Sumo Wrestlers, Geishas & Sushi – This Was Emporium Festival 2015!
**Disclaimer: All photographs retain credit to: wearethenight.com, Rossumedia, Heidiefocus.**
As I stepped out of the car, I felt a slight breeze tickle my face which sent shivers running up and down my spine. It had been quite a while since I had attended a large-scale festival and I was pretty damn eager, to say the least. Although the weather was a little chillier than what I would have expected from the Spring season, the sun was shining, the music was pumping and the world was amongst me.
Arriving fashionably late around 3:40PM, the other half of the drunk journalism wolf-pack, Sara and I were escorted to a boat which took us from the back of the “Emperors Palace” stage or better known as “the house stage” to where the freestyle and hardstyle areas were. Good vibes started to hit whilst we were on the water as soon as I heard music and could see people dancing in the distance, this was it, it was time to celebrate the day that had dawned upon us and party until we forgot where we lived.
When we got off the boat, we decided that first thing was first – let’s get fucking turnt!
Before I could start downing white wine like it was 1970, the rational thought struck that I should at least take a peek at the stages with a sober eye, otherwise all observatory data will be skewed and when my data is skewed I am not a happy girl.
I pulled out my voice recorder and started excitedly sharing my thoughts: “It’s 3:55PM and the stages look fucking sick! This festival is more oriental than noodles, sushi and kimonos all put together. I’m seriously digging the oriental theme and everything looks great so far, especially the view of the lake!”
I instantly fell in love with the venue and it definitely fit with the theme that Matrixx chose this year. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not the type of gal who sits around watching anime or reading those dumb Japanese cartoon strips, but for a festival, the whole oriental theme was really corresponding to my vibe. We already saw extravagantly dressed up geisha’s and Japanese samurais roaming around the festival grounds and they looked amazing! I also even saw a glimpse of real-life sumo wrestlers on stage later in the day when Dr. Rude was playing on stage – now that was seriously cool! On the footpath that connected the stages, there were these dressed up people on stilts that you had almost dodge to get past – now that was quite entertaining! I just can’t explain how in touch this festival was with it’s theme, it was truly amazing and you HAD to be there to experience it.
4:05PM: We decided to check out the “Samurai” area (the hardstyle area) where Bass Modulators were tearing the stage down and I decided to pull my other drunk journalist aside for a quick pep talk.
Here is what I had to say: “Okay Sara remember, when I start becoming too turnt, you have to make me not turnt anymore. One thing you’re not allowed to do is throw cold water on my face. I don’t like that, it never helps.”
I really hate it when someone’s really turnt and their friend decides to throw cold water on their face – my mascara was not ready for that kind of torment, not today.
All turnt-ness and cold water aside, I decided to focus a little bit more on what was in front of me. Bass Modulators and MC Villain were amping up the energy and the crowd already seemed to be in party-mode. The vibe was great! The party people in the front row were already dancing like chickens on meth and the chilled cunts at the back were just drinking beers and bobbing along to the hardstyle beats. From what we got to catch, the Bass Modulators played quite the balanced set, treating the crowd to some of their remixes such as “Faster N Further,” and “One Moment,” some cheeky edits and of course, some classics.
At around 4:20PM (blaze it) and after I begged Sara the whole car ride, we finally got to check out the deep house and techno area and let me tell you, I had never felt so at home. It was like all of the hipsters in the vicinity of the festival grounds had congregated in that sandy area to get one deeper and soak up as much hipster-ness humanly possible. I bobbed up and down and did that little dance interpretation that hipsters usually do when listening to deep house – it was bliss. I really loved how the deep house area was on the sand and right in front of the lake, it fit well with the chilled out vibes.
We brought some drinks from the bar and I smashed the overly-sweet cup of white wine in record breaking time and started to realise that after a month of no drinking that I should have at least sipped at it with a little more dignity (yolo). We chilled and danced at the deep house area until we realised that Wasted Penguinz were playing and we were missing out on embracing random people in the crowd and crying because their music is so fucking emotional. I said goodbye to my hipster soul animals, we brought some tokens on the way back (which were quite good for value) and we walked back to the hardstyle stage on the overly crowded walkway.
4:40PM: “I’m starting to get pretty turnt now and I am ready to get more unleashed than Digital Punk motherfuckaaahhh! But Digital Punk isn’t even here and what the hell, has anyone ever noticed how nice his eyebrows are? That is some true precision.” The unnecessary shit-talk was coming up and we were in the prime peak of drunk journalism.
Wasted Penguinz were literally wrapping up the crowd in a blanket of feels with their euphoric touch and unfortunately a hole in the front of the crowd was starting to show. Maybe it was because of the rain earlier in the day that left some gross sludge towards the front or maybe it was the fact that the freestyle stage was absolutely packed. Regardless, from what I actually paid attention to, the Wasted Penguinz played a pretty good set that consisted mostly of their own music with a few cheeky tracks by Josh & Wesz, Omegatypez & Phuture Noize and Toneshifterz. I was waiting anxiously for Da Tweekaz to jump up onto stage and at 5:30PM on the dot just as I knew that they were already meant to be on stage, I see the two crazy Norwegians running frantically through the festival grounds – this was probably one of the best things I saw all day.
When they finally jumped up on stage slightly later than they hoped, they absolutely blew the crowd away like always. Playing by their signature Tweekaz sound, the guys played some of their biggest hits such from Tweekay 14 as well as their remix of Darren Styles’ “Rest Of Your Life.” They also played this one track that was so fucking amazing yet I had never heard it before – I am now on a mission to find out what it is.
