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Published: October 9th 2011
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Christian and Me
Christian and I getting ready for Sensation. Photo courtesy of our Host Mom, Fernanda. This weekend the city of Barcelona was ecstatic for the international rave, Sensation. I first heard about Sensation during the spring quarter when I was at SCU. People told me that it was a rave that is celebrated in Amsterdam and that this would be the first time it would be held in Barcelona. I'm not into the rave scene by any means but when I heard that a lot of people from SCU were planning on going to Sensation, I decided I should go.
Sensation has one requirement: everyone must wear white clothes. I wore my white shorts, a white undershirt, and a white button-down shirt to the show. Luckily, I didn't need to wear white shoes because I really didn't want to buy shoes that I would probably never wear again.
Many people from SCU who are studying all over Europe came to Sensation this weekend: people from London, Paris, Rome, you name it. We all met up at Steve Anderson's apartment near Plaza Catalonia before we walked to Palau Sant Jordi on Montjuic. I was shocked to see how many people from Santa Clara flew into Barcelona for this event. There must've been over 50 of
us, including the SCU students from Barcelona. It was really cool because I got to say hi and catch up with some of my classmates from other countries.
We left Steve Anderson's apartment and walked over to Palau Sant Jordi for the concert at 10:00 or so. It was quite a site to see: a parade of SCU students all dressed in white, walking to a rave in Barcelona. We all congregated together on the dance floor when we arrived at Palau Sant Jordi.
The atmosphere at Sensation was very similar to a club but on a much larger scale. There were over 17,000 people all dressed in white, gathered in the building. Everyone was really excited to be there because it was a very international event and it was the first time Sensation was held in Barcelona.
Palau Sant Jordi was similar to an NBA basketball arena in the United States. There was a stage in the middle of the dance floor for the djs to play their music. Above the stage was a massive light fixture that dropped water. The water was illuminated in different colors when it dropped from the fixture which was pretty
cool. Two light fixtures were on either side of the dj's stage. These also had lights on them and added to the light production of Sensation. There were dozens of spheres that hung from the ceiling in the arena. They would change colors and rise and fall as a part of the production.
The djs played electronic music the entire night. There were probably 8 different djs that played at Sensation. I was never a fan of electronic music so this part of the show didn't really appeal to me. At one point they played a few lines of the song "Otherside" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which was exciting for me because I like to listen to music with lyrics as opposed to electronic noise. Unfortunately, this song was short-lived and the bumping electronic music resumed too soon.
Confetti rained down from the ceiling of the arena at one point during the performance. This was pretty cool and I even saved some pieces of confetti which I plan to bring back to the United States.
We danced the entire night at Sensation (or at least tried to, no one really knows how to dance to
electronic music). There were a lot of guys pumping their fists blindly in the air. It was really hard to dance to the music because all electronic sounds the same. I know I'm giving electronic music a bad rep but a lot of Santa Clara students at Sensation enjoyed the music.
I partied at Sensation from about 10:00 to 5:00 in the morning. I'll be the first one to admit that I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the show. The blaring music took a toll on my ears, and it didn't help that all of us Santa Clara students were on the dance floor and very close to the stadium speakers. My feet were also desperate for relief because I was wearing Vans sneakers, which are probably the least conducive shoes for dancing in for seven hours.
We all walked back to the Plaza Espanya metro stop when Sensation ended. The metro was packed with people wearing white clothes. I didn't get to my bedroom until 6:00 A.M. that night (or morning, depending on how you look at it). That was my longest night in Barcelona so far (and I've had some pretty late nights).
Sensation was a cool event because I got to see a lot of Santa Clara students. In that respect, it was similar to Oktoberfest. I'm ready to calm down my weekends from here on out though. I've had three consecutive wild weekends: La Merce, Oktoberfest, and Sensation. It's definitely time for a break.
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