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[Report] Alcatrazz (NL)

After some years of paving the road, Alcatrazz Festival made a drastic choice for the harder styles. Where previous editions combined a small hardcore delegation with house, electro and so on, this year’s edition featured (apart from a hardstyle mainstage) a hardcore stage and even a separate early hardcore and an industrial stage. This last area was hosted by The Third Movement’s “Club R_AW” concept and was announced a few days after the rest of the line-up had been published.

To us, this was an excellent choice and a good enough reason to make our first ever visit to this festival. After the PRSPCT party in Rotterdam, it was impossible for us to get there when the festival opened but we would be sure to make it there to witness D-Passion’s set on the hardcore stage. A big help was the press parking lot and separate entrance to the festival grounds.

The hardcore stage was pretty small, but very original in its construction as it consisted of several rain tanks which often trembled because of the stomping bassdrums. Although the sound could have been better towards the back of the area. Also, both sides of the stage were decorated with camouflage netting. Rick aka D-Passion’s set was remarkable in a way that a considerable number of older tracks were played, such as “Finishing Profiles”, “This Is The Day”, “Lenny Dee – Forgotten Moments (Ophidian Remix)”, “Butterfly VIP”, “Meccano Twins – Kick Type 2” and “Capture In Distress”. The crowd ate it up and even started to pogo during some tracks.

The event took place among the ruins of the castle of Horst, and hosting the industrial area in a tunnel underneath the highway definitely turned out to be a great idea and, in our opinion, important for the future of Alcatrazz. The stage was incredibly high, the dj’s were nearly able to touch the ceiling and gave this area an extra touch. Furthermore, the sound was pretty good here except for at the beginning when for example Peaky Pounder was playing. What a difference compared to the last hour of the party when we walked back in during Rude Awakening’s set.

When N-Vitral took over the wheels, we thought we’d go check out the early hardcore area, hosted by Tango & Cash. Dj Gizmo was responsible for old tunes like “Wonderful Days”, “Don’t Deny The Beat”, “Go Get Busy”, “Alles Kut Enter” (for some reason) and “The Dope Man”. The atmosphere was very nice and the average age was higher than on most events, maybe the beautiful weather was responsible for the older crowd coming over for this one. The beautiful weather did have its less enjoyable consequences, like the dust clogging up your nose when another bomb was being dropped back at the hardcore area. The dj’s at the early hardcore area were completely surrounded by wooden pallets, a great and original look for this stage.

It was time to head back to the industrial area, where our Belgian hero Sandy Warez would perform for two hours, seeing as Dj Promo had turned up late (as we were told, he had missed his flight from Italy to Holland) and would play at the hardcore stage instead of Unexist and therefore be forced to perform under his Rude Awakening alias a half hour later than planned. The first hour of Sandy Warez’ set was most enjoyable for us, as he seems to have taken a liking to the drum & bass crossover which has gained a lot of attention over the past years. This led to him playing tracks like “Switch Technique – DID” and “Vows Of Doubt”, but when tracks like “Dj Mutante – Pump That Pussy” and other French stuff took over, we decided to go grab a bite to eat at the entrance. Fortunately, press members were welcome to grab some free meat from one of the food stands. Props to the organization for their kindness and hospitality!

Afterwards, we returned to the tunnel for Rude Awakening’s set who played tracks like “Ophidian - Abandon” and “The Outside Agency – Primitive” before finishing 15 minutes to early. Quite a downer, but a great closing act nevertheless. After listening to Noize Suppressor on the main stage while finishing our last drink, we left the party with a good impression of the first “harder styles” edition of Alcatrazz. We look forward to next year’s edition and the plans to (hopefully) continue the industrial tunnel experience.