(Pictures; Credit: Michel van Rossum | rossumedia | WeAreTheNight)
The Dutch have a strong Carnaval tradition. Especially in the south. The last few days before the fasting days are celebrated as a wild, loud, colorful festival where everybody is dressed up, drinks, eats – just enjoying themselves to the absolute maximum. There’s parades, shows and music all over the south and Venray wasn’t an exception. Also us Hardstylers wanna have some fun! I was hyped the day I got to know that we would be going to XXLerator Carnaval, it was weeks before the actual event. It was a fun way to get to know a fun part of the dutch culture and enjoy a amazing event. And I would not be disappointed. Short: It was out of this world!
My journey started by getting ready in Tilburg where there were already all kinds of people dressed up in the train. A crocodile had a drink with an airplane pilot and some police officers were giggling together with a male princess. Everybody was in a good mood and people were going to different parties all over the place. For XXlerator I decided to dress up as a scientist, after all I’d be doing some research on dutch craziness after all! I met up with my fellow journalist and we quickly had a snack and got ready. We took the train to Deurne, where we would wait for the bus to Venray. Arranging our transport to the event was the easy part. We met some fellow Hardstylers in the tiny bus. Sidney, Mike and Bram told us about their festival experiences, we shared stories and exchanged our favorite tracks of the moment. We got out of the Bus at Venray station, the Eventhal was pretty close and just a 5 minute foot walk away from the station. Two girls led us the way to the Eventhal. All of us parted ways at the entrance, we boys and girl waited for their friends and we went inside.
After the Security check I could hear dutch music playing in the background. The chill-out area was amazing! There were not just lockers in two sizes, several food and snack bars, tokens and the obligatory tables, but also a photo booth and everything was decorated to get the people in the best possible carnival mood! We tried to get a locker but could not find an ATM machine to pick up cash, in the end a girl offered us to exchange some tokens for cash, that way we could still get a locker. It would have been really nice to have an ATM, but paying the tokens with PinPasses and VISA was no problem. After we got our tokens we decided to check out the venue.
Rebourne was playing a nice set in the background, as we entered the actual dance floor. Everything fitted the theme, LED screens with Jokers on them, decoration on the sides of the stage and lots and lots of balloons and confetti above the dance floor. And literally EVERYONE was dressed up, you would probably have looked like a bit of a killjoy if you didn’t arrive in a costume, it was wonderful! Even the DJs were dressed up – Rebourne was dressed up as a doctor, a Gynecologist as we would get to know later on. I saw FBI agents and SWAT teams dancing with Zebras and Gladiators, a Pirate that bought a drink for his Carrot girlfriend, Son Goku was looking for his friends and I think i even saw someone dressed up as Bas Oskam and a female Radical Redemption. It was crazy! Everybody truly seemed to enjoy themselves and the random craziness that was going on around them.
While Reboure was still playing we decided to get our first drinks. Tokens were 10€ for four tokens, so a beet would be 1 token, which was ok. The general price structure was typical for festivals and not overpriced. The mojitos in the chill out area were my personal highlight of the evening, they were pricey but absolutely delicious and refreshing! Rebourne dropped a cool set and it really set the mood for us. It was a great mix of his newer stuff and some all-time favorites. He even played his new collab with Wasted Penguinz!
The lasers finally switched on as Audiotricz enter the stage. The crowd decides to go a bit wilder and my colleague and me get caught up in the middle of a ‘Polonaise’ (something like a conga line). The Scantraxx boys decided to dress up as surgeons and played an absolutely stunning set. From ‘Reawakening’ to ‘FTS’ the set was probably one of my favorites this night. Every now and then we would be covered in confetti and hilarity never seemed to end, we always discovered some new cool costumed people, ran into friends, acquaintances and artists and just had a generally great time! Villain also did a really great job MC’ing and animated the crowd perfectly for the night!
I think every Carnaval party should at least consider Da Tweekaz for their line-up. Seriously. The guys entered the stage with a ‘Final Coundown’ edit and from there on the crowd melted in their palms. The sing-along during ‘Let It Go’ was probably one of the coolest moments of the party, and I almost teared up a little as confetti rained down on me once more. It was just crazy how perfect the atmosphere was! In the middle of the set I decided to buy tokens again and make use of the (still very clean!) facilities. We came back to the feel-good set of Da Tweekaz and them playing their Freaqshow anthem, which was more than fitting!
