The scene of people leaving Dekmantel’s Amsterdamse Bos location could hardly be further than the commotion of those exiting most British festivals. Instead of people jostling through gates to get to the nearest transport – singing the headline act’s name to the tune of ‘Seven Nation Army’ – there’s a calm and collected mood as people stroll towards a sea of bikes, before pedalling peacefully home.
Rather than a floor littered with empty cans, the grassland is practically unblemished, with cigarette butts placed into small plastic tubes handed out by organisers to the 15,000-strong crowd.
These are just some of the considered aspects this festival embodies, which the UK can often feel towards this part of the continent. Here, things just seem to work. There’s a reason and purpose to virtually every detail.
Take the smallest venue, for instance, Connects, which sits in the centre of the vegetarian-only food trucks. Granted, it bears the festival’s only glimmer of corporate advertising, with ‘Bud’ masted to its front (there are worse sponsors to be had at a festival than the pale lager brand), but it’s so minimal in its construction, you almost overlook it. With just a few small surrounding plinths and lighting poles, it’s as though the curators have used the crowd themselves – one often bouncing to gabber here – as a means to construct the stage.
And the attention to detail doesn’t just work on the small-scale. At the neighbouring 6,000-capacity The Loop – the largest of Amsterdamse Bos’ eight venues, which constitutes a giant circular stage – the lighting is used at night to either shine onto the packed-out crowd, capturing them in stop-motion animation, or illuminate the hands of those gathered along the top.
It’s a triumphant feat of engineering. And that’s before you even turn to the music.
In celebrating its tenth anniversary, this year Dekmantel had the authority to purvey past, present and future, with a lineup ranging from the likes of genuine pioneers in Jane Fitz and jungle figurehead Goldie to contemporary dance-floor innovators like Josey Rebelle and Eris Drew.
On Friday, Peter Hook & The Light’s daytime set at Greenhouse was a homage to the forebears of electronic music, with the Joy Division bassist’s outfit a reminder of the genre’s building blocks. From there, you could stroll to Palm Trax’s jaunty house, which packed-out the aforementioned The Loop.
Perhaps owing to the festival’s predominantly house and techno offering, as well as some cunning scheduling spreading out the crowd, more often than not, no stage was ever too busy. Only the two-storied scaffolding of Radar occasionally had a queue outside – which is fair enough for the likes of a closing night B2B from Dekmantel mainstays Helena Hauff and Marcel Dettmann.
And once nestled into a set, each venue gave you little reason to leave, with every one essentially a club in its own right. There was the airy space of The Nest, where Hessle Audio co-founder Pangea unleashed his nascent dubstep mix, and where cross-Atlantic kindred spirits RP Boo and Sherelle took us on a sensational 160 bpm footwork odyssey, fast in tempo and rich in soul.
Likewise, the Selectors stage saw very different sets from DJ Sprinkles – as much a champion of deep house as rave-induced activism – and revered techno enthusiast, DVS1. This stage is perhaps the least original of the lot, with a straightforward forest and sound system setup, but it frequently pulled a heavy crowd with such acts, and broke up the rest of Amsterdamse Bos effectively.
Among the many genres getting their fair hearing was dubstep. Two special shoutouts go to James Blake and Mala’s set. As well as featuring a sample from an unreleased Dave freestyle, the Grammy Award-winning artist and singer paid tribute to his rarely-seen B2B partner by concluding with “the song which changed [his] life”: the eerie, frequently-sampled track ‘Changes’.
Another lauded set from this UK garage offshoot was fellow former Digital Mystikz associate, Loeafah, who hyped-up the crowd before Amsterdam-born, London-based JYOTY’s exuberant, hour-long set which ranged from dancehall to tech-house without ever letting the energy drop, the 33-year-old toying with the crowd in front of her with the flick of a wrist.
There were many more honourable mentions among the 200-strong lineup – each one in harmony with the venue they played in. Interstellar Funk kept things light and upbeat, chiming with Greenhouse’s playful, bright-red inflatable casing; Talismann took his audience into a techno abyss, befitting of the dark UFO I stage, where state-of-the-art equipment enables pyrotechnics indoors; and (speaking of UFOs), UK electronic masters Ben UFO and Joy Orbison rounded-off their Saturday night set at The Loop with a remix of Fontaines D.C.’s boisterous single ‘Starburster’.
In truth, though, a review of this sort will seldom capture the full spirit and vibrancy of such a setting. And besides, at Dekmantel, less is often more.
As Jeff Mills closed The Loop on Sunday night, all you wanted to do was remain in this festival’s orbit. The Detroit icon has a longstanding relationship with Dekmantel. As a techno artist with more than three decades at the top of his game, he provided the ideal, thumping finale – especially given this was the first year this stage was designed as a full loop to denote the full circle sentiment of Dekmantel having risen from techno parties to celebrating its tenth anniversary.
Here’s to another ten years of Dekmantel likewise being the standard bearer for electronic music festivals… Now, where did I put my bike?
