impressive. Immediately we'd get down into the party mood, and thankfully we were not the only ones. Surrounded by the international party family that Time Warp is praised for we partied with Germans, Italians, French, British – oh yeah; and the Dutch. After Tanzzman came Egbert live. Within no-time the Dutchman has become one of the hottest producers/live acts of the moment, his records played by Time Warp icons like Sven and Richie. While techno purists usually don't dig anything even somewhat trance related, Egbert easily got away with throwing a complex synth string-melody. Without any E's in our body we'd still get goosebumps, and it's been a while since that happened. After euphoric melodies came massive beats, throwing hands and feet in the air from back to forth. Scheduled to play next up in line after Egbert was mister Time Warp, papa Sven. Unfortunately however Sven was delayed due to a strike at the airports in Spain. The organization communicated Sven being late using the big screen and had Marco Carola start early. And with Marco, dancers in neat disco lighted suits also appeared on stage. Carola played a nice gig of dropping bombs and made us stick around at floor one for more of the Time Warp vibe. After rumors amongst the crowd that Sven wasn't going to make it we were glad to see Sven finally appear on stage anyway (apparently after a trip in a private jet!). With strikes in Spain and a white blanket of snow covering most of Europe it was good to see all artists and the majority of the crowd (some bus trips coming from Italy were canceled) made it to Amsterdam.
After hours at the main floor we did leave to check out the sets of Speedy J; Chris Liebing and Laurent Garnier at the other floors. Great music, great crowds. But, sooner than later, we'd always return to the main floor. Floor 2 and 3 may have been large and nicely decorated (floor 4 was much smaller), to us floor 1 stood out above the others. Not only was this the biggest and most crowded; it was also the room with the most spectacular sound system. But most importantly, it was the room that brought us closest to the Time Warp feeling that we know from Mannheim. Final verdictEven though tonight's edition last nowhere near as long as the original happening, Cosmopop and Evotions have managed to pull off a true Time Warp experience 500 kilometers away from Mannheim. The event had a few flaws like not having enough lockers and water and soda selling out early; in our experience the positives easily surpass the negatives. Official after shows at Studio 80 and Club AIR in the city centre of Amsterdam continued all the way into late Sunday afternoon. We decided to call it a night and hope to see you on April 2nd when the Time Warp family returns to the Maimarkthalle in Mannheim, Germany. Be there!
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