Then it was time for Brennan Heart, who was a cute little tiger. The set was great! From edits to classics and the favorite Brennan Heart sing-a-long songs, there was something there for everyone. The guy also took it a bit tougher than Da Tweekaz and perfectly paved the way for Mashup Jack. It was a very balanced set! Rough but not ‘over the top’ – Basically: All the Hardstyle that I used to fall in love with! In the middle of his set he dropped ‘Wonderful Days’ and I simply couldn’t resist to sing along in 3-voice unison: loud, proud and probably completely out of pitch! During Brennan’s set we ran into Sidney from our Bus Trip. He was so nice to lift me up for a bit (and I kept talking into the voice recorder really awkwardly) – I gave him a ‘Flügel’ in return. I also ran into the Italian girl that I met at ‘Home Of Hardstyle’! Sometimes the scene really seems like a big, international family!
Next up was Mashup Jack, who was a gorgeous Banana-man. I never saw Jack Of Sound play as Mashup Jack before so I was rather curious about his performance. I started talking to the crowd and most people I talked to loved the atmosphere as much as I did! Everybody was really into it – from ‘delicious’ (‘lekker’????) to ‘focking mooi, hé’ (‘fuckin’ great, hey’) all the responses I got were not just positive but almost as out of control as the party was. Mashup Jack’s set was great! I didn’t knew any of the edits or mash-up and I was quite positively surprised about his set! It was something quite different from the other performances, which was refreshing.
Zany, Donkey Rollers and Titan were next! Titans costume won my personal ‘artist costume of the night’ prize: He was dressed up as Mr T. I pity the fool that missed this view! Donkey Rollers and Zany were dressed up in a Scarface Theme, which fitted them quite nicely! As always with Donkey Rollers, DV8 was MC’ing. The personal highlight of their set for me was ‘Bleeding For The Harder Styles’ – an old Decibel anthem which was something like an inside joke back in the day. It got even better when they played (I shit you not) an edit of Da Rude – ‘Sandstorm’!
Frequencerz entered the stage a just a bit later and opened their set with ‘Rockstar’ – dressed as (you guessed it) 80ties Glam Rock Stars! Their set was rough and we were getting a bit tired, so we decided to take a closer look at the chill out area and get some food. Before you entered the chill out area there was a small merch booth in the hallway offering fans, T-Shirts, ear protection and more. We entered the chill out area and headed straight for the snack bar. I ate two rolls with dutch cheese pockets (‘boodje kaassoufflé’) with sweet chili sauce. The pricing was ok (I paid 1,5 tokens for one of those), and there was even fruit for 0,5 tokens! As a vegetarian, I was happy with the catering – There were quite some possibilities for me. Omnivore party guests would have probably liked it as well, there were lots of different burgers and typical dutch snacks. We sat down for a bit, chilled and enjoyed our food. As we got back to Freuqencerzs we caught the last 15 minutes of what seemed to be the hell of a rough set!
Thera entered the stage and we witnessed the first half of an amazing live act. He was dressed up as a really scary clown, and I barely recognized him. The sets were getting a lot rougher now. We were really tired at this point, so we decided to sit down again. When Radical Redemption started playing inside, it was time for us to find a way home.
But how? There were no shuttle busses or night trains, a taxi would have costed us a fortune. We decided to go back inside again, which wasn’t entirely possible due to a one-way policy. We were allowed to sit down by the entrance and counted our blessings. People were tired all around us too, so we didn’t feel too alone. Shortly before seven we decided to go. After a long and complicated trip home we finally showered and went to sleep.
XXLerator Carnaval, what can I say?! All sets were amazing from the beginning to the end, the production was great, the atmosphere was out of this world and I had tons of fun. It taught me one or two things about dutch ‘gezelligheid’ and the southern carnival tradition as well. Besides a few hiccups (No ATM, no shuttle busses), it was probably one of the funniest and most atmospheric parties I ever visited in my life. It was really out of this world, and especially as a foreigner it was an interesting experience. It doesn’t matter if you’re dutch or an international party-goer, I can absolutely recommend this party! I’ll make sure I’ll be there again next year – I already have a new costume idea!
(Picture Credit: Michel van Rossum | rossumedia | WeAreTheNight)