I’ve just been in Utrecht once before – to shop. So what could have been more fitting to check out Utrecht again to see the “Home Of Hardstyle” Pop-Up Store in the heart of the city? Hardstyle.com and partners announced the event two weeks before, I noticed it just a few days before the actual event and got really excited: A Pop-Up Store?! For Hardstyle gear?! WITH FREE ENTRY AND A LINE UP??!?

I knew the concept from Indie fashion labels: a location is rented out for a day to several months, products are presented and often there’s also some kind of event or entertainment happening around it. So as I took my train to Utrecht, I was already puzzling about what could await me there.

It was raining like fuck, but I found the location quite easily, it was just a 10 minute foot walk away from the station, pretty close to a huge shopping mall and some small cafés and shopping streets. Outside of the building was a poster: “Hardstyle.com – Pop-Up Store”. I entered the building and the first thing I was was the dressing room. I gave the girls my jacket and took the stairs to the first floor.

It was sooo cozy! Music was playing in the background, some people were talking to each other, others were awkwardly standing around (but not for too long!). The guy at the bar was busy handing out one beer and a coffee. The first room consisted of a small chill-area to the left, a bar to the center and a small dance floor to the right. When you crossed the dance floor you would enter the second room – the actual pop-up store!

The store room consisted of a display rack, a booth with flags, stickers and earplugs, two really big display tables with t-shirts and fans, a rack with sweaters and the Theracords corner.

I ran into a member of today’s crew, Jean, and ask him a few questions:

What’s your Name?
Jean!

Jean, what are you doing here?
We are organizing a pop-up store! It’s a project for our school and we’re doing great so far!

Can you tell me what happens here at ‘Home Of Hardstyle’?
There’s a website called hardstyle.com and we’re “taking the website offline” to open up a store for a day! We arranged it so a couple of DJ’s would play here and also a workshop by Pioneer. We have a auction with artworks from a colleague of mine. Even a couch with graffiti! It’s about getting people together and creating a cool atmosphere. People from all over Holland gather and enjoy Hardstyle!

At five past two I grab a beer and relax for a while. I notice that the venue starts to fill up by the minute and Audiomedics start their set a bit late. The set was quite nice and I decide to inspect the store a bit more. I quickly noticed that (once again, like always in Hardstyle) i found it quite hard to find something that would fit me. The shirts were really cool, but all of them were for men. “Do I really need another Scantraxx hoodie?”, I asked myself. The prices were really okay, so the temptation was complete!

I was surprised by that, considering that in most pop-up stores products would cost like 10-25% more than usual sometimes.  There were also sun glasses, fans, flags,…! From newcomers like Audiotricz to the big names like Noisecontrollers, you could find a great variety of names.

Also label stuff from Scanntraxx was displayed for sale and I think I also saw some Xxlerator Matrixx merch too. You name it! The highlight for a lot of people was the Theracords corner where you could buy merch and get it signed by Thera himself too!

….and then I ran into Geck-o!
Well, please don’t run into me – it hurts. (laughs)

So what are you doing here?
I live practically around the corner, so why not take a look and see what it actually is. I had no idea to be honest, it’s more than I thought it would be. They really even put a DJ booth here and stuff!

Can you describe the idea of what you see here?
Well the idea… To really create a kind of go-to place for Hardstyle people, like a store or a hangout for one day! It works, I think! I also see a lot of familiar faces, so lots of hugs aswell today! It’s really nice.

So what’s new in “Geck-o World”?
A whole album is coming up on qult records in February. It’s finished and I’m really fucking proud of it! When I listen to it I have the feeling it’s really something special and I think you should really listen to it!

…and Hardstyle?
Oh yes actually! I’ve been busy with the album, so it’s been really a bit quiet around me and Hardstyle. But I have like 4 original tracks ready now and I think i’ll play them at XQlusive!

