Fare-welling Festival Season – This was Sunset Festival 2015!

**Disclaimer – all photographs featured in this article retain credit to Rossumedia and Sven van Gestel photography**

I sit here, slightly shivering at the fact that within less than a week I went from rocking a singlet and jeans to having the unfortunate addition of a coat to my outfit. Oh, how a bulky and ugly coat ruins a perfectly good outfit, I’m clearly not a fan of the colder months. The days are getting colder, shorter and sun has officially set, indicating one particularly unfortunate event this year – the end of festival season.
Luckily, last weekend one legendary bash occurred that wrapped up this seasons shenanigans with a bang and officially marked the conclusion of yet another successful season filled with joyous moments and some of the most cherished memories. I’m indeed talking about Sunset Festival.

Held in the idyllic, water-blessed location of De Lilse Bergen on the 19th of September, Sunset Festival is always the perfect ending to a festival season and after last years’ killer edition, I was quite excited to see what this year brought. Being a mid-sized festival, a few words that popped into my mind when attempting to describe Sunset is ‘gezellig,’ yet lively. I know that the direct translation of gezellig is ‘cosy,’ but that’s bullshit, it was nowhere near cosy – it was a hell of a lot wilder than curling up on the couch with a blanket and your 12 cats whilst drinking tea.

Anyway, let’s get down to the finer details.

Arriving fashionably late (as per usual), I hopped out of the car somewhere around 5:00PM and slightly stumbled towards the entrance as I felt that cheeky half-bottle of wine sneak up on me. Once I arrived inside I immediately headed for the ‘Red Ruins’ stage which was hosting some of hard dance’s biggest names including Wildstylez, Da Tweekaz, Psyko Punkz, Mark With A K and many more stellar artists.
After last year’s beautiful outdoor stage it was nice to see some variation with a large area underneath a huge red tent. Mind you, after a shocking week of pouring rain and gloomy grey clouds, I’m relieved that the organisers took out extra precautions and ensured that visitors would leave dry. However, in favour of the party-goers, the weather that day ended up being the most stunning day of the week as the sunlight gleamed over the lake that surrounded De Lilse Bergen.

As I approached the tent my ears were greeted with soothing melodies and without checking the timetable, I instantaneously knew that alcohol-loving Swedish duo Wasted Penguinz were on stage. By this stage of the late afternoon the tent was packed with dancing partygoers spilling out the sides into the open air. Although I wasn’t quite ready to dance, I still managed to enjoy Wasted Penguinz’ set which consisted of tracks such as “Melancholia,” “Fuck Yeah!” “#Grabmeabeer” and a few others.

Around 6PM, I wasn’t quite ready to dance yet so I took a little look around the festival grounds and checked out the other stages, whilst detouring to grab myself a cheeky glass of wine. I headed towards the ‘Green Oasis’ stage which was one of the most tropical looking stages I’ve ever seen! Covered in green leaves, I felt as though I was almost in the jungle, apart from the fact that EDM is usually not blasting throughout jungles. The vibe at the stage was nowhere near as good as the Red Ruins stage so the conclusion I made to my voice recorder was “a tempo below 150BPM is a tempo for peasants.”

After almost breaking out in an allergic reaction, I headed over to the ‘Black Cove’ and I was surprised and also joyed to see that the stage was almost identical to Sunrise Festival’s ‘raw hardstyle’ stage. It was a cute little stage that was in the water and although it was small, the sound was mighty and loud – an observation made by MC Da Syndrome. I stood there for a moment before heading back to the Red Ruins stage to watch Belgian ‘god’ Mark With A K.

When coming to Belgium one must always be prepared for the plethora of “HEYYYYYYY, HOOOOO’S” to appear, so I decided to count the amount of ‘hey, ho’ break-outs during MWAK’s set. The official count came to three during a thirty minute timespan. Well done Belgium, well done. In all seriousness though, Mark With A K really amped up the crowd during those thirty energetic minutes with a lot of quick mixing, an enjoyable track selection and of course, an endless amount of energy on stage. During this set and after hearing the crowd’s incredible response, I came to the conclusion that MWAK could very well win a Belgian election.

