On 16th March, 2012, Mumbai experienced something it had never experienced before. Armin van Buuren, with Rank 1, Arnej, Aly & Fila, Shogun, Vinayak^A & Sanjay Dutta, put Mumbai in it’s very first State Of Trance. ASOT 600: The Expedition took it’s next stop in the busy city of Mumbai, located in the ever-cultural India, as part of it’s worldwide tour! The stopover was anticipated by many, and we were all eager to see the results of such.

The venue for this iconic event was  located at the Royal Western Turf Club, a famous horse-racing ground in the heart of Mumbai. The race track has seen the acts of Swedish House Mafia and Avicii play here too, among many other charting artists. This location serves as the perfect setting for an audience member to carry home with them the most perfectly set memories, with each element of the venue complimenting each other.

It was quite a sunny day on 16th March, and we headed out to the venue to begin our ASOT 600 experience. The scorching sun didn’t stop any of the fans from coming early in the afternoon, as gates opened at 2PM. We were absolutely surprised, and proud at the same time, to see so many people turn up in, early! Support and support everywhere. From the domestic bigwigs to the international stage players, there was crowd everywhere, hands always in the air, and an energy you couldn’t calm even with a nuke!

This wasn’t your ordinary come-watch-enjoy-leave gig. The organisers, Submerge & Percept Live, know how to play their cards right when it comes to organizing something as huge in magnitude as this. If you were tired and needed to give your feet a break, you could go grab a bite from the various food stalls available at the venue, go play a little foosball and have your picture taken with a bunch of props, or sit on the gallery steps, where a lot of fans chose their comfort spot to enjoy ASOT 600 Mumbai. Options were everywhere, you chose how you wanted to enjoy ASOT 600 Mumbai.

The afternoon began with Vinayak A ‘s mesmerising deep house set; his music got us in the groove, and definitely dropped a degree or two in the temperature. Post 3pm, Sanjay Dutta took over the console and brought in a bit of progressive house & trance by upping the tempo from the previous set. By now, through their soulful yet enthralling sets, the domestic biggies had certainly created a platform for one of the most sensational evenings in India’s history of EDM to commence. Our first international act for the day was Arnej. And by 4pm the Canadian producer came on stage, thus starting the expedition.

They say you judge a book by its cover, Arnej was the cover of this book and we predicted a great show after hearing his set. The harsh sun in Mumbai deterred no one, as the crowd wouldn’t cease to dance and jump around to his tunes. That is how absolutely brilliant his set was. We had seen Arnej a few days ago at the ASOT 600 Mumbai Pre Party and noticed that his set list was more trouse (a heady mix of trance and house) than trance, however his set at the main event was a blissful joy ride for trance fans.

Most people entered when his set began or during it, and as they entered you could sense their excitement as they all jumped around hearing him perform. Having played in India thrice already, he captivated the crowd and knew how to keep them going which made the start of ASOT 600 Mumbai fantastic for us. True ASOT fans swayed from start to end of his set. After Arnej finished, the decks were taken over by Rank 1!

Starting his set with the perfect dance floor smasher, Piet Bervoets of Rank 1 hit us with “7 instead of 8″. A wonderful track, with the right mix of a hard hitting kick drum bass, and a earworm of a melody which ensured their set took off with a bang. At just about 5 pm, with the sun not too hot, one could say Piet had nature on his side as the entire atmosphere, the sky and the weather bolstered their set up to the hilt and made the crowd dance like there was no tomorrow.

Playing a set comprised mostly of Rank 1‘s original productions,  it had their special brand of trance which made the crowd roar when they played their beautiful collaboration with Jochen Miller, “Wild and Perfect Day”, leading the crowd at this point to sing along together to this beautiful tune.

Wearing a fluorescent yellow t-shirt with “Party” all over it and shades, one could feel the sheer energy by a simple glance at the style he himself was grooving to his own set. One hour wasn’t not enough, but there was more in store. Piet’s set had intense energy levels and it made the crowd go crazy in anticipation for what was to come. One could almost think, if the energy midway through the event is so high, what could possible take us higher? And all of these misconceptions were wiped away as the evening progressed.

