‘Putting some fresh clothes on’ – This was Laundry Day 2016!

This year, Laundry day festival celebrated its 20^th birthday. Starting back in 1996, Laundry Day began in the streets of Belgian city Antwerp and from that point on it managed to evolve into a diverse EDM festival boasting twelve different stages. Most of you will never have heard of the festival Laundry day – and to be honest, until lately, I didn’t either. However, as I’ve heard some great things about this festival, it was time to take a trip down to Belgium and experience it for myself. Let’s put on some fresh clothes…

My main reason for attending Laundry Day was to take a peek outside of the box of ‘conventional’ festivals that I’m used to experiencing in The Netherlands and evaluate the differences between multi-genre festivals and those dedicated solely to Hard Dance music. Most of these festivals are growing with complexity and quality, but it is always good to widen one’s horizon. Sure, Laundry Day is a festival that showcases many different styles of EDM-music, however for a die-hard Hard Dance listener like me, some components had to be adjusted.

As we made our way into the festival we soon started to notice two things. First, the relaxed vibe; there were congregations of people chilling on the grass and enjoying an ice cold drink – this is a far cry from watching thousands of people kickrolling and dancing wildly, but hey, this experience was all about broadening our horizons.  The other thing I noticed was that the median age of the crowd was quite young; I couldn’t help feeling like a seasoned raver at age 24 amongst all of the fresh 18 year olds.

Unlike the never-ending intensity of a Hard Dance festival, the chilled-out vibe at Laundry Day was a refreshing change. Located at the middenvijver, which is a park near the city centre of Antwerp, this terrain constitutes a great location for a festival. As the sun was frying upon my skin, I felt myself driven away on thoughts of Eden and to wake myself up I had to relocate to the only stage that would lift me up – the ‘heartstyle stage.’

The heartstyle-stage held some, for us, familiar artists such as Audiofreq, Digital Punk, Code Black, and Wild Motherfuckers. It was great to hear some up-tempo tracks after listening to launch remixes of Avicii and Kygo over and over again. I was quite baffled by the way people at this festival partied at the heartstyle-stage. I am used to seeing party-people going mental and shouting the lyrics of every track, however the crowd (which was full of children) were flying into each other like a swarm of angry bees. Fuck, I wanted to go on stage, grab the mic and tutor these kids on how to party properly to Hard Dance music. This ‘moshing’ doesn’t belong in our scene.

What annoyed me even more was the continuous stream of ‘Heyyyy, hooooooo’ from the Belgian crowd. Stop, okay – just fucking STOP! It sounds retarded and you’re ruining every song and the vibe that comes along with it – stop for fucks sake! But then again, I was in Belgium, so I couldn’t be too surprised with the overabundance of ‘heyyyy-hoooo’s,’ as it’s pretty much tradition.

The heartdance-stage was cool if you’re a person who’s not into Hardstyle but will go mental once you hear it on the casual night out. However, for a die-hard veteran like myself *ouch* there were just too many outside factors which destroyed the kind of vibe we’re used to having at regular Hard Dance festivals. This was a shame, as the music, sound, and stage size where all spot on.

One major pro of Laundry day was the ‘The Grind-stage,’ which represented the sounds of Drum & Bass. I loved the vibe on that stage and somehow this crowd actually knew how to party. With its great build-ups, awesome drops and fast tempo, D&B turned out to be a great substitute for the Hardstyle music I’m used to partying to.

Another pro of the day was Netsky’s closing act on the colossal mainstage. This man is one of the best DJs and producers that the D&B scene boasts and hailing from Belgium, his set at Laundry Day was practically in his backyard!  Almost everyone I spoke that day was looking forward to this act and Netsky’s performance blew us all out of the water! With his famous remixes of Rusko’s “Everyday,” Jessie J’s “Nobody’s Perfect” and of course, tracks from his newly-dropped album “III,” he made the dance floor erupt in shivers. Yes, finally all these kids are enjoying themselves without breaking each other’s ribs.

All in all, it was great to experience a festival outside of our comfort zone. My friends and I enjoyed ourselves at Laundry Day festival, but somehow there was something missing. Whether it was the young age of the crowd or the Belgian’s way of partying, we’re not sure, however Laundry Day 2016 wasn’t convincing enough to sacrifice a regular Hard Dance festival from our 2017 agenda. I’ll definitely stick to the Hard Dance festivals… for now.

We would like to thank the organization of Laundry Day for having us on their festival. It is great to see when organisations are open-minded towards press from different corners of the EDM-industry.