After Mark With A K kicked the crowd into overdrive, it was Aussie m9 Code Black’s task to keep the vibes high. Opening his set with “Wake Up” by Brennan Heart and The Prophet, he went on to smash out hits such as Brennan Heart’s “Imaginary” (which united the crowd singing as one), “Unleash The Beast,” “Pandora” and “End Like This” with Wasted Penguinz.

I walked over to the bar, smashed another glass of wine and by then I was in my prime element of being sober enough to make sense, yet tipsy enough to find everything really amusing. I headed over to the raw stage to catch the last fifteen minutes of Digital Punk’s set and was just in time to hear “Supreme,” “Unleash War” (his new collaboration with Warface), and “My God” with E-Force. The crowd was getting pretty damn unleashed and by this stage of the evening the sun was beginning to set (sunset, get it?)

At 8PM, it was time for Phuture Noize to take the stage. After announcing his split, it was a little strange to only see a solo Marco on stage at first, but by the end of his set it felt like a second nature to see him performing on his own. Having the prime set time, Phuture Noize had the honour of playing literally as the sun had set, for me, this signifies the last outdoor festival ‘night’ to be experienced for 2015 (unless you’re into snow raves). Playing hits from the recent ‘Phuture Propaganda’ album such as “Terrordome,” “Robots To The System,” “Phuture Propaganda” and unreleased material such as “Existence Through Sound,” “Save Me” and “Enclosure,” he played a versatile and different set that steered away from those mundane ‘raw hits.’

In the middle of the set I approached the bar in aim to buy some more white wine, but to my shock and dismay there must have been another white wine lover in the vicinity as the bar staff informed me that they had run out. RUN OUT OF WHITE WINE?! WOT. They then continued to inform me that they had Rosé available and completely disregarding the fact that the last time I drank Rosé I ended up with my head in the sink (classy). I took a moment to think… Fuck it, I took the Rosé. I mean, how bad could it be? As soon as I took a sip, memories flooded back and I must admit that I struggled to keep it down. After drinking less than half of it I wisely discarded the remainder of the Rosé before something bad happened.

At the conclusion of Phuture Noize’s set I stumbled back over to the colossal tent and was surprised to see Wildstylez on stage. I was pretty damn obliterated by this state and my voice recorder captured “HEY! There’s an impromptu Wildstylez on stage!” Not realising that he was on the line-up I continued walking around telling every cunt that he was a surprise act (drunk bitch). My friend then managed to pull me aside, show me the timetable and explain that Wildstylez was on the line-up; I felt stupid for not even checking the line-up beforehand. By this stage of the night, the tent was fully packed with people making the very most of the final hours of the festival season and as soon as I knew it, it was time for Da Tweekaz to jump up and entertain.

I don’t know what it is about Da Tweekaz but no matter when or where they play, they manage to fill the floor at lightning speed with all kinds of hard dance fans ranging from raw, euphoric and even hardcore lovers. Prior to their set, Kenth handed me a well-deserved Tweeka duck, this was probably not the best move as I spent the next three hours squeezing the duck in people’s ears and just being an overall annoyance. I started my Tweeka venture up on the VIP deck with some wine and made it down into the middle of the crowd as I danced with complete strangers (and my beloved duck). The crazy Norwegian duo played an incredible set filled with tracks such as “Examination Of Time,” “#Tweekay14,” “Frozen,” and much more from their vast discography. The energy from the crowd was incredible and I know I’ve said this before, but hard music is like no other in the sense that it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from, the crowd is always welcoming and warm.

Another honourable mention goes to the production of this event – for a smaller festival everything was done almost perfectly. Everything from the stage designs to the lights was enticing to one’s eye and the sound quality and overall atmosphere was great. I really applaud the Sunset organisers for putting on yet another enjoyable and great event.

Shortly after Da Tweekaz and halfway into Psyko Punkz I unfortunately had to leave as my driving friend was beginning to get tired, so at around 11:15PM I grabbed my belongings, put my jacket on and jumped in the car. Although I didn’t stay until the conclusion of the festival, I knew that the remaining two hours were going to be great with Frequencerz and E-Force, however by this stage sleep was the main thing on my mind.

As I hopped in the car I suddenly realised that ‘this was it – no more dancing in the sun until 2016.’ Farwell festival season, you have been wonderful.

A huge thanks to Sunset for putting on yet another great edition, big ups to all of the performing artists and of course to the production crew!