[Held in Hong Kong] I Went to ABGT300HK (anjunabeats Edition)

The 300th live edition of ABGT (Above & Beyond Group Therapy), hosted by Above & Beyond and widely supported by Trance, Progressive House, and Deep House fans alike, was held in Hong Kong on September 29–30.

In this post, I'll report on Day 1, ABGT300.

Lineup

Here is the lineup.
Day 1 featured anjunabeats acts (ABGT300), while Day 2 featured anjunadeep acts (Open Air Hong Kong).

The acts I was there for: at Day 1's ABGT300, the real Progressive acts Grum and Spencer Brown, plus Above & Beyond, whose three members only all appear together at ABGT; at Day 2's anjunadeep Open Air, Luttrell and James Grant & Jody Winternoff.

The Venue: AsiaWorld-Expo

The venue for ABGT300 was AsiaWorld-Expo.

I doubt ABGT will be held here again, but AsiaWorld-Expo seems to host well-known festivals fairly often, so here's a little venue information.

AsiaWorld-Expo is near the airport rather than in the city center.

That said, there is no particular need to book a hotel near the venue.
Hong Kong has good bus and train connections, so heading back to the city areas with the hotels (Kowloon, Jordan, Yau Ma Tei) and then coming back out worked perfectly fine.

Access instructions are provided in detail on Hong Kong Navi.
I didn't go out myself, but re-entry apparently was allowed, too.

There was already quite a line before doors opened.
The line moved slowly, so it's better to go with a friend in case you need the restroom.

The second photo shows the merchandise stall, which also had a long line.
You rarely use merch much after the event, but in the moment you can't help wanting some, right?
It looked like they'd be selling it on Day 2 as well, so I skipped it.

Then, after working through the line on the stairs, into the venue.

Not a Single Miss from Start to Finish

With a lineup that had no misses, the whole event flew by from start to finish.

*The full sets are available on YouTube as “Mix playlist – Above & Beyond #ABGT300 Live at AsiaWorld-Expo, Hong Kong (Full 4K Ultra HD Set),” so check it out for a feel of the atmosphere on the floor.

Above & Beyond

*I got a copyright alert on YouTube, so it's just one photo, lol.

Incidentally, some people lump the anjunabeats sound in with Big Room EDM, but the two only look alike; they are fundamentally different.

Also, unlike Big Room acts, they don't hype the crowd on the mic, and conversely, in Japan anjunabeats gets little support from the Big Room EDM crowd (lol).

The Crowd, the Atmosphere, and the Sense of Unity

People came a long way from all over the world for this sound, which is hardly for everyone, and for its atmosphere, so the crowd was excellent. That matters a lot.

Audience members who probably came from Amsterdam

Go to a festival with trend-chasing content and a bad crowd, and the experience is worth less.
(Take a certain urban festival held in Odaiba every September: between getting dragged into thugs' fights and lit cigarettes raining down from above, there's no way to enjoy it, lol.)

Festivals like that have become the norm lately, and I gradually lost interest; over the past few years I'd come to really dislike festivals and events in Japan. Here, however, the people, artists, and production created wonderful energy and atmosphere.

Getting to experience a real music event in relatively nearby Hong Kong, without traveling all the way to Europe or the Americas, was a great experience. It ran from 4 p.m. to midnight, but the time flew by in an instant.

Other Notes

I forgot to take a photo, but the drinks were lukewarm and tasted bad: poor value for money.
There were food stalls, too, with long lines for junk food; I ended up buying some without thinking, and that was awful as well, lol.

Then again, I was basically fine with soft drinks and mineral water (served at room temperature, lol).
In the face of good music, there's no room for alcohol, let alone drugs.