We left Frankfurt just after 5 pm and after picking up another friend and various traffic jams we finally got there about 10 pm and caught the last minutes of Takkyo Ishino which sounded very promising. Later on, just before midnight and Chris Liebing's set, surprisingly the entire group showed up at the agreed meeting point. While it obviously didn't stay together as a whole for the night we managed to split and meet again in various compositions throughout the night, making it great fun to party.

As for the music and the DJs, here is my detailed review of the ones I saw (in this order):

Tillmann Uhrmacher: OMG, I simply couldn't and still can't believe how such a bad, no: horrible DJ gets to play on Mayday. That "set" was bad beyond belief. Mixing, what mixing? Just cross fade or put on a new record when one is finished, well, I can do that, too. Easily the worst DJing I have heard in my entire club life, and this is no exaggeration. To have some good tracks (Renato Cohen-Pontape, Dave Clarke-The Wolf) alone is by far not sufficient to rock a place. Rating is not 0/10 but minus10/10. Disgusted we left to see:

Marco Remus: Ah yes, that's how we wanted it. Very solid banging Schranz to dance hard to. The perfect warm-up for Chris Liebing.

Chris Liebing: OMFG! Especially the first 20 minutes were really moving forward. After that the tempo slowed somewhat. But the mood this comedian behind the decks he emanated was incredible and contagious creating the best vibe at a given set of the entire night. The crowd was firmly in his grip, there was no escape. Very unusual for Mayday, there were calls for an encore! Clearly one of the highlights of this Mayday.

Members of Mayday: It was nice hearing 10in01 and Sonic Empire but the rest wasn't anything to write home about.

Paul van Dyk: Awesome! Of course, NBY was predictable and there is a risk to get tired of that song given how he has been banging it out in every set for about a year now. I am not in that camp yet, though, and again loved it! The set wasn't smashing hard but still hard (or was that impression at least partly due to the loud PA?), very much to my liking. Needless to say we all danced our asses off. This set was even better than the already very good Mayday 2002 set, IMO. Definitely another major Mayday highlight.

Nu-NRG live: Unfortunately, I missed parts of this set. While it sounded good uplifting and energizing, I believe 20 minutes are simply too short for a live act to really leave a lasting impression.

Blank&Jones: Well, this was one of the more controversial sets of the night. While some said it was excellent, very uplifting and creating a great party vibe, others said it simply sucked. My own take: it sucked. So much commercial crap doesn't belong to an event like Mayday. It sounded like they played the 438th MTV trance compilation or something. Just not the quality music a PvD delivers.

Vanguard live: Yawn. Flash as the opener,but played for too long, especially considering it was a 20 min only set. The set as a whole simply didn't kick it at all, of course suffering from that 20 min shortness as well. At the end of March they played a 1 hour set at Palazzo and that rocked! Whatever.

Chrysler: This was a techno DJ I have to admit I hadn't heard of before. The mixing wasn'T spectacular, buy by far not as horrible (or non-existent) as that of Uhrmacher. The music was surprisingly good and very danceable. Very decent filler until the incredible sets that, unbeknownst to us, were yet to come.

Jack de Marseille: OMG! Now this was something else, really really good! What a re-energizer after the doldrums left after PvD and Nu-NRG. That was something to go at full speed again. What should come after this, the list of remaining acts was getting short....

Mark Spoon: *puke*

Sebbo: Seamless continuation of the amazing Jack de M. Not exactly Schranz, but still superb banging techno as we like it. Well, the Airport club in Wuerzburg has a reputation as on of Germany's leading techno clubs and we should have expected no less from it's resident. Amazing closing track: Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall in a techno remix. Usually i don't like that sort of stuff, but at that moment it was just right and totally rawked!

Dero: What can I say? This was (PvD and Liebing being awesome or not) by far the best set of the entire night, at least for me. With a somewhat thinned out crowd at this time the overall party atmosphere couldn't reach the level it had during Liebing's set, but the remaining people happily got their asses kicked. And musically it was beyond imagination. To go nuts was mandatory. Then we recognize him playing Renato Cohen – Pontape to our excitement. But that was only the beginning. I have never heard that track played in such a ultra-kicking way by anybody else. Was it a different/new remix or did he mix something into it or did he rework the track right there on the spot, I don't know. I am at a loss of words to describe how insanely good this was, other than to say "I died". Well, but not enough, a little later, completely out of the blue he played a track I had least expected at Mayday, in fact that had never even crossed my mind at all: DJ Rolando - Jaguar !!!!!!!!! O-M-F-G!! One of my absolute TOP TOP TOP top favourites of all time! I was the only one to immediately recognize the song and to start to scream hysterically (to the bewilderment of the others, who, as it turned out, didn't even know this track). And then I died so hard and completely as I have never died before. After that overwhelming Pontape, now this. I was beyond me, I lost control, even started to cry. Needless to mention goose bumps all over. I DIED DIED DIED. Unfortunately, he didn't play it for too long, i don't know what would have happened if he had. But enough of that. Only this much: for this moment alone it was more than worth it to go to Mayday 2003.

Moguai: After this divine experience this set just didn't do it for me at all. I had expected more based on his really decent Mayday 2002 set. The worst was when he simply wouldn't end his set at the appropriate time, instead milking his own track 'U know Y' it became unbearable. The unspeakable Westbam was already hovering at his side to start the set inexplicably dubbed 'Mayday All Stars' to close the event. Anyway, we left at that point, exhausted yet happy.

TOPS:
1. DJ DERO 15/10
2. PVD 12/10
3. Chris Liebing 11/10
4. Jack de Marseille 9/10
5. Marco Remus 9/10

FLOPS:
1. Tillmann Uhrmacher -10/10
2. Superpitcher 0/10
3. Blank & Jones 1/10
4. Vanguard 2/10

In summary, Mayday 2003 as a whole wasn't up to par musically, IMO. Especially when compared to the musically clearly superior Time Warp. There were to many weak points or filler DJs, see -->full line-up. All in all it was still a worthwhile party with some great sets and good atmosphere, especially among our group of over a dozen. And for me personally, it brought one of the most incredible moments in my entire club life (comparable only to a similar, yet rather different moment conjured up by PvD at the Vandit night in Feb. 02).