Godspeed 5 @ Homebush, Syd (14/12/02) Reported on Tuesday, Dec 17, 2002 by djvella ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Having been to quite a few of the Godspeed, Utopia & Love Nation Parties, our expectations were high from the start. Godspeed 5 was held at the Sydney Showgrounds which is one of the best big scale party venues in Australia. Police, Security & Ambulance presence was high as usual which is a re-assuring factor for the night going smoothly. The cue time was surprisingly short due to the great organisation of ticketing and multiple lines. Upon entrance we were confronted with a mass of raver's cueing for the carnival style rides and chilling out in the grandstand & grassed areas. Surprisingly there weren't many costumes or cyber kids as compared to the past events. The main room was fully visible from outside as there are huge glass doors looking into the pavilion. Upon entrance the quality of the Cerwin Vega Show stacks was obvious and a much needed break from the usual underpowered and poorly setup sound systems that we see at so many of the smaller parties. The lighting was excellent with what seemed to be a constant moving wall of multicoloured light and shapes projected from the front of the room. Two large projection screens either side of the DJs had some very interesting visuals as well as a live camera setup with various angles of the DJs from time to time to keep you in with the action. The hardcore arena was separated from the main completely and was a decent sized room at the back of the pavilion upstairs. The JBL sound system & intelligent lighting rig was more than capable of handling the mental sounds from Geoff de Chef, Mark N, Team Rocket & Crisis. The hardcore room was quite hot compared to the main room, but we think the speed of the music contributed to that. The main room was where we spent most of the time and the sound was definitely hard house. Gee Whiz, Yoshi, Fenix, Nervous & Paul Glazby all played very similar sets that blended well into each other. Mark Dynamix opened with an excellent remix of Energy 52 by Café Del Mar that brought a sea of hands up in the air. From there on it was bangin' all the way through to Chester who brought out his usual array of classics for the morning. Overall the night was incident free which is excellent considering over 2,800 punters attended and definitely exceeded the Powerhouse standards. Better ventilation in the upstairs room for future events would be good and about the only negative point that comes to mind. ------------------------------------------------------------------------