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[Report] Festivaart

Festivaart was the first edition of a new concept in the east of the Netherlands with a capacity of 4250. A festival with three areas containing Hardstyle, House and Electro/Dubstep and various other styles in an area called ‘The 7th Heaven’. Festivaart was held at the second day of June, on a Thursday because of ascension day (hemelvaart), which is originally a Christian holiday.

We arrived at around 14:00, the festival had already started at 12:00, it wasn’t too crowded at that time which gave us the opportunity to walk right into festival area and had almost no queue at the token bar. Tokens where normal priced for an event like this, especially if you keep in mind that the entrance fee wasn’t very high for such a line-up. We decided to check out each stage at the beginning and started at the Hardstyle stage. 2-Sidez were already kicking it hard there, but sadly it wasn’t too crowded, but it wasn’t at any stage at that time. I noticed him spinning “Breathe” and “The Downside” by Ambassador Inc. We chose to check the other stages too, but before that a quick visit to the toilets, and sadly they asked another token for that.

After that quick stop we visited the “7Th heaven a.k.a. de 7e Hemel” which represented different genres, at that moment Back Cornerz were spinning and they surprised me in a good way! They spun tracks which sounded to me like a House & Trance crossover, with a highlight of Beastie Boys – Make Some Noise (Jordy Lishious bootleg) and a Kernkraft 400 – Zombie Nation rmx. When their set was done we chose to check out the House stage.

It was kind of sad, but at that time there was absolutely nobody at that stage. I guess this was because the music was kind of the same as on the 7th heaven stage, and that was open air and this one was in a tent, so most of the people chose to dance in the sun instead of an empty tent. But when we decided to just go and stand there, more people arrived. The festival grounds weren’t loaded yet either, which was also the case later on at 5’Oclock. Mark Junior was spinning at that moment, and since I’m not that into house, I won’t judge what I heard. Later on there came more people, since headliner Vato Gonzalez was playing right after him.

Because it wasn’t crowded enough, we decided to go back to the 7th Heaven stage again, where DJ Kydro from Manchester was playing. He started off with some oldskool hiphop tracks like Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Beastie Boys – Intergalactic, which made me smile but wasn’t really picked up by the crowd. He noticed it and tried out some dubstep beats, which made me smile even more, but again the crowd wasn’t ready for it and most of them left to visit Vato Gonzalez. I guess my region “De Achterhoek” isn’t ready for dubstep yet.

We took off to view the harder stage again. I wanted to hear Adaro spin and looked forward to almost all deejays after him. So that’s what I did, when I arrived, Global Soundz where finishing off their set with Feel My Fire and my beloved “Jack Overdose – Octavius Augustus”. That track pretty much made my day, those vocals give me shivers everytime and the atmosphere in that track is just huge. Big-up for Global Soundz for daring to spin that track! Other tracks I heard where The Words, Tuuduu and BassBoom.

Adaro 16:00 – 17:00
Then it was time for Adaro, an act which I looked forward too, especially with the fresh A2 Records album in mind. Adaro spun a lot of those tracks as I expected, but next to that, stuff like Audio Attack, Dominator (Slim Shore Remix) and Everything Changes. Overall his set was quite raw and mostly like I expected. But that’s what I had hoped for, and it was great!

Degos & Re-Done 17:00 – 18:00
Now it was time for the up and coming local heroes Degos & Re-Done. This was a ‘home-match’ for them and one of the first if I’m right. If they wanted to, they could’ve travelled to the party by bicycle! It was also noticeable if you looked at the crowd, at the end of Adaro it became a bit more busy. I guess a lot of friends of Degos and Re-Done wanted to check them out. Their entrance was with the Wildstylez remix of “Little Red Noisy Thing” and was followed up by “Intoxication (Waverider rmx)”. As I expected they kept on going with tracks that were quite raw and less uplifting, just like we are used to from Theracords artists. Other tracks that I was able to recognize were Upgrade The Noize, Straight To The Beat, Outside The Box and Salsa. They also sampled the vocals of Rockin’ Ur Mind in a raw track during mixing. Their set was cool if you like raw and their style, for me it was pretty decent as I’m more into euphoric tracks.

Frequencerz 18:00 – 19:00
It was time for the Fusion Records artists, Frequencerz. They started with a remix of I Am Techno by Zairon (Better known as Zatox), followed up by The Prophet – Recession. It was a pity I was in line for the baguette bar at that moment (which took like half an hour…) because I would’ve enjoyed the shit out of those tracks for sure. While standing in line I noticed them spinning “Underground Tacticz” And one of their own tracks which is released on Fusion. When I came back, the highlights of that set where a ‘Gold’ mashup of the Original mix and the Bioweapon remix, a mashup of “Skyscraper” and “Dragon’s Lair” and the track by “Ivan Carsten, You Try To Play Me?”. Overall this set was varied and the crowd picked it up quite well.

Headhunterz 19:00 – 20:30
Finally, Headhunterz! A lot of the visitors waited for this since Headhunterz is one of the biggest names in the harder scene these days. For me it was a relief to hear some more euphoric tracks again. He started with some hits like From Within, Psychedelic Sunshine, Her Voice (Super Bass mix) and the new Defqon Anthem. After these tracks, he thought it was time for some dubstep! That’s always welcome if you ask me, but the crowd didn’t know what to do with it. After that he went a bit more raw with tracks like “Haunter Of The Dark” and Wake Up! (Snooze mix) but that was combined with tracks like “First Match 2011”and “Art of Creation”. Overall you could say his set was varied too. With 2 dubstep tracks, euphoric and raw tracks and it seemed a perfect combination for this event, as I believe the crowd loved it. 

Ran-D 20:30-22:00
As the last Hardstyle act, it was Ran-D’s turn. His set contained tracks like Breathe, Little Red Noisy Thing (Wildstylez Remix), Discorecord, Futureshock, Part of the Hard Remix, To the Top and Gangsters Don’t Dance. As you can see this was a combination of raw hits and a bit more euphoric. But my favorites of this set had to be “Magic” by B-Front and Frontliner. And ofcourse, the last two tracks: “Under Attack” and “Son of Torture”. Those two tracks just contain so much energy and the vocals are just perfect for a rawstyle banger. After Ran-D, we decided to call it a day, Paul Elstak would close the harder stage and DJ Jean the House stage, and since both of them couldn’t float my boat we took off.

Overall I can say this party was a good one, certainly if you keep mind this was the first edition and the first large festival (with harder styles) in this region. The organization probably didn’t count on such a big crowd since there were some inconveniences because of the crowdedness. The toilets were overcrowded, that made the men urinate elsewhere, and for the toilets that were there, you had to pay a token. Besides that, the food bars were very crowded too and the ATMs (Pin-automaten) were broken at some point of the day at the tokensales. To sum up, it was a great party, the sound and music were perfect but some inconveniences should be erased for a next edition. Next year I will certainly be there again!