Remember when we wrote an article about the Unleashed house party video competition a few weeks back? Well, the lucky winners ended up hosting a kick-ass ‘project x’ pool party in conjunction with huisfeestjes.nl and our buddies at A2 Records and guess what?! We were there to experience a completely unexpected level of complete madness – in a backyard!

In April, A2 Records, Digital Punk and huisfeestjes.nl announced a rather unique competition. Forget winning a piece of merchandise or free festival tickets; this prize was among the craziest one a Hardstyle fanatic could imagine: a whole house party including stage, lights, catering, a line-up and even a clean-up. On the decks were Digital Punk, Malua, Jack Of Sound and Sjek, with MC Da Syndrome hosting this unforgettable bash. Plus, all corners of this house-party would be captured by after-movie guys Sjoers R Productions and the photo gallery would be provided by our beloved Rossumedia. With many worthy entries rolling in, the winning video went to “P.I.M.P. Papi and his locos” aka Marco from Vught and his friends. Simply because it was that good, we decided that we’re gonna show you:

Well deserved, right? If the A2 crew was sure that this dude deserved craziness, then Alive At Night could be sure that there was something to write about. I was excited. I began my journey by road-tripping with Perry from the A2 management team and we arrived at the ‘venue’ at the ripe time of 6:00PM. The house was beautiful. A solid bunch of people had already arrived and I started to say my hellos to crew and management. I then took a look around and to my pleasure Huisfestjes.nl had built up a whole stage in this backyard! It wasn’t large, but it was kind of like a a “mini-me” and rather cute little arena.

Lights, laser(!!), a sick PA system, decks, fog machines – Nothing was missing! Right now a lot of Kanye West and Eminem was playing from the speakers in a moderate volume and people had gathered around the huge BBQ grill to get some food. Yes, food!

“Do you also want something to eat?” asked Darnell, who was one of the hosts. I had to decline because my vegetarian diet wasn’t necessarily compatible with steak, but thanks anyway. Darnell proved himself to be an amazing host and offered me a cheese sandwich instead, so I sat down happily with my sandwich and decided to chat with the people around me. At this moment there wasn’t a whole lot happening; people were munching on BBQ food, chatting and standing around. I was handed a bracelet – Unleashed Offensive Mission 2? Hmm… I wonder, what that was about…

Around 7:00PM the situation started to earn a couple of exclamation points. Soundcheck on full volume! Then Sjek jumped up on the stage and people slowly started to gather around and dance or enter the pool area. Sjek’s set was the perfect beginning, containing old school beats mixed to perfection. An amazing start with an extremely sick, energetic flow. That very flow soon escalated quicker than I expected as I decided to get a drink. Mind you, the catering was great! Next to all kinds of cooled alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks it also included a beer tap, which ultimately transported me to a heavenly place. I moved around a bit, danced a bit and then, in a matter of just half an hour, the entire situation escalated. While people had been awkwardly standing around just minutes ago, the suddenly the crowd seemed to have doubled and suddenly there were bikinis and swim shorts everywhere. And more drinks! And more dancing people!

How did this happen so fast?! MC Da Syndrome participated to the entire madness by delivering one of the greatest MC’ing performances one could had wished for. Suddenly, I was approached by the hosts again. “Do you want to lend a swim suit?” – What. Uhhh – YES? One of the girls of the house was so nice to lend me a neon pink bikini (please hit me up for a drink at a festival! I owe you one) and I decided to enjoy the water. I was living my best life. Amazing music, water, beer, dancing people and an absolutely amazing vibe. Life is great.

Digital Punk entered the stage at around 8PM, followed by Malua, who joined him about 20 minutes later for a cheeky back-to-back spin. Mr Unleashed and Ms Madness delivered a sick, danceable, yet rough set, that left no man standing. Jumping in the pool as soon as the main kick hit in had now officially become a thing and now every time I’m on dry land it just won’t be the same. If you didn’t get water on you at least once, you were not really dancing.

I soon crawled out of the pool and changed my clothes as I was slowly feeling the chill. I fixed my make-up a bit (shout-out to Urban Decay for their eye-shadow primer and to MAC for the Liquidlast liner – both are 102% waterproof) and chatted a bit with the girls of the house. Everyone here was just so incredibly friendly and the atmosphere was still just nothing but top-notch.

The sit-downs and jump-ins were just getting crazier as Jack of Sound entered the sage around 21:00. The sound switched from rough to raw, but not too raw. I was reminded of the BBQ for a second. Jack of Sound and Digital Punk seemed like they had the time of their lives on stage; combine that with MC Da Syndrome’s energetic performance and the crowd was absolutely unstoppable! How can something like a tiny 50-people crowd radiate such energy? We sang along from the tops of our lungs and danced like we’ve never really danced before. It was beautiful.

Suddenly, I noticed a certain nervously amongst the crew. Huh? What happened. I decided to take a look and saw the po-lice outside. Ok, that explained how the DJ set had turned into a police-themed song array for a few minutes. Nevermind! “Vught da Police,” so to say. Apparently we were a “bit loud” – but nothing to worry about. I went back and decided to chat with Sjek, who shared his passion for metal and a drink with me. The DJ’s were still absolutely killing it. The fog machine turned the backyard into a magical light spectacle, as pool and stage lights mixed. And then: fireworks. Fucking fireworks. In a backyard pool party. What the fuck. What was this epicness?!

At around 22:30 the party was to be closed down. The hosts said their goodbyes on stage and the party was closed with applause for everyone involved. And what an applause it was. “Can we do this every week now?”, they joked. I tried to do my part of cleaning up and picked up stickers from the floor. Tables were cleaned and equipment, stage and people slowly started to disappear. And also our time had come. I said goodbye to friends, the crew and the amazing hosts. I couldn’t have been more thankful for this amazing evening.

Conclusion: So what can I say? I didn’t expect this at all. I am absolutely blown away by what A2, the Unleashed crew, the DJs and huisfeestjes.nl have organised here and I want to thank the amazing hosts for their heartfelt hospitality. Pool parties, backyard parties, house parties – I see a whole new future for small events like this! So far this has been one of the greatest parties I have attended in the last years and I really do hope small, extremely intimate parties like this might become a little bit more common. While they might not be too affordable for a general public, I hope labels and organizers will find ways and opportunities to make this happen more often!

Pictures: Rossumedia/huisfeestjes.nl

In case you are interested in hosting your own house party, check out https://www.huisfeestjes.nl/