The Hardcore Overdogs: The forgotten Hardcore (video) History of the 90s German Mayday Rave Parties

If you're a follower of Hardcore Techno, you've likely stumbled upon some videos taken from the German Mayday Raves by now.
At least the PCP@Mayday video should be a given, then there's Laurent Hô, Dano, RMB...

So, in case you were not "there and alive, in that corner of time and the world", let us throw some light on this rave-y hardcore phenomenon.

1. What was Mayday?

In the 90s, Mayday was the biggest Rave in Germany - and likely all over the world, too.
It was a huge party set in a vast indoor area (actually an exhibition hall) in the middle of germany, ran for several days, and had several "stages / floors" each time.
Some raves were set in berlin, too, but that concept was dropped then.
The first mayday took place in 1991.

2. Why was Hardcore and Gabber being played at Mayday?

Because, from the beginning of the 90s to the mid of the decade, the various Techno "styles" were not split. People would listen to, and party to several styles, and Raves did host a variety of music, too.
So it was normal that Trance, Techno, Acid, Gabber and "Terror" DJs played at the same floor - or that DJs simply dropped all of this in one set.
As Hardcore was a natural part of the Techno and Rave scene, it obviously had to be at Mayday, too.

There is also the misconception that in the 90s, "Hardcore" was only played at some dedicated parties and festivals, mostly set in the Netherlands.
Bullshit! Hardcore was played all over the world, at 100s of places and destinations. But, as mentioned above, it did not had to be a special "Hardcore" party, DJs dropped Gabber beats all the time on the dancefloor.

But, above that, at one point Mayday seemed to be catalyst for the Hardcore scene too. Hardcore and Gabber were seen as the hottest and newest trends for the Techno crowd ca. 1992-93, and Mayday tried to jump onto the wagon and push this even more.

3. Why are there so many videos of these parties?

"Viva" was a music television channel that was set up to kill MTV's market share in Germany. One of the concepts was to focus on "new youth trends" as the execs thought the "old dinosaur" MTV would be too lazy to pick up on these, and be vulnerable to losses in that regard.
So right from the start Viva clung to the Rave, Techno, Dance scene (which was the biggest youth movement in Germany in the 90s - much bigger than Nirvana, Oasis or Blur etc.). Tracks like Technohead - I wanna be a hippy, RMB - Redemption, or DJ Hooligan - Rave Nation were on heavy rotation on Viva and could be seen throughout the day.
Viva also decided to do broadcasts of the Mayday raves, lasting something like 5 hours into the night.

This means these videos were recorded by a professional, dedicated sound and video team for a TV broadcast, and have thus superior quality to almost any other recordings from the 90s.
Fans than just recorded the TV signal onto their VHS tapes.

4. Are there other recordings than the videos?

Yes, there were also a lot of audio recordings of Mayday sets, and some where even much more Hardcore!

5. What are some notable Mayday recordings?

Videos:

#1. PCP - Live @ Mayday "Judgement Day" - 30.04.1993

I mean, yeah, here comes the big one, right?
If you have not seen this video, what do you know about Hardcore, really?

#2. Laurent Hô @ Mayday The Raving Society 26.11.1994

His set is definitely not some Mellow, Trance type music. It's true underground Gabber and "Terror", from the likes of Industrial Strength, DJ Fistf*uck, C-Tank...