Thera was so nice to give a very detailed interview, which will be online tomorrow. I decide to walk around again and notice the awkward “hole” in the dance floor. I just love it when crowds are shy. (But so am I. Duh – Guilty.) I see some familiar faces here and there and strike up some conversations. Everybody I talked to was very positive about the idea and people love the fact they have a chance to not just buy their merch here, but also party a bit and meet the DJ’s. I meet Sophie who was part of the team:

So I am standing here with…
…Sophie!

Sophie what are you doing here?
We are with a group of thirteen students and I was part of the marketing. It was my responsibility to check that the people knew about this even over social media, Facebook and other channels.

Did you run into any challenges while planning all of this?
It was really hard to create all of this with a little budget. Not a lot of other people are familiar with hardstyle, sometimes they get the wrong impression, so finding sponsors was a challenge.

So what do you think of the vibe here?
I think the atmosphere is really friendly! Everybody is very comfortable. People who don’t know each other talk to each other about Hardstyle, the music they like. It’s nice to see the people bond. I think we really accomplished something here today!

Thanks, Sophie!
Thank you too!

At around three o’clock it really started to get really busy. I tried to interview the girls at the dressing room, but it was so busy that I had no chance. It got so packed that I could barely hear myself talking into my voice recorder, so I decided to quickly change the battery and get back into the scene. Audiotricz and Bass Modulators started playing a bit after 15:00.

I really enjoyed their set! New stuff, some classics and looooots of Scantraxx awesomeness. Perfect for my taste! Later on Waverider joined them and also played some cool tunes. The DJ’s left and entered the booth loosely and it was fun to see them play and also enjoy themselves aswell. People were really having a lot of fun by that time! A lot of networking was going on and some fellas even brought their kids! It was adooooorable to see them enjoy the music aswell!

I interviewed the little, adorable Luna with permisson of her parents!

What do you think of the party?
I dunno. (smiles)

Do you think it’s loud?
Yes.

Do you like to dance?
Yes!

Do you like the music?
Yes!

Who are you here with?
My parents and my brother.

Thank you, cutie!

As it stopped raining I decided to also change the battery of my camera and smoke a cigarette in the cozy (but very small) outdoor smoking room. I saw some guys talk to each other about producing, others exchanged tunes they liked, another pair of friends discussed the set that was playing inside. When I went outside and finally decided to interview Audiomedics, I apparently was too late. Also, I think I missed the Pioneer guy. A girl asks me for who I am taking pictures and we start to talk, apparently she was from Italy!

So what’s your Name?
I’m Simona.

And where are you from?
I’m from Italy!

What are you doing here, Italy is quite far away?!
I work here as Au-Pair, a babysitter. That means I’m staying with a family and I take care of their children. But I chose to go to the Netherlands because of the music; Hardstyle!

How did you come to know of this event here?
From Facebook! I liked several Pages on Facebook. Waverider, Hardstyle.com, Audiotricz and so on,… And they shared this so I thought: I’m going!

When did you come here?
I think I came here at 13:00 and I’m just enjoying the music and seeing people here! I like it!

And what do you think of this so far?
Everything is going really good I think. It’s nice to see the people talking with each other and dancing, smiling! The DJ’s are playing music but also talking to the people! I think that’s really nice, because you can’t talk to them on the events. Sometimes you want to ask them something or just say ‘Hi’, you can’t really do that at events, here you can! I think that’s really cool!

Thank you Simona!

I also see some older people here, which is cool to see! The atmosphere by around 4 o’clock is at it’s best, people slowly start dancing and the sales seem to go well. Some people try on shirts, others talk to DJ’s or have a drink with their friends. At a bit after four they start the auction of the artworks. The paintings are framed vinyls which have portraits of famous DJ’s and MC’s on them. I overhear a conversation about “how this would look like in the studio” and silently agree.

A surprise was the auction of the couch that everyone just casually sat on during the day! It was also painted and went away for a amazingly low price. After the auction I finally had the time to interview Gigi van der Laan, who is the Manager of hardstyle.com and initiated “Home Of Hardstyle”.

