“When in Belgium… The Qontinent Day 1 – Preparty”

By: Cassi Catsaros

When we think of the festivities that the Belgian summer has to offer, our minds usually drift to nothing quite past the commercialism and predictability of “Tomorrowland’s mainstage.”

As a writer and an honest person, I do not particularly give a fuck about Tomorrowland’s mainstage.

No, I am sitting in front of this computer regarding a particular festivity that rocked the soils of Belgium, one that is truly something special and unique that no commercial mainstage event can even account for.

As an avid lover and observer of the hardstyle scene, community and festivities, there was one particular event that had been on my radar for about one year now. It may sound strange, but ever since Da Tweekaz and Wasted Penguinz bombed my soul with their 2013 Qontinent anthem “Island Refuge,” I was determined to attend The Qontinent this year.

I did indeed have an incredible opportunity to conquer and retell the secrets of The Qontinent 2014. So readers, who attended this unforgettable party, prepare to relive this weekend one day at a time and for those of you who missed out, now is the time to roll around in a sea of tears followed by a swift determination to attend next year’s edition.

This is what went down…

First impressions:
5:00pm: As I tiredly stumbled off the coach I had been trapped on for the previous five hours, I suddenly was hit with a gust of anticipation ignite a blazing fire upon my soul. As I flung my heavy backpack upon my back, I managed to take a few seconds to review the madhouse that I was about to surrender my soul upon.
Ravers, everywhere…
Left, right and centre were eager partygoers who had probably saved their entire pay from the last couple of weeks in order to live their lives to the fullest for the next 56 hours or so.

5:19pm: In the patient line to gain entrance to the festival, the vibe was already off to a skyrocketing start, with one guy already pumping hardcore on his speakers. My eyes become observant as I begin to count the amount of people wearing hardstyle or hardcore merchandise… I stop counting at about 45 and agree that it is probably more effortless to count the people NOT wearing merchandise.

Regardless of individuals choices in merchandise, every single mind, body and soul was one hundred and fifty percent dedicated to having a wild, wild weekend…

After patiently waiting in line and breezing past the rather carefree security, I finally arrived at my campsite which was in the wild midst of hundreds of other soldiers. Some campsites were already competing with each other, blasting their favourite tunes as loud as possible and one thing is for certain, I have never heard so much hardcore, speedcore, frenchcore, splittercore and whatever-the-fuck core in my entire life.

All speedcore aside, I may take this opportunity to go off into a little tangent and speak about the camping facilities. I am undoubtedly a princess and camping amongst the nature is definitely in my personal top ten most soul torturing experiences that I can possibly think of, however, the camping at The Qontinent was better than I expected. There were plenty of showers and toilets which were surprisingly cleaned daily. Along with the camping gear that we trudged out from our homes, if something was forgotten, the camping store was not far away and it was fully equipped with airbeds, sleeping bags, towels and everything that a princess in the nature could ever ask for. Another thing I also enjoyed immensely about this festival was the abundance and availability of renting phone chargers. In Sydney, this isn’t possible at festivals, we are expected to be stingy and put our phones on flight mode for the entire festival. I must say that the luxury of being able to charge my mobile phone was quite remarkable.

6:30pm: “I am sitting in my tent. I have my headphones on and I am applying my make-up. In order to mentally prepare myself, I am listening to some Duke Dumont because I find it highly unlikely that I will be able to listen to any form of relaxed music over the course of this weekend. The rain has just started and I am not too keen to leave my tent just yet.”

7:30pm: After the Belgian sky buckets down with God’s tears of anxiety, all of a sudden, I can hear the pattering cease on the roof of my tent. I slowly peer outside to see glimpses of sunlight bless the holy grounds. I jump outside of my tent with a smile on my face, I grab my excited bunch of friends and we set out on our mission to conquer the pre-party.

Pre-partying is always a good idea:
We walk over the bridge and into where the pre-party is hosted. To the left of me, I catch a glimpse of the “Tommahawk” stage, it is small and already looking crowded with dedicated partygoers, too excited to hear the sweet sounds of hardstyle blasting.

As I turned to the right, my sights were suddenly set on the “Skull Mountain” stage which was a medium but decent sized stage designed, obviously representing a desert mountain. My eyes were enjoying the sights of this stage as I noticed the intense attention to detail. I am not going to lie, there were a lot of stages, but every single one was designed to perfection to fit the theme “Wild Wild Weekend.”

7:55pm: I’m standing in the midst of the crowd by myself, you know, soaking in all of those good vibes and being a highly analytical individual. Newcomers Sound Rush are just finishing up their set and my analytical tendencies are about to kick into overdrive within the next few minutes.
8:00pm: The boys from Sound Rush step back down into reality as MC DV8 rises to announce the next act to bless the holy decks. Suddenly, next generation hero Rebourne jumps up with a fresh burst of energy. He opens his set with the 2013 Qontinent anthem “Island Refuge” by Da Tweekaz and Wasted Penguinz, which instantly puts a huge smile on my face, reminding me why I am here in the first place.

I was extremely content to watch Rebourne’s set, something about the young generation of producers honestly makes me excited for the future of hard dance music. There was definitely a certain aura and unique energy that Rebourne bought to the stage as he played most of his perfectly crafted masterpieces such as “Trigger,” “Under Our Surface,” and “Louder,” a collaboration/atomic bomb created alongside veterans D Block & S-Te-Fan.

8:30pm: Just as I was moving back through the crowd to buy myself a drink, I suddenly force my feet to a halt. Beneath all of the arbitrary signature trap dropped during Rebourne’s set, my ears latch onto the fading in of the old school sound. “Holy f*ck! Is that…? No…. It cannot be…” My ears begin tingling as I begin to hear a slight mix in to my favourite song in the entire world and one of the most respected songs in the history of hardstyle.

