Silver Linings: Lose Your Mind opens up about CRAFT, ‘that storm’ and their bright future!

Three words, an ardent team and endless possibilities… That’s what Dutch organisation Lose Your Mind is all about.

Established in 2010, Lose Your Mind quickly and diligently worked their way up to becoming one of the most important players within the events sector of hard dance music. Working with a small, yet dedicated team of professionals, this Amsterdam-based establishment has already kicked mundane views of how events should be run to the kerb with their refreshingly innovative concepts. Responsible for legendary events such as De Tijdmachine, Penoze, World Of Hardcore, Reckless and of course, the highly reputable CRAFT Festival, Lose Your Mind’s conceptual tactics have cemented their name as a favourite among party-people.

However, it’s not all bright skies and sunny days…

Just a few short months ago on July 25th, a spanner was thrown into the works for Lose Your Mind on that fateful day, when a devastating storm (that wasn’t Gunz For Hire) washed violently over the NDSM Wharf, as months of hard work and sleepless nights were eroded with the haphazard Dutch weather. Prior to the storm, almost everybody who purchased a ticket vouched that this was one of the most anticipated events of the year and that CRAFT 2015 would set expectations incredibly high not only for the following editions but also the other festivals within the season.

As many party-people congregated inside the colossal warehouse that was opened up as the storm intensified to a hazardous peak, various rumours spread among visitors like wildfire. Some visitors mumbled among themselves, saying that that all of the stages were flooded, some said that the festival would be reopened later that day and many deliberated the future of CRAFT Festival and Lose Your Mind after this tragic incident.

Months down the track and here we are; three indoor concepts coming up in December, a confirmed CRAFT Festival for 2016 and an attitude that no storm can stop them… To get to the bottom of this story, we had a chat with Jeroen Sijtsma, the owner of Lose Your Mind, who reveals what went down on that fateful day, more about upcoming concepts and what to expect from CRAFT 2016.

Revealing that the LYM team worked assiduously for over nine months to put together and perfect CRAFT 2015, Jeroen went on to talk about what it was like waking up on the 25th of July…

Jeroen: The funny thing is that three months before the event we were telling everyone that “a storm was coming,” but at that point we were only talking about Gunz For Hire! *laughs*

We kept an eye on the weather reports from weeks before and by the upcoming week we knew that there was going to be a storm, however no one knew what kind of storm it would be… The night before the festival, weather reports indicated that the storm wouldn’t be above Amsterdam, but around it and that we would have to deal with some degree of a storm, however we were under the impression that it wouldn’t be direct or extremely heavy. Within the hours leading up to the festival, the reports changed and we became aware that the storm would actually hit the festival area, so we had to quickly make some decisions.

That morning, I had arrived at the festival grounds at 8AM to check some final things with the council and by 9AM my team and I were back in our office, rearranging the line-up and making a game plan. Despite other festivals closing their doors that day, there was no way that we were doing that; we had worked non-stop for nine months, our audience had grown immensely since the last edition and we wanted to show our visitors that their highest expectations would be met. We came to the decision that we would close down eight of the nine stages and not even build some of the smallest stages as they would be quickly damaged. We had a crisis team in our office, we had a team at the venue and we were also in constant contact with weather specialists who put us under the impression that the storm would probably be around for only one hour. The plan was to keep the safest stage open and rebuild the rest of the festival right before we opened it up at 17:00.

The storm was intensifying, especially around Amsterdam as many uneasy partygoers crammed themselves under cover on the ferry that would take them to the NDSM Wharf. With a handful of other festivals in The Netherlands being cancelled that morning, the hardstyle community seemed to be the exception to the rule as CRAFT 2015 represented the show that must go on…

Before the festival commenced, LYM announced that all stages besides Penoze would be closed until 17:00, before opening for the evening hours of the festival. This meant that the line-up would shift as artists playing in the afternoon on the other stages would now be teamed up b2b on the Penoze stage.

Jeroen: Around 12:30 we had everything set for the afternoon and by 13:30 we knew that things were going to be a lot worse than expected. After that, everything happened extremely quickly and around 14:00 we opened up the huge warehouse because we couldn’t let our visitors be outside in the cold or at risk of injury.

