[Jamiel]

Ten years on from my last pure dance festival (Tribal Gathering '97) and apart from Underworld I was pretty disappointed.

This is probably more me not moving with how the dance scene has changed.

I loved the Underworld set, but as others have said it seemed short after four hours of Sascha & John Digweed.

Slightly disappointed there was no 'River Run' material, but it was a short set, and they did a lot of crowd pleasers. 'Kittens' was my highlight, such a hard and blasting pure techno track.

As for the festival, I know it was not such a big event as the Tribal Gathering was, but there just were not enough live bands, nor enough variation in the DJs. No 'Chill Out' tent, so you could relax a bit before going back for the next dance session. I know the weather didn't help with this, no lying on the grass just letting music wash over you from the nearest tent.

At the Tribal Gathering I had to leave a couple of bands early to get into the tent for the next band I wanted to see, at 'Wild in the Country' there just came a couple of hours of waiting for Underworld, with no variation in the acts to pass the time.

I thought Sascha & John Digweed were great for the first hour, but then the set seemed to be padded to fill a too longer time.

As I said this might just be me not moving with how dance has become far more DJ oriented than live bands, but I don't think I would bother going to another pure dance festival unless more live acts were playing. I prefer seeing DJ in a club, and can move on when I have had enough.

Really looking forward to the tour, no waiting hours for Underworld, hopefully longer and more experimental sets, a new album of material to hear, roll on November.

Jamie