Halfway through Da Tweekaz set, we started to feel hunger creeping on and realised that we hadn’t eaten all day. We cut our losses and walked over to the food area. With Sara as the token vegetarian, there were plenty of options within the standard Dutch snack food. The catering at Emporium was great! There were plenty of places to buy food throughout the whole festival and you never had to wait in line for food and drinks which was great. One aspect of the catering that I thoroughly enjoyed was the cocktail bar… I am a sucker for a good mojito and it’s a rare occurrence that you can go to a festival and get something other than beer, wine and watered down Smirnoff. I was a happy journalist with a mojito in my hand! Another mentionable aspect is the fact that there was plenty of room to sit and chill and there was even a massage stand for those who were really suffering from some back pain. Wherever you were in the festival grounds, you were taken care of with good music, good vibes and plenty of food and drinks!
6:45PM: “Yeeeah Barry! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” *TBA 2 playing in the background* “I swear, I’m going to cry, or get naked.” TBA does some unbelievable things to the human soul. Everyone had packed in to watch the melody man blow the crowd away with his music. Sticking to his guns and playing by the rules of showcasing his own music, Frontliner played a mixture of tracks from his “Summer Of Frontliner” collection, some newer music and even some golden oldies.
We took a little break toward the end Frontliner’s set and decided to split our time dancing towards the back of the stage and going backstage before Code Black & Brennan Heart began at 7:30PM. The WE R legends tore apart the stage and split their set between Code Black’s heart-melting melodies and Brennan Heart’s signature punchy sound. The guys played tracks such as “Back In The Days,” (in which I stood there singing inappropriately with a German accent) “FIFO,” “Accelerate” and “Wake You Up.” We got bored of talking shit with people backstage so we headed back into the crowd to dance for the remaining half an hour of Code Black & Brennan Heart’s killer set.
The vibe was coming to a peak and the crowd was so dedicated to the music. There were no pretentious dickheads around (if any, they were probably at another stage *cough*) and everybody was here for the music. That’s one thing that I noticed about being at the hardstyle stage in comparison to the house stages. The community is so tight and is built on love, passion and respect. People who I didn’t know were starting conversations and dancing with us for fun and that’s something that will rarely happen at a standard EDM festival.
9:00PM: I pulled out my voice recorder and by this time, my drunken state was way beyond any point of return. It was official, the mojito’s had literally bent me over and fucked me from behind. Well, not literally, but you know what I mean. #turnt. “Noisecontrollers is about to come on and I am soooooooo turnt. Everyone is wild and I am loving life, wooooooooo!”
The area became even more crowded when the God of hardstyle came to bless the holy decks with a shitload of new music. Playing his signature new hit “All Night Long” along with some other killer tracks from the album, Noisecontrollers reminded every single soul in the crowd who was boss.
9:59PM: “I think Noisecontrollers shaved his head again… THAT IS A FRESH FUCKING SHAVE M8. Wow I’m so turnt, someone assist me please.” In my highly obliterated state I seemed to notice that Noisecontrollers had got another haircut or shave. I was very proud of myself for being so observant…
Noisecontrollers hit a close second in our books and his set was followed up by the most energetic and entertaining half an hour of the whole day (besides my time at the deep house stage).
Hard Driver didn’t only blow away the front row, but the middle, back and well, everyone. The area transformed into a wild playground! Hard Driver played a live set, which meant one thing – quick fucking mixing and he did exactly that. One minute he was playing “Front Row,” the next minute his new collaboration with Phuture Noize “Everywhere” to “Crash N Burn” with Digital Punk. I was pretty annoyed that Hard Driver replaced the original vocals in “Crash N Burn” with Eminem’s annoying voice. I was seriously on a role and was ready to sing every lyric correctly for once. Other than that, I just HAD to name Hard Driver ‘set of the day’ because the energy during that half an hour was so unique and really had me pumped up.
10:20PM: “This set is seriously fucking sick!” Hard Driver was mastering mixing a handful of tracks into such little time and his monster kicks tore the crowd a new one. Another thing I was extremely happy about was the fact that there was not one fist pump in sight from him. He didn’t need to stand behind the decks fist-pumping like a pretentious twat, he just felt the music and projected it, entertaining the crowd by using other movement gestures. Other DJ’s should open up their dance-move vocabulary more often.
By 10:30PM I was so amped up and although I wasn’t that excited for Frequencerz, they really ended up impressing me with the first half of their set. They played the Emporium anthem which blew the place up as well as “Men Of Steel,” and Zatox’s “Red Alert” which saw me attempting and succeeding at doing the screeches with my own voice. Note to everyone reading this: next time you watch Frequencerz, try do the screeches yourself, it’s actually quite entertaining.
After my throat became extremely sore from trying to make my own screeches and as 11:30PM crept around, we veered away from the hardstyle stage and back to the main house stage to watch the end-show after Ummet Ozcan.
“It’s like 11:40PM and I’m seriously not used to this BPM right now.” The crowd didn’t look half as entertaining as in the hardstyle area, but I assumed that there would be some sort of fireworks here so I just put up with it. Around 11:45, the end-show began and they played different tracks that represented the different areas of the festival, accompanied by an ‘okay’ lightshow. Fireworks suddenly shot up into the sky and I just felt the need to embrace the closest person to me for no reason. My legs were becoming doomed with exhaustion and pain; however I had somehow managed to succeed at staying on that good level of drunkness for the entire day.
To say the least, we had one hell of a day. We came, we saw and we got pretty fucking oriental too. Overall, the day was a lot better than what I had expected it to be. From the atmosphere, to the friendly crowds, great service, catering and not to mention, the music and amazing line-up, the day ran perfectly and was so professionally organised. Although I walked out of there almost physically broken, I can safely say that it was worth it and I will definitely be coming back next year!
Overall Rating: 7.5/10
1 Comment
Cool chronic, nice writing style too.