Epizode Festival opened its first year in style

The first track we mention could well be the best one we heard all weekend. Not because it's a groundbreaking new dub that we'd never heard, not because it was a cold slab of bumping tech and not because we're huge fans of Whitney. It was a case of circumstance, environment and sheer joy taking over our minds and bodies that morning. Eggs Dancefloor was the site's smallest stage and its name comes from the fact it's surrounded by huge sculptures that housed fluorescent glowing eggs, twinkling in the darkness.

The first night we arrived, Sammy Dee was tasked with bringing the sunrise in with style. He played 5-7am and the Perlon mainstay expertly blended slamming house with more intricate, techier numbers. His last tune however was this Kraftwerk and Whitney mash-up and with the sun raising higher with every croon of Whitney's voice, we soared the highest we'd been all weekend too. There aren't many tracks that will top that moment on the beach.

The following day/night, we were so hungover. We're talking savage. We drank bottles and bottles of prosecco till the early hours, a large amount of which we'd offered to Sammy Dee, so we arrived at the festival around 1am having missed the day section. Our main port of call was the Freesby Dancefloor, the main stage for the festival that was covered by a giant UFO-shaped frisbee. This was where most people saw the majority of the festival and it played host to acts like Julia Govor, Matt Tolfrey and Claptone.

The music had been super-varied up to this point, with house, techno and even some wall of noise, ambient stuff thrown in but it was an Arma17 showcase and anyone who's familiar with the Russian institution knows that the musical output is nothing short of top drawer. As we arrived Rayo, an artist we hadn't heard of before, was warming up, although warming up would be putting it lightly, he was throwing it down. He built a really nice groove from the off and his tech house had a sense of urgency and swing to it. His last track before handing over was 'Cozmoport' by Scsi-9, a favourite from Craig Richard's fabric CD and an instant favourite of the festival.