Global Gathering 2011 saw the festival having a slight overhaul from previous years. Although on the same Stratford airfield as previous years, the festival organisers reshuffled the site around, creating a new main stage area and room for a new, enormous, 8000 capacity tent. The music policy also took a shift and the line up which was once dominated by the big house, techno and trance labels, saw an influx of Dubstep, Drum & Bass and UK Funky. This is surely a sign of the times and the shifting of tastes in younger dance music fans. If fact the aforementioned 8000 capacity tent was curated by Metropolis on the Saturday, with the likes of Nero and Sub Focus relegating heavyweight promoters like Godskitchen and Bedrock to smaller tents on site. The Friday night saw a tent run by one-time pirate radio operation Rinse FM, a situation which would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. Bass-heavy music, ladies and gentlemen, is now well on top in the Dance world.

My Friday night was spent mostly in the Wax:On tent. Although one of the smallest on site, they boasted a line-up featuring Annie Mac, Boys Noize and Rusko, and the tent was packed out all night. Jaymo and Andy George from Radio 1 kicked things off for me with their usual Electro fayre warming up the crowd nicely for Doorly who performed his usual, flawless 4-deck business. He is clearly building up a large following with his DJ sets and should go from strength to strength with his talent. In a break from the electro-house, I wandered to the 'Electric' tent to catch a bit of Maya Jane Cole. Hotly tipped in the world of techno, she had the crowd in her palm with flawless mixes with continuous groove. A quick trip to the packed Rinse FM stage meant I could catch Miss Dynamite's short but sweet live show, which was as good as ever, finishing with the dancefloor smash 'Wile Out'.

Back at Wax:On it was time for Rusko. It seemed strange to me that one of the biggest names in Dubstep was confined to a smaller stage at the venue when Rinse were curating a much bigger bass-based line-up across the park, but he seems to have dropped off the radar a bit since moving to the states to join up with Diplo and Mad Decent. Needless to say his DJ skills havent dropped, and the Wax:On crowd was bouncing throughout. Rusko himself didn't stop for a second; there's something incredibly satisfying about watching a DJ bouncing around and clearly enjoying a set as much as their fans (many House/Techno DJs take note!).

After Rusko it was time for some big headliner action, I traipsed across the site to the biggest tent to catch some of Underworld Live- they must have known I was coming as they waited for my arrival to drop their collaboration with High Contrast, 'Scribble, which is one of my favourite tracks from them- following that little dnb switch the resumed the usual relentless techno sounds and had their fans marching until the whole tent exploded with the predictable highlight, 'Born Slippy'. In a bizarre, literal, twist, the whole audience then spun around to face another huge stage at the other end of the tent (I told you it was big!) where we got to see the exclusive debut of Eric Prydz's new live show. This was essentially him DJing on ableton to some visuals, but the visuals were projected onto a mesh screen in front of the decks. This screen was nearly invisible and gave the visuals an incredible 3d 'floating' feel to them. Photo's don't do it justice but I imagine this technology will become more widely used very soon as it gives quite an impact.

To finish the night we had the highlight of the Wax:On lineup in Radio One's Annie Mac. She has gradually become one of the biggest names in dance music and her 'Annie Mac presents...' nights play to sell out crowds across the country. Her sets are always one to watch out for simply for the diversity of styles. Not afraid to switch tempo's (although its never done smoothly!), Annie drops everything from Moombathon to Jungle and the crowd love it all. It appears the day's of 1 genre, elitist fans are truly dead.

So after a brief sleep and a good feed I was ready to go again. Friday is more of a starter for Global whereas saturday is definitely the main course! The arenas swithed curators and my base for the day was the epic Metropolis tent, check the pics but believe me when I say they dont do the size of the tent justice. Definitely the biggest indoor arena I've ever seen at a festival. The other main attraction for the day was the hospitality arena. Taking over from Wax:On they brought a heavyweight dnb lineup with all the labels heavy-hitters present. 

Hospitality kicked things off for my afternoon giving B-Complex an early afternoon set which he made the most of with a superb liquid mix. Over at Metropolis the afternoon was dominated by Mancunian talent with hotly tipped Citizen playing a live PA set before Silver & Prophecy jumped on the decks, playing a combination of their North Base 140bpm styles and a complete dnb tear up. Tonn Piper was on hand to direct proceedings, pausing only to berate the crowd for the poor quality mosh pit which had developed (for the record, moshing at drum & bass gigs is really lame. There's a reason its called 'dance' music.) On with the afternoon Redlight and Stanton Warriors put a bounce in the metropolis tent and 16bit & Funtcase b2b Cookie Monsta switched it up to some filthy dubstep. 

Needing a break from the agression, I was lucky a lesser known DJ called Sir David Rodigan was on at Hospitality. I shouldn't have to describe this man to you all; If you havent seen this man I suggest you do anything in your power to cacth him at the Warehouse Project next month. He is truly the king of the dub & reggae scene. As the sun set Metropolis played host to DJ Friction who never disappoints with lightning fast tight mixes. The only downer was that, as the audienced was primed for the last tune, an engineer cut the power to his decks, killing the set, I cant imagine the frustration that must cause but he took it well considering. 

A small army of sound engineers then took to the stage to begin setting up for the nights headliners. Its another sign of the times changing when drum & bass and dubstep artists have live set.ups and stage shows to rival rock bands. First up was Chase & Status. Their live show has being touring for a while now and it really shows with the quality of the performance they now put on, bringing both classics and new material to the table in front of a packed crowd and an army of photographers jostling for a shot. A big change from the first time I caught the live show in leeds, as the sole photographer at the venue. Following those boys was the first signing to their 'More Than Alot' imprint, Nero. The duo seem to be the name on everybodys lips when it comes to commercial dubstep and love or hate them the seem to have stumbled on a winning formula which is serving them well. The live show saw them performing atop a futuristic arcade machine dressed like arnie in the terminator movies. Id have broughr you all some pictures but was unable to shoot the show as they nad an exclusive deal with channel4 who were filming it (never thought id say that about a dubstep act!). 

Inbetween the live acts, there was time to run over to the Hospital tent for some pure drum & bass. I caught the very end of High.Contrast, finishing up with his new VIP of 'If We Ever'. London Elektricity then proceeded to play exactly what you'd expect of the hospital boss- a predictably perfect set covering most styles. Danny Byrd was to follow on but I had to miss out on one of my fave djs to check out Sub Focus' Live show. Like Chase & Status before, Sub Focus Has been doing the rounds with this show for a while and, along with MC ID, has got it pretty tight, covering most of his biggest tracks & covering multiple styles. The only flaw really is the absence of 'Swamp Thing' which is an all time classic in my eyes. Regardless of that it was still a fitting finish to a superb festival. All the changes Global have made have only served to improve the UKs biggest dance festival and I can see them staying on top for years to come.