Cornerstone 2007... ahh the memories.  I really had a great time.  Actually if I try to explain in this journal how good of a time I had I certainly will do injustice to the amount of fun I had.  Overall I would have to give it an A+.

Doug Theodore in the mix.

I traveled up to Cornerstone with Dave Richardson and that was great.  Dave and I both live north of Atlanta, but for some reason or another never really spent time hooking up with each other and hanging out.  This road trip allowed us to hang out and really get to know each other.  It was good, real good to get to know Dave:  Super Nice Guy.

We arrived at the fest and I hadn’t been to Cornerstone since 2000.  A lot had changed.  First of all, the camping and campsites in general were more sophisticated.  Campers brought many more canopies, awnings, and furniture.  I saw lazy boys, couches, and fancy lawn chairs.  Another thing that really changed was the generator stages.  I remember 7 years ago driving down the roads and hearing little sounds coming from stages and an occasional generator stage.  This year, everyone and their brother had a stage.  Stages offered timeslots for 20 bucks for 45 minutes of time.  It was crazy.

We set up camp right next to the barn with some other Tastyfreshers, the BTU crew, and the club worship crew.  It was cool having us all together.  We had some late night conversations about God, clubbing, DJing, gay clubs, etc. during the week.  It was awesome hearing all the insight and opinions.  That only happened because we camped together.

After setting up camp we set up the Tastyfresh Satellite System generator stage and it was so cool.  It was the coolest generator stage bar none in at the Festival.  DJing in a van, how cool was that?  We had two bubble machines going and the music pumping.  This was the place to hang out all afternoon thru the early evening.

Tastyfresh Sound System

Tuesday night was night one for Afterhours at the Barn.  We had some technical difficulties getting the generator stage going so we started the club at night early; sort of a pre-party.  Dave Richards got things going first with his debut of his live PA.  I followed with an hour of some tech-house and progressive.  The evening was now set to begin featuring the guys of BTUlive.  Fitzpatrick started things off with a live PA of trance and psy-trance using lots of keyboards, a computer, mixer and a controller.  He used it all and made it sound great.  Next up was Alex B. the only person all week to spin vinyl.  He spun some trance and progressive and massaged the crowd beautifully.  His set was performed on the floor and not the stage.  Adam Sean was next and he spun progressive and psy-trance with his Ableton Live setup and controller.  Oneel finished the night off wonderfully with a banging Ableton set of 4 on the floor beats as well using the sixth different setup of the night.  This night was wicked with six different DJ/PA setups.

Wednesday we got the generator stage running and pretty much ran that all day. Wednesday I bathed with Alex B.  um...yeah that was memorable bathing in the lake with the guys.  Good bonding.   The club opened on Wednesday night with DJ 404 spinning a luscious set of groovin house music.  He set the tone of the building beautifully for Joel Armstrong who came on next.  Joel rocked the house.  His set was in a word groovyfunkyprogressivehouseyelectro...in doing so he claimed the title for the week of gaining the biggest fan (also a Canadian).  She joined us at the campfire later that evening for discussions into the early morning.

Stryke shows of his technic

Thursday was Jeremy Kadinger and Stryke night at the barn.  I think of all nights in the barn this night had the best cohesion between opener and headliner.  Jeremy warmed the crowd the best of all the DJs of the week with his grooving, driving house music.  It was the perfect compliment and build to what Stryke was fixing to do!  Stryke...o yeah he tore the building apart.  Of all the DJs all week, Stryke was the guy to watch mix.  He did tricks on the tables with the computer and the controller than many of us other DJs can only dream about.  He worked the crowd into an absolute frenzy.  There was a power outage during his set and he just picked it up after power was restored and carried on mercilessly beating his crowd over the head with his minimal techno and harder tech-house tunes.  It was a great night and had the largest crowd at any one time and largest total number of people through the barn for the week.  The barn was actually closed about 5-10 early because 4 smoke bombs were lit in the barn.  That was really the only bummer.

Friday night was my night... ha.  It was the set that I worked towards for quite a while.  I planned on playing one thing as I drove up to Cornerstone but revised that as I saw what worked in the barn.  My set was more progressive than just trance and it featured more electro-based music than what I am accustomed to playing; but it was what the crowd wanted.  Kenneth Thomas followed and was the global superstar we thought he was.  He was a flawless mixer who really poured his emotions into his set.  Playing emotional trance he worked the crowd over throughout his 2 hours.

Kenneth Thomas and the crowd.

After Kenneth was done on Thursday night, Kevin Neely (Oneel) got on the microphone and thanked the crowd for coming to the Barn for the week and said we just completed the dance events at Cornerstone.  He got booed terribly.  I thought that was awesome.  We definitely left them wanting more.  After the crowd started to leave we quickly tore down the stage and packed the sound truck so it could head back over night to Alabama.  During this time I spoke with Andy Turner of Deeplife records.  He has been to every Cornerstone that has featured the barn as a dance venue.  He said this year was at the very least tied with a previous year for the best barn at the festival.  That was certainly some high praise.

The drive back was long.  Dave and I dropped off Joel Armstrong at the St. Louis airport and headed back to Atlanta.  We drove halfway back home on Saturday and the other half on Sunday.  I am certainly glad to be back home, but the friendships I made at Cornerstone will stay with me.

Cornerstone 2008 will be the biggest year ever in the history of Cornerstone for dance music because people are already on board planning the event out.  Be there or be square.