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This was my 4th time at a Superdome Utopia, and it was amazing!
The main room still looks spectacular. The production standard has improved even more. It was apparent that effort was put into making this a high quality event.
A very important factor of a rave event are the visuals. This time there was a big improvement with the lighting. There were lights ("Varilites"?) all around the entire arena (placed in a seating row) rather than all just at the front.
Instead of just one big mirrorball, this time there were many mirrorballs of various sizes, and the configuration produced very beautiful effects whenever the lights and lasers reflected off them.
There was a laser coming from the back. This helped in producing the feeling of being surrounded by lights and lasers... which is not an easy task for a venue like the Superdome main arena! I think they did a good job with this, surely moreso than the previous Superdome events in which all lighting and lasers came only from the front.
This time the lasers were better. Rather than just blue and green, I could see rainbow colours being shot out, it looked very nice. I think they were more powerful too than previous.
There were sets of small loudspeakers hanging from the ceilings on either side of the stage in the ain arena. The sets were shaped like a honeycomb, with each set holding around 20 small loudspeakers. I hadn't seen these before, so they looked interesting. I had no complaints about the sound in the main arena.
As much as I love uplifting trance, I did not go to Utopia for trance. So I hardly stayed in the trance room, other than for a bit of Phase One's set... yet he was playing trancecore, which, for a rave, is what I prefer more than trance! This time they used the area that was previously used for the hardcore room, and which also used to be the entrance.
I wasn't too impressed by Public Domain and Ultra-sonic. It was mostly quite boring and slow. Though there were a few classics which were good to hear, a couple of tracks from the "Tekno Junkies" album. Though what made my night was Ultra-sonic's final track, which is also my favourite Ultra-sonic track:
Ultra-sonic - Obsession
I went crazy as the first few deep epic atmospheric sounds began to fill the air. I turned to a little girl next to me and told her "I love this track, it's called Obsession by Ultra-sonic, it's awesome!", though I don't think she comprehended.  She's probably too young to know Ultra-sonic's music. An epic and euphoric classic rave track it certainly is, which makes it so appropriate for the huge main arena of a large rave event like Utopia. I think this track must have had an influential part in the development of the style of uplifting trance, which at that time was non-existent.
The main arena was great for the visuals, but because the music was mostly hard trance I spent most of my time in the hardcore room, where the real rave music was played. Both Sharkey and Kevin Energy played trancecore for 2 hours each. I loved it. The music was very fast and intense and often melodic, as trancecore should be, though occasionally diverging into breaks and hardcore.
I spent the final hour in the hardcore room during which time Team Rocket (Dave PSI, QT, Destiny) was on and playing happy hardcore. The classics never die, and there were quite a few, such as Bang! - Shooting star, Dune - I can't stop raving, Dune - Million miles, and of course A-tension - Angels which was the final track of the night. As I danced and sang along to this track I was in tears... an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia fell upon me, as special memories of my rave past resurfaced.
The Superdome Utopia events seem to be popular for people attending a rave event for the first time. I think it's a good example of how a well-run and polished large-scale rave event is. I know a lot of people who had no idea of the rave scene or culture attend a Superdome Utopia, and all invariably have a great time, some falling instantly in love with the whole experience. However I don't think that the hard trance that is played in the main arena is representative of the rave scene. Hardcore, happy hardcore, and trancecore are the music that the rave scene is made of. The smaller, somewhat underground-style rave events are better representatives of the rave scene.
I urge anyone who has never been to a rave event to experience it. Ideally attend at least one good small underground-style event like Mystic or Scattered, and attend atleast once a large scale rave event, the best of which is Utopia at the Superdome.
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ee wee ). once again id like to say i was very surprised.
, spent most of the night in the main arena 
But the lighting in the superdome was crazy! Best I'd ever seen!
