[Report] The Qontinent 2011 (BE)

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In its 4th year, The Qontinent presented probably the best line-up in its existence, mainly due to the incredible hosting partners. Contrary to last year’s edition, where Liberty White and Footworxx were only allowed one day, both were given two days to present themselves to the international audience at Puyenbroeck recreation area. Furthermore, major players like The Magic Show and the ever growing PRSPCT organization were given their own stages.

This allowed a much broader variety of styles, and with a better link than last year’s Illusion stage. Seeing as dubstep is the biggest hype among kids these days, Tensionstep did quite well for itself on the first day, even charming many hardcore fans. The stage was great, set up in the middle of some green, in a corner of the terrain just over the bridge where the camping grounds used to be. To get an even bigger “jungle” vibe (no pun intended) going, several plants and such were put on the stage.

Our first stop, however unintended, was the Thunderdome tent. Given last year’s map, we thought Footworxx and/or Liberty White would certainly be right next door to the Thunderdome stage. Both styles and audiences are pretty much comparable, but instead there was a jumpstyle area. Turns out, both Liberty White and Footworxx were now relocated to the peninsula with the Tensionstep/PRSPCT area. Of course, both Belgian concepts focus on more underground styles of hardcore so it was only natural to put them together in a bigger surface.

Due to the bad weather on Saturday, we were surprised to see that Liberty White was an open air area (as was Tensionstep by the way). A massive wooden floor was provided, but little to no visitors were brave enough to face the terrible rain. On the other hand, the Footworxx tent was way too large and therefore not very nice when it comes to atmosphere. The best thing to do, was use two smaller tents so Liberty White-visitors could also enjoy a dry day. Nevertheless, the artists at the Footworxx stage did their best. Hilarious played lots of breaks-inspired records, such as “Vows Of Doubt” whereas the other female dj Daniela Haverbeck pounded away with even some Tieum stuff at the end of her set, if we’re not mistaken. Furthermore, she played “Ophidian - Abandon” and we even heard RTC’s “We’re Gonna Blow Your Mind”.

N-Vitral also seemed hung up on the past today, playing tracks like “The Rule Of Cool”, “Clit.com”, and “Bike’s Drum”, plus the newer “My Misery” by Tha Playah. This was all very surprising, as we’re used to other stuff when hearing his productions. Inspite of all the efforts made by the artists, no one could really enjoy the music they played because of the ridiculous volume level. Whereas previous editions were so impressive sound wise, all areas seemed to already suffer the volume restrictions of the Flemish government (even though these restrictions have been put off for at least a year).

Due to the low amount of visitors, the bar in the Footworxx tent provided a quick way to get some drinks. Tokens costed about 1,42 € as you could get 7 for 10€. This all seemed pretty cheap, but at the bar a coke costed two tokens and red bull 3. Thank god for two consecutive sets, first being Rude Awakening who played stuff like “Mixbreed Soldier”, “I:Gor – Too Hot”, “Primitive” and “The Chaos Theory”. Some tracks were played several times and so Richie Gee brought “Vows Of Doubt”, “I:Gor – Too Hot” and “Mixbreed Soldier” but had an inspiring moment when he played Cypress Hill’s “Insane In The Brain” in the drop of Lowroller’s “Tormented VIP”.

Meanwhile, the sky had cleared up and we could make a safe passage towards the Thunderdome area for Enzyme-X. The first set we would hear in the Thunderdome area, and we were very curious who would be behind the decks. It turned out to be Weapon-X, who surprised us with a nice set including “The Way Is Shut”, “So Many Sacrifices” and the incredible “The Desolate One”. Problem here was yet again the sound system which made it impossible to truly freak out.

Promo, who played next, made a few improvements to the sound and played a blasting set. He switched from old to new and back again with “Seperated World”, “Tunnel Vision”, “I Come Correct”, “The Signal (D-Passion Remix)” and “So Sick”. The crowd absolutely loved it and clapped to the beat throughout the entire set. As a closing act, we hoped to see Counterstrike bring some darkstep tunes on the Tensionstep stage, but were pessimistic as word has is that he plays dubstep under the same name and Tensionstep is after all a dubstep party.

Much to our appreciation, he was playing darkstep when we arrived so thumbs up for that. Unfortunately, after about half an hour he decided to switch to dubstep and therefore ruined his own set. Seeking salvation elsewhere, we wound up at the Liberty White area where K-Os was playing some pounders like “Flowers Of Intelligence” and “Unfuckwithable” so we still got the closing set we were looking for.

Sunday immediately made a far better impression, as the weather gods were finally with us and we managed to keep it dry the entire day with even a lot of sun. These were perfect conditions for a day mainly spent at the PRSPCT area. There were a few timetable changes due to the fact Chasing Shadows couldn’t make it. So when we went to check out Thrasher, he was playing a versus with Limewax. Nothing to complain as dubstep was definitely out of the picture and productions like “Mindfuck”, “Everything” and “Mixbreed Soldier” passed by. There was even a short two-tracks-counting hardcore intermezzo with “Rotterdam Nightmare” and “Outblast & Angerfist - Delusion” (which was mixed out before the actual drop), before switching back to “Primitive” and “My Friends”.

A lot of improvisation was needed to fill the gap, and so the mc had to keep talking as Koan Sound were preparing for their set. Later on, both Limewax and Thrasher would play separately again. The first played one hell of a crossbreed set with “Switch Technique – D.I.D.”, “Industrial Cooking Spray”, “Primitive” and “Agent Orange”. The Footworxx boys had also made a few adjustments, Madhouse Brothers and Bong-Ra had switched places. Due to the 99 db volume limit, most of the latter’s tracks were difficult to make out, but we were surprised to hear “Rotterdam Terror Corps – Unleash Hell” during his set.

Back in the sunny outdoor, Thrasher played a nice solo set, opening with Donny’s “Something Terrible” and continuing with “Facerocker (Eye-D VIP)” and “Dub Elements & Erre - Popim”. He even played the new production “The Dj Producer – The Abominable”, soon to be released on the new label PRSPCT XTRM. Soon after, most people left – probably because of the back-to-back by Outside Agency & Cooh. As we’ve seen both artists before, we decided to stay for Donny’s set. The UK madman played “Dj Hidden, Peter Kurten & Katharsys – My Favourite Sin”, “Counterstrike - Maniac (Donny Remix)”, “Something Terrible”, “Dark Planet (Donny VIP)” and, for some strange reason, ended his set with… a dubstep record. Strange conclusion to an otherwise dark and stomping set.

The last hour and a half were in the hands of The Panacea from Germany. As expected, everybody had returned after The Outside Agency’s set and were anxious for his performance. For us, he didn’t really hit the spot and his set was a lot softer than his predecessors. The only highlight was him playing “Neighbourhood Crime” by Bodylotion, but furthermore this wasn’t really fit for a closing set and 15 minutes before the end, the sound was decreased and the area was shut down. This gave us the chance to witness the big and banging fireworks show at the mainstage before returning to the parking lot. All in all, this year’s Qontinent was a disappointment when it comes to the volume level and the bad weather on Saturday. Other than that, this is still a great festival with enough potential to reach an even higher level.