One of the last techno festivals of the year in our vicinity is the Draaimolen festival in Tilburg which is in the South of Holland. After not being able to go trough for a couple of editions and last year the festival was blended in a new form which lasted multiple one day events, this year the format was 'back to normal' again. A two day event in the woods next to an industial area.
And...it was fantastic to be back!
Normally when I go to a festival I have a bit of a global idea of all the things I want to see during the day. Draaimolen festival on the Saturday was initially a bit of a challenge in my head to get this all straight. Because everythign I wanted to see was a headliner and all at the same time on different stage. Not really workable so time to make choices, and also make choices regarding the rest of the day.
One of the acts which I walked into was John Talabot which was still during the day and is normally a nice one to watch. But since this festival was in our region it was a lot of walking into people and socialising, especially since there were a lot we hadn't all seen in years. That is the cool thing about these kinds of events, people 'just go' without spreading too much of a word, and it end up being one big socialising setting.
After some socializing we headed over to another stage where LB dubcorp which is the alias of Luke Slater was playing. Honestly, I am not too fond of dubstep and everything that is too friendly so I was a little weary on heading towards this as I like Luke Slater a lot better in his normal techno act. but honestly, this was really chill and it really captured the outdoor vibe of a festival in the woods and in the sun (fair enough it also rained, but that happens).
While getting some food and sheltering rain which really was a downer all of a sudden it had turned dark and those are the signs summer is starting to end. It is getting darker a lot earlier in the day, but that is actually a fantastic thing at techno shows, because that is when the lights and the smoke really start to make a difference in the experience.
Heading over to Claire Morgan b2b with Julie these ones really turned up the BPM and the vibe with this as well. The set was dark and upbeat and the blaster 'Oilrigger' from Regent had a central location in the set, but mixed slower and darker.
Oke this Oilrigger sound is so brutal I think it deserves a share here
A decent warm up it seems heading up to headliners of this stage DVS1 b2b with Oscar Mulero. Also a super decent set but it started so much slwer than I had hoped for and that took out a bit of the energy after the blasters from Claire Morgan.
And besides from that, we took a couple of friends to here as a birthday gift because they are really a Laurent Garnier fan. So it was time to head over there. As said....all headliners at the same time.
Another act we walked into was this experimental performance of Albert van Abbe which is a techno DJ from Eindhoven together with a piano player and a singer which had the highest notes in there in an ambient settting.
Was it interesting? Sure it was, its always nice to see where something is going. Was it chill to listen? Not at all, and especially not when you are coming from all different high energy stages.
But cool to see though there is a stage for everyone and everywhere though
One thing I really love about the Draaimolen festival is the location in the woods. All of the stages are in the woods en especially with a big of smoke machines and lights this really gives some extra vibe to the whole experience.
What I did notice that we spend most of the time at the stages where the most 'dark and fast' artists were playing and this was a bit where all of the 'older' people of the festival were. There were a lot of youngsters and one kid said to me: 'its so cool people like you guys are also joining in'. And when I asked what he meant with 'people like you guys' the answer was:
'People your age ofcourse' Ouchhhhh
Regardless, Draaimolen festival just has a really natural vibe in there and is super fun to attend. My intitial reaction is always that I surely will be joining again next year. Hopefully there will still be a next year as the Friday didn't sell out and with all of the covid years in between there were surely enough financial blows to deal with.
Fingers crossed again and kudos for the organisation!