The 5th of May is a special day in the Netherlands. On the previous day (4th May) we remember all the war-victims and on the 5th of May we celebrate our freedom. For this occasion, freedom-festivals are organized throughout the country. Several artists are chosen to be ambassadors of freedom each year. We visited Bevrijdingsfestival Zeeland in Vlissingen, which is organized by Cultuurwerf, in the evening & brought our photographer, check out our experience now!
Around 6 pm we arrived at the festival. The weather was absolutely beautiful. Thanks to the fact that the 5th of May was a public holiday it resulted in a massive crowd, it has been estimated between 40.000 and 45.000 people attended Bevrijdingsfestival Zeeland. In total the festival had 7 stages but we obviously focused on the Liberty Dance Stage. The Liberty Dance stage had a pretty cool stage-design in the colours of the freedom-festival and a big LED-screen behind the DJ-booth. Check out the time-table of this area below:
Liberty Dance Stage
18.00 – 19.00 uur Geerten V Duin Official
19.00 – 20.15 uur Calcanda
20.15 – 21.45 uur Bougenvilla
21.45 – 23.15 uur Pep & Rash
23.15 – 0.00 uur Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano
18:00 – 0.00 uur Mc Sam
Eventhough we were un-able to catch the entire set of Geerten V Duin we’re definitely familiar with him. His style can be described as tech-/deep-house, which is in our view a nice way to warm up the night.
The duo Calcanda caught our eye when it was suddenly announced they had signed with Spinnin’ Records recently. It was a pleasant surprise for us to see them on this years line-up. We can assure you that they are ones to watch for the future, because soon they will be having a big release. At the freedom-festival they played a decent house-set to warm up for Bougenvilla.
Bougenvilla has been dropping a string of cool releases through Oliver Helden’s label Heldeep Recordings lately so we knew this had to be interesting. Standing still was impossible during his set and he played some perfectly summer house vibes.
If you say Pep & Rash, in the very same breath you will say ‘Rumors’, the track that got the duo the number 1 spot on Beatport. For Jesse and Rashid it was clearly a home-match. The crowd already went crazy before they had pressed play for their first track. As you would expect the guys dropped all their recent releases and very clearly loved the crowd. Already during Bougenvilla’s set it was really busy but when Pep & Rash played it was getting almost too crowded. For some time, the organization decided to close access to the area for that reason. We totally understand that because safety always comes first.
The ambassadors who arrived by helicopter to close the festival were legends Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano. Their concept ‘Sexy By Nature’ keeps growing and so does the popularity of their sound. As preparation for their ambassadorship they had visited Lesbos in Greece and obviously that had left a big