So who are you and what is your function here today?
I am Gigi van der Laan and I’m the Manager of Hardstyle.com and I am responsible for ‘Home Of Hardstyle’.

So tell me about ‘Home Of Hardstyle’.
I’m still a student, I created this project together with 12 other students. It’s the end project of my Minor in ‘Creativity and Innovation’. I combined my work with my studies and this is the proud result!

What were the challenges of this project for you?
We had basically no idea how many people would be coming today. Another thing was the budget, we wanted to start with a minimum budget of 100€ to challenge ourselves – it was a school project after all, otherwise it would have been to easy. We put all of this up in a matter of five weeks!

How would you describe what’s happening right now?
I’m very satisfied. So many people, so much feedback, very positive feedback! So many people came to ‘Home Of Hardstyle’, even people who lived one hour or more away fromhere! There was even a father with his son coming here, because he couldn’t bring his son to regular events. This was perfect for him and the father even asked when the next edition was planned.

Is there a next edition of ‘Home Of Hardstyle’ planned?
I have no idea! But the result is so amazing that I think there might be a second one!

The people have given me amazing feedback about the interaction between DJ’s, Hardstyle.com and their fans and costumers. How do you see this?
Well, that was the plan! I wanted to create a place where Hardstyle fans and artists could meet. Most times you can just take a picture in the dark and the artists seem really far away. Here you can talk and take pictures, interact! I have also gotten positive response from the artists too, so I think I might have really created a ‘Home Of Hardstyle’!

Anything else you want the readers to know?
Yeah! They have to visit the second edition! (laughs)

I got myself a glass of red wine and enjoyed the rest of the very mixed set! I interviewed Audiotricz (Interview online tomorrow!) and after that DJ Thera started playing. The people really started dancing then! It was amazing to see how such a little crow can put in such energy for the last hour! As i wandered around again even I ran into a small group of Germans, I was surprised by how international everything suddenly seemed.

So I’m standing here with…
A: Ann-Christin!
N: Nicolas!
M: Manuel!

What brought you guys here from Germany?
N: We were curious! There’s nothing like this in Germany. You can imagine this as something like a living room with a great DJ spinning some great tunes! It was basically curiosity!

How would you describe what’s happening here?
M: There’s nothing like this in Germany, this spontaneous manner of doing this. Everybody is having a great time and it’s fantastic!

Did you buy merchandise here?
N: Yea! I bought a Thera wristband and I might get something else too in some minutes!

How do you like the concept?
A: It’s pretty neat!
N: I’d say it’s unique! The merch here is basically the everything you can get at hardstyle.com, isn’t it? A lot of is it gone already, the prices are really okay, some of it is even cheaper than online if i can recall correctly. Well done, I’d say!

Did you also talk to the DJs?
M: Not yet!

Would you visit a second edition?
N: Definitely. But it also depends a bit on the line-up though! We’re mostly here because of Thera, you know? Also because of Waverider, but he already played. But if theline-up is ok, we’d absolutely consider coming here too on a second edition!

Thanks to all of you!

Thera’s set was great and the people contributed their part to the great vibe by dancing their asses off until the last beat. The crew got well-deserved standing ovations for their work and one of the loudest applauses possible. As the people started leaving I still saw happy and satisfied faces everywhere and I couldn’t get my thoughts off if there was going to be a second edition.

I really thought the entire idea was great! I genuinely enjoyed myself, even though I came there alone. I always found someone to talk to and if not – i’d just listen to music, take a look at the store or grab a drink! The pop-up store concept is a fresh breeze for the Hardstyle scene and could also be done in other cities too. It was also nicely timed; the winter season is very quiet and big indoor events are rare. ‘Home Of Hardstyle’ was a nice way to shop your favorite merchandise, even get it signed, maybe hand over your demo, have a drink with friends, enjoy the music and the great atmosphere. If there’s gonna be a second edition, be sure you mark it in bright red in your calendar!