Yes… There is a god, and he definitely loves me.

“Somewhere out there, in the vast nothingness of sp-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ace…”

I hung my head back in sheer pleasure and screamed at the top of my lungs for a second. I cannot believe that he greatly integrated Headhunterz classic “Rock Civilization” into his set that consisted mainly of modernised and sophisticated hardstyle. Words cannot explain the response to this track, it was incredible to be amongst such a cohesive crowd that united even further when this old classic was played.
In terms of Rebourne’s set, his unique sound really bought the crowd together and definitely kicked our excitement into overdrive for the remaining sets of the night. His choice of tracks, including a lot of his own exceptional creations kicked the night off to such a great start, although in my opinion, due to the enjoyment and his fantastic stage presence, it would have made more sense if his set time was swapped with Josh & Wesz… Just saying…

9:55pm: Almost towards the end of Josh & Wesz’s set, everybody was preparing themselves to be blown away by Wildstylez in approximately fifteen minutes. Skull Mountain was becoming more and more packed out by the second as an abundance of excited ravers unleashed their well practised (and also badly co-ordinated) “gabber” and “hakken”.

10:00pm: Wildstylez is in the house and the energetic response almost doubles from the crowd! Now that the sun has finally melted across the Belgian plains, the production is able to kick into overdrive! The well-loved MC Villain appears out of thin air to hype up the spirit as Wildstylez drops a mash up of his remix of “Wild Ones/Let me see ya” by Bass Modulators. On the very first drop of the song, the lightshow magically kicks off to send shivers running up my spine. Accompanying the remarkable light show is also shitloads of smoke, and not to mention, an abundance of good vibes flying from all directions.

10:30pm: I take out my voice recorder and am more unleashed than Alpha Twins. “30 minutes into Wildstylez set, drops fucking TBA part 2 by Frontliner aka god. We’re all lost in paradise… But TBA part 2… every c*nt is fucking losing their shit. No comment.”
Wildstylez delivered a set that kept the vibe high, and rising. Everybody went crazy over the lights and production that was showcased when the sky went dark. It’s always a pleasure watching Wildstylez perform, especially when he teams up with MC Villain.

11:00pm: Ran-D comes on, opens with his ground shaking collab with Hard Driver, “Animals.” I honestly did not think that this was a possibility, but the most incredible breeze of raw energy has swept it’s way over every single soul standing within the vicinity of this stage and the overall response from the crowd had climbed a latter to reach such an incredibly astounding high. I knew from the moment that Ran-D stepped on stage that this would be such a wild and lively set, where all arms and legs would be scattered across the airspace engaged in various dance moves.

The crazily intriguing light-show continued to wow every single member of the crowd and accompanied by the powerful sounds of Ran-D, there was no stopping us tonight! The happiness and energy was so contagious that I although I was tired from a long journey to Belgium, I could not stop moving.The master behind the decks dropped some highly explosive bombs such as the 2014 Intents Festival anthem “The Hunt,” and also snuck in “Open The Gates” by Adaro & E-Force, Featuring MC Nolz.

11:20pm: “Ran-D drops “Open the Gates” and the crowd is going absolutely fucking insane, the production is above and beyond the level of crazy, and this is just the small stage… I am bursting with excitement to see what the mainstage looks like tomorrow!”

Although I was by myself in the crowd at the time, everybody was so friendly and respectful towards others. Left, right and centre I had people offering me water, chewing gum, hats and alcohol (not that I particularly needed it, but it’s the thought that counts). Being at a hard dance event really delivers such a distinctive unity between all partygoers, everybody standing in the crowd was there for the exact same reason, they were there for the love and cherishing of hardstyle and the lifestyle that revolves the music.

12:00pm: At the conclusion of Ran-D’s set, I was left practically speechless with an obviously brutal case of “bassface.” I also have to award Ran-D with personal ownership of providing “Set of the day,” so a special thank you for one very enjoyable hour!

Next up to the decks and the last DJ to tear this place apart was powerhouse hardcore veteran, Neophyte. I had a feeling that everybody would up their crazy antics within this last hour and I was definitely right on par. I looked to my left, I saw a group of guys with their shirts off “hakken” like there was no tomorrow. I looked to my right and pretty much saw the same thing. I looked in front of me and yep, fuck it, everyone was going completely mental

12:10pm: “There is something exciting about a hardcore act closing a party. The tone becomes slightly aggressive, but everybody is so determined to push their legs right until the music stops.”To be an honest lady, I’m not a huge fan of hardcore, but I could barely stop my legs from moving about.

In terms of Neophyte closing a stage that had been blasting with hardstyle the entire night, he played a very appropriate set that catered for every individual with different musical preferences. Regardless of the fact that I do not listen to hardcore regularly, I really enjoyed his set that delivered a ruthless madness that infected everybody on that dance floor.

1:00am rolls around and everyone begins madly skipping out of the venue and back to the campsite to attempt to get some well needed zzz’s before the madness of Saturday hits us square in the face!
I was personally jumping out of my own skin in anticipation to witness the madness of the other stages on Saturday and after the amazing pre-party, my expectations were quite high…

God held off on the rain until after I finally reached my campsite (thanks for that mate), but unfortunately I couldn’t have it all, thanks to the guys in the campsite right next to me who were damaging their speakers and also my soul with speedcore until approximately 7am in the morning…

“That’s cool guys, I love listening to helicopters for 6 hours straight…”

All helicopters and bad neighbours aside, I eventually drifted off into the land of uncomfortable sleep that would prepare my body and soul for the second day of The Qontinent…

So this was the madness and mayhem of day one at The Qontinent!

To read about Day 2 (Saturday): CLICK HERE

To read about Day 3 (Sunday): CLICK HERE