Around the time that we opened the warehouse, we heard from our team on the field that various areas had collapsed; the screens on De Tijdmachine stage were coming down and impossible to rebuild, the Reckless area was ruined and the World Of Hardcore tent was flying two metres above the ground – it was simply too dangerous to let people in. Despite the weather, as an organisation we wanted to do everything in our power to keep this event going; everybody was looking forward to CRAFT so much and at first cancelling wasn’t an option, however there was no way that we were going to put our visitors lives at risk.

Around 14:30, Lose Your Mind came to the decision to close down the doors of CRAFT, not letting anybody else into the festival. A little over one hour later, sirens began going off, signalling all visitors to leave the NDSM Wharf immediately…

Jeroen: You see something that you work so hard for… For nine months we lived here in our office building and perfecting this unique concept. We didn’t want to be defeated but somewhere in our hearts we just knew that we had to let it go and that was the hardest part. The storm was simply too dangerous and if things went on then we would be putting people’s lives in danger…

As drenched visitors carefully made their way out of the venue, heart-warming and supportive messages began rolling in to Lose Your Mind via social media. The way that LYM and their visitors handled the situation was incredibly graceful; people knew that this situation was totally out of anyone’s control, however it was still a shame that the CRAFT experience was cut short for all.

Jeroen went on to reassure us that “This wasn’t it; next year we will be back bigger and better! Although you weren’t able to experience the full potential of CRAFT 2015, we can assure you that 2016 will be even better! We’re always looking forward with a positive mind-set.”

*Brighter days were around the corner for LYM who hosted their own stage at Outdoor Stereo*

What about tickets?

After cancelling CRAFT Festival and deliberating the future, LYM came the decision that all visitors who purchased a ticket were now granted a valid ticket for the 2016 edition; these tickets will be sent out on the 1st of March, 2016. Jeroen then revealed to us that they are currently working with the city of Amsterdam and speaking about expanding the festival, which means that more tickets will be available for purchase if this expansion is approved and finalised. For those who brought their tickets off Ticketswap, unfortunately the tickets will go back to the person who originally brought the tickets, however for visitors who want to sell their tickets for 2016, Ticketswap will delete the old barcode and generate a new one for the new buyer.

So, what’s on the agenda for the remainder of 2015?

Jeroen: At the moment we’re really busy with the three events that we have coming up in December. First up we have Penoze on the 5th of December which we’re really excited about seeing as Gunz For Hire will be presenting their brand new tour! We’ve worked together throughout this tour by creating and shooting videos for the beginning and ending of the show.

Next up, on the 26th of December we have De Tijdmachine, one of people’s favourites and also an event that aims to bring back that feel-good vibe that early hardstyle brings. This year, it’s expected to be bigger and better with the addition of the second area and we are aiming for De Tijdmachine to be the best event of December! On the same night we have Adaro’s Dark Universe which is going to be a really cool, underground event with some huge names in raw hardstyle.

As for the future… We have dreams to not only make outdoor festivals based around De Tijdmachine and Penoze, but we would love to bring these concepts to film. We feel as though the story of Penoze would make a great movie or series and De Tijdmachine would make an amazing documentary about the history of hardstyle!

All of our events have such strong identities and our visitors truly associate and immerse themselves in these concepts. We really strive to build strong marques for our different events; for example, everything from visuals, trailers, creative aspects, videos, communication and marketing play a vital role when creating the atmosphere around these differing parties…

At Lose Your Mind we love what we do, we are dedicated to being innovative and doing things differently. No, we don’t do it for the money; we simply want to spread out creative vision to the scene. To be honest, we would rather sell 1500 tickets and have a devoted crowd that associates themselves with the concept of the party, rather than sell 5000 tickets because it’s simply ‘another party…’

Now that’s dedication to the scene! These guys have proved that it will take a lot more than a heavy storm to dampen their spirits! We’d like to thank Lose Your Mind for this great interview and wish them the very best of luck with their upcoming events in December and also the 2016 edition of CRAFT Festival! Feel like attending a bangin’ party this December? Check out what Lose Your Mind has on offer!

Penoze    |    De Tijdmachine   |    Adaro Dark Universe     |    CRAFT Festival