Next, we had the brilliant Shogun! Opening his set with “Inifity” by Guru Josh Project, Shogun set ablaze memories of 2008, the year Armin released “Imagine” and became a favorite to many. Shogun was the mid-way mark to Armin and he certainly did a remarkable job of keeping the fans going with his energy. From up in the stands you could see that he was certainly enjoying himself. Though his popularity is India is growing, he was greeted with people yelling out ‘Shogun.. Shogun’. That was just what Shogun needed to dish out even more energy. It’s brilliant when you see support coming from a country that has so many misconceptions about it’s music scene; Its these simple chants and support that disprove any theories anyone may have otherwise.

It was when Shogun played “Drop” that the crowd went absolutely crazy! It’s been a crowd favorite since Armin dropped it at ASOT 600 in Sao Paolo. ASOT Den Bosch and ASOT Mumbai were the only privileged legs of the tour to witness Shogun perform live for ASOT 600.

Taking over the decks from Shogun were Egypt’s very own Aly & Fila; with only Fadi representing the duo. Packed entirely with pure emotion, each and every one of the tracks dropped by them took the listener on a journey, a journey to deepest reaches of ourselves and true emotions. Their entire set was jam packed with brilliantly produced uplifting yet driving trance, which sent waves of euphoria surfing through the crowd  yet kept everyone’s energy levels high. As they progressed and the sun was down, their set was perfectly complimented with constant bursts of pyrotechnics and a wonderfully enthralling light set up, big ups to the organisers and crew for that!

A wonderful set to prepare the crowd to be uplifted to the joys of entailed in the once in a lifetime celebration of A State of Trance’s 600^th episode, Aly and Fila totally drove true trance fans in an absolute state of trance when they played “We Control The Sunlight”. Another peak was hit when they played the uplifting mix of their original, Fireislands, a collaboration with Solarstone. As the night progressed it was time for them to close and for the man everyone has been waiting for, dancing for & raving for – Armin van Buuren to take to the stage!

The crowd gathered every bit of energy they had within themselves to cheer Armin van Buuren on stage. As Armin entered the main stage and spread his arms wide, he was welcomed with the roar of thousands of fans, ready for him to lead the expedition. The venue was packed, fans were spread across from the stage till the end, all bursting with energy. Armin savoured the moment too! We could see a huge smile on his face from yards across. He started off the night with tracks like The Expedition, and his newer song, D# Fat, being dropped in the beginning half, these were all accompanied by mind-blowing visuals and pyrotechnics which all compiled it all into one great experience.

As the night went on, we saw Armin request for an Indian flag, and he got on top to wave that flag up high as every single fans shed a tear on the inside. The crowd were having the time of their lives chanting Armin’s name and clapping, which was simply beautiful. Armin also played one of his all-time classics towards the end, In And Out Of Love, which managed to get everyone singing along on the loudest volume they could. Ending the set with his new single, This Is What It Feels Like, Armin managed to achieve the perfect ending to his set, sending everyone into a wave of emotion of euphoria. Armin himself seemed to be overwhelmed and so was the crowd.

We truly understood, why it was so aptly titled ‘The Expedition’. Not only did Armin share his joy with the world, he also took each and every member of his audience in each and every city, on a wonderful musical journey that each of them would cherish for the rest of their lives. There were scores and scores of people with their hands up as they had surrendered themselves. There were multitudes moved to tears by his sheer presence on stage and you could see the purest form of joy, euphoria and ecstasy on each and every persons face.

Some of us danced, Some of us were entranced, some of us held on to the people we loved most, some of us made new friends & some of us re-connected with old ones. Whatever each of us did, there was nothing but positive energy, love and serenity felt by each and every one of us. Not many people on this earth have the power to unite a huge gathering of a diverse range of nationalities or religions and inculcate such a positive emotion in each of them.

No one wanted to leave, and certainly no one wanted to end. Whoever were present at A State Of Trance 600: The Expedition, Mumbai; lived to see something magical and something that will leave a glowing mark in their lives forever. Each and everyone present helped in making this day a very special day, and it was played out beautifully.

We’d like to thank Submerge Music and everyone else who helped create this experience, and made this possible.

To check out all the photos from our album, click here!