Review: Bal en Blanc @Palais des Congres de Montreal

So this past weekend I had the opportunity to check out the White Party also known as Bal en Blanc in its 17th year in all it's glory. Having gone a couple of years ago, I kinda knew what to expect in terms of set up , but what really surprised me was the commercial line-up of DJ's- especially in the house room. Montreal is known for its love of electronic music but this time it failed to deliver.




Walking into the Congress Centre was exciting; tons of people all dressed in white - all ready to party! The line-up didn't take as long as a I expected it would- we waited about 45 minutes and were in right on time for Tiesto's set. Once we got in though- we headed straight for Cosmic Gate ; who were pumping mad sounds into the trance room. I checked out Tiesto for about 10 minutes and was terribly disappointed. He really needs to go back to playing trance because house is not his thing. It's funny that only two years ago at Bell Centre he gave me the best new years of my life with his heavy trance beats. Too bad.


Anyway, so I wandered back to the trance room and could not stop dancing from:


1. Sander van Doorn
2. Above & Beyond
3. Markus Schulz
4. Ben Gold

Sander Van Doorn

All of these DJ's superseded my expectations (me being a bit of a house junkie). I was blown away by their energy, song selection and unprecedented skill set. As I was ready to leave at 11am; I accidentally stepped on the dance floor again, because I wanted to grab my friends coat check tags so I could grab their jackets for them and wait outside. Then the unthinkable happened. My feet started moving and they couldn't stop. The man behind that phenomenon? Ben Gold. He completely made my night worth every minute with the last hour of his set at such an odd time of the day. The dance floor was packed; the music was pumping; the crowd was jumping and all between the random hours of 10AM-12PM. We made it to the finish line and it felt amazing! The headline track of my night was when Ben dropped "The Bottle" by Marcel Woods. Perfection. And that was Bal en Blanc!

Ben Gold

Then, as we were leaving I spotted Ben leaving and was able to let him know how much we loved the set! For that I got a kiss on the cheek from him. I wish I had a picture to show you guys, but the whole event was no camera's allowed. I guess we all know why! All in all it was the best time I've had in a long time! If you ever get the chance, hit up Bal en Blanc. You won't regret it!


I managed to find the sets from the trance room for you guys to download and enjoy!!


http://www.montreal-nightclubs.com/events/bal-en-blanc-2011-17th-edition-palais-des-congres/