Utterly Obsessed With Dekmantel
The Dutch know how to throw a party
In the third instalment of Pirates of the Caribbean there is a scene where the dead float past the Black Pearl on small rowboats. Drifting aimlessly onwards to wherever the currents take them. Silent in their journey.
This is kind of what it’s like cycling back from Dekmantel festival.
It takes place in the Amsterdamse Bos, a large park relatively far to the south of the city near the airport. The comparison someone once made to me is that it’s the Richmond Park of Amsterdam and its more rugged, but organised, demeanour suited the comparison.
But with distance comes the additional challenge of getting to and from the location. It isn’t easily accessible via the Metro which is how most would make their way to and from in London. And busses don’t quite have the capacity to ship the approximate 15,000 people back to the city.
So in typical Dutch style, most cycle.
Back to Friday night and the slow trundle back to the hostel has begun. We’re surrounded by a convoy of cyclists all making their way back like us to their various accommodation destinations and not a word is being said. A surreal silence accompanies this otherworldly procession, only pierced by the odd bell ring and comforting click click click of the sea of rental bikes in their varying degrees of road worthiness. Everyone concentrating on making it back to finally rest.
Did feel like we were in Davy Jones’ locker for a minute.
Strangely depressing metaphors aside, Dekmantel 2024 was a festival experience unlike any other. I’ve been thinking about the festival since and wanted to talk about some of the aspects that made me fall in love with it.
So without further ado, let’s dive in.
The Setup
“You can camp if you want”, a friend of mine tells me. It’s the beginning of the year and I’m asking about tips and tricks for the festival as he’s been a few times before. “They have a campsite. However, most tend to stay in the city either in an Airbnb or a hostel.”
Having previously only been to festivals that have had one or the other, but rarely both (mostly due to how rural these events can be), the idea that you could do either intrigued me. And, being someone who quite likes a decent bed and a shower in the morning, I knew that the hostel would be the choice for me.
We opted for the south east of the city as the hostel / hotel options nearer the Bos were thin on the ground and some of the festival events took place in the north of the city so we wanted to be able to get them easily.
Oh yeah, this festival took place over ten straight days.
The “festival” festival with the cool stages and big lineups took place on the final three days. But the preceding 7 were filled with interesting gigs, talks, and even screenings in the north of the city. All in the name of its tenth anniversary, ten days for ten years. We had the four day ticket so our first day was filled with bumming around town on our bikes, going from bar to talk to bar to gig and loving every minute of it. A fantastic way to warm up into the festival.
The final three days were in the Bos which was a 30-40 minute bike ride from the hostel. Initially, the distance intimidated us but after a day of experiencing the excellence that is Dutch cycling infrastructure on the Thursday, we realised just how easy it was going to be. And our first successful trip back from the Bos on Friday was the tipping point in my conversion journey.
Cycling to and from a festival is elite.
The journey home is a classic nightlife struggle, there’s no real “good way of getting back” when it’s 5am and your tube isn’t running yet. On top of that the mind numbing rigmarole of you and the taxi driver pointedly ignoring each other for 45 minutes is enough to make most go mad.
Cycling, however, now there’s an idea. It’s an activity so you’re not bored. You can set off when you want instead of waiting for whatever vehicle is coming to whisk you away. The endorphin rush is a surprisingly pleasant feeling after you’ve exhausted what’s left of your serotonin for the evening. The only real danger is that from other vehicles on the road and sadly few places rival the safety of the Dutch cycling networks.
One day I’ll make my bike my way home.
The Stages
Long time readers of my humble writings will know that I love a good venue, I’m of the opinion that musical context exists in symbiosis with the music itself. For example, music playing out of a top end HiFi system will typically sound better than out of a phone speaker. And music being played in an interesting venue will typically be more enjoyable than in a more regular setup.
And this is where Dekmantel excels.
Now I love Glastonbury with all my heart, however a lot of its stages are the usual “stage and a big field” kind of thing. The ol’ festival classic. Now I take no issue with this arrangement, but adding an interesting twist to a stage can really make a difference. Lost Village is a good example of this using the forest around the festival to enhance its stages like Junkyard which is styled after a literal junkyard with cars littered about and Hangar which has a whole airplane cockpit amongst the surrounding trees.
Dekmantel takes this concept to a whole new level and each of its 8 stages is totally interesting in their own unique ways. The site itself is essentially split into two, the “field bit” and the “forest bit” with some small ponds splitting them.
The field bit has 5 of the 8 stages, The Loop, The Nest, Connects, and UFO 1 and 2. The Loop is the biggest and main stage of the festival. It is a giant two level ring with the DJ booth to one side which, during the day, was a bit barren with the simple white walls looking desolate in the sun. When the sun went down, however, the place really came alive with an impressive light show dazzling the audience. From a strobe that went round and round the upper level of the ring to a column of smoke being illuminated by a gorgeous red glow, the stage was a spectacle after dark.
The Nest was tucked away in the corner of the site and was a marvel of creativity. With a relatively simple construction of a slanted roof with industrial scaffold for walls. Impressive sound system walls flanked the booth with an opening above through which you could witness the sun setting in the evening adding this picturesque idyll to the stage.
UFO 1 and 2 were the “warehouse raves” of the festival; two impressive hangars with UFO 1 being the larger of the two. Sadly, we didn’t spend much time in UFO 2 but 1 was a major highlight of the weekend for me. Stepping out of the Sunday afternoon sun into a dark and cavernous hall with pounding techno playing was a surreal and wonderful experience. The booth here was to one end slightly raised with a platform behind where revellers could stand. One of the most impressive elements of this hangar were the lights on rails that raced forth and back over the main dance floor illuminating the dancers below.
The Connects stage was an intriguing stage comprised of a simple tower with the DJs inside. Its location was the star of the show though being situated in the middle of the food trucks and accompanying tables. A background show to the loaded fries I was munching on.
The “forest bit” was our favourite area of the festival and had the three final, and best, stages: Greenhouse, Selectors, and Radar.
Greenhouse was basically what it said on the tin. A big glass building. This year they added these red balloons that weren’t present in previous iterations of the stage. I’m still unsure whether or not they worked but I did enjoy the way it added a twist to what is essentially a glass box.
Selectors was where we usually started our days at the festival and was the most idyllic stage of the lot. Surrounded by tall hanging trees with another in front of the stage, it transported you away from the city into a peaceful forest setting with the sun splitting into beams through the trees. To be honest, that’s why we ended up spending so much time there on the Friday as the sun was cooking us and the field side of the festival had little shade to hide us from the rays.
And finally, Radar, previously hosted by Hör, the radio station. The group favourite. A giant three storey scaffold with the DJ booth in the middle gave the crowd a myriad of angles from which to see the action. The multi storey verticality of the stage added an intimate vibe to it as the crowd was no longer just around you, but above and below you at the same time. We were close to finishing every day at this stage but its stacked Sunday lineup resulted in a 1-in-1-out system with an hour’s queue to get in. I’d go back for this stage alone, I couldn’t quite believe my eyes walking in for the first time, a totally unique setup.
Below you can see Octo Octa’s set from last year that had the place bumping.
The People
“A festival by DJs, for DJs”, is what I’ve heard the festival described as.
And it’s bang on the money.
From acts on the lineup, to the punters, to the volunteer staff working there, every single person made the show what it is. From the wealth of shit chat I had with various people there, I didn’t meet a single person who wasn’t just into the music, but similarly obsessed with the culture as I.
I had found my people.
You couldn’t find a single act or stage without the act’s biggest fan there to tell you all about them. Numerous times I would suddenly find myself deep in conversation with someone about an act I had previously no idea about.
To list off a few acts we saw there, we had: Dr Banana, VTSS, James Blake b2b Mala, Jyoty, Pangaea, Theo Kottis, Palms Trax, Mama Snake b2b CEM, SPFDJ b2b Salome. And many, many more.
Building on this, there was an astounding level of diversity to the audience and the efforts to which some people made this electronic pilgrimage was impressive to say the least. Despite the not-so-shocking-yet-still-quite-astounding number of distinctly English accents flying around the festival, there were still dozens of others I met from all other corners of the world. A verifiable community of electronic enjoyers.
Final Words
This post took a little longer to write than initially planned which I’m putting down to a mix of typical summer busyness and the fact that I wanted to portray the festival in the light that I saw it those weeks ago. I hadn’t experienced such a festival before and wanted to get my thoughts in order for how I wanted to present it.
I have to say, you really have to like and know electronic music to be fully able to enjoy the festival. I went in knowing maybe 20% of the acts there with the lineup featuring artists from all corners of the genre. I clearly had a great time if you couldn’t tell by my glowing review of the place, however I can’t imagine a less electronically obsessed person would have as good a time.
Also, I have seen some criticisms of this year’s setup online notably some differences in stage designs with the removal of screens. I cannot really comment on this as this my debut year at the site. But, I have to say it has got me thinking about screens at venues and their roles in the visual aspect of audiovisual experiences.
But finally, if you’re a fan of electronic music and are looking for a fun European festival in the summer. Dekmantel should definitely be on your list.
Nice one Phil, I saved this from your reddit post a few weeks ago - I've been to Dekmantel before and reading this took me back - it is a daydream come to life for a music lover.
Dutch festivals rock!