Into The Valley Festival 2016
When we first discovered Into The Valley Festival we couldn’t believe it was a real place. Everything about it looked incredible from the pictures and even the story behind the venue was insane. Apparently, 360 million years ago a meteor crash landed from space in the forests of Dalarna where this crazy festival now takes place.
After a 14 hour journey, spread across trains and planes we finally arrived at the festival site. Before we were able to see our Swedish techno paradise for the weekend, we were checked into our KarTent aka the cardboard boxes aka the techno kennels. They were actually surprisingly decent, let pretty much no light into them and withstood the heavy rain that comes with visiting Sweden.
As soon as we had unpacked, refreshed ourselves and ate consecutive packs of Oreo biscuits and tortilla chips we headed towards the entrance. Passing through security, looking down into the quarry we were completely overwhelmed by the beauty and realisation that we had finally made it. It was a good 5 minute walk to the stages from the top of the quarry, but the music was already shaking the venue and we just knew that the weekend ahead was going to be madness.
We managed to catch the end of MCDE’s set, where he was dropping various groovy tracks along with a bit of acid (not the drug). The excitement for Mano le Tough’s set was starting to build even though the main stage was not open on the Thursday. The sound at The Temple stage was faultless and Mano’s music selection was absolutely flawless. We grabbed a few beers (the most expensive beers we have ever bought) and partied long into the night until the music ended and the Swedish night slowly turned to day.
Friday was the official start date of the festival and, after the amazing opening party the night before, we were incredibly excited to see what the main stage was going to offer. After our trek down, just in time for the wonderful Nastia and her underground Ukrainian vibes, our minds were completely blown. We had never experienced sound so loud in our lives! It was echoing off every rock and object within the quarry, making the floor shake, leaving us literally bouncing along to the music. Nastia had a really cool mixing style, with some moments of magic and some great techno to get the day started.
Following Nastia’s set; we managed to see Bella Sarris, Tini, Sonja Moonear & Raresh, DJ Tennis, Move D and The Black Madonna. What a crazy list of DJs, especially all to play at the same festival on the same day.
Finally, we ended our night seeing Ricardo Villalobos b2b with Zip providing some of the most obscure tracks we have ever heard. At one point Ricky V took a good 10 minute nap on the floor before getting back up and carrying on with his set. You never know what to expect with him, making it a thoroughly entertaining experience. Before the night ended we headed over to Dixon where a mixture of techno, tribal and house vibes were played. Again, the track selection was so unique it well and truly made the night special.
The Saturday line up was just as crazy! You could literally go to any of the four stages and see a big name DJ. We started the day a bit later than we hoped, at Paranoid London who completely blew the roof off of The Pyramid stage. They performed live and probably had one of the greatest energy levels we have seen. Following Paranoid London was Bicep who pretty much dropped a full set of their own unreleased material, edits and classics. The room was electrifying, everyone was partying and the vibe was unreal. Definitely recommend checking out the Bicep album when it’s released, you will not be disappointed.
Then we saw Joy Orbison b2b with Ben UFO at The Temple where the vibe got even better. Kink followed on, where he wowed the audience with his live performance, waving his keyboard to the crowd whilst he created impeccable melodies and loops on it. Again, the energy was another level.
There was no one better to be given the job of closing the festival than the one and only Nina Kraviz. Every single track she played was an absolute belter (check out our Instagram for some amazing videos). She played one of the best closing sets we have ever seen, which was majorly helped by the sound system and lighting that the festival provided.
Into The Valley 2016 was one of the most enjoyable festival experiences we have had. No other festival has provided a venue, a line up, sound and lighting to the level we were given in Sweden. We would love to return next year and do it all again. Thank you for the wonderful experience Into The Valley!
We have put together a Chew Spotify Playlist of some of our favourite tracks played at the festival. All our pictures and videos can be found on the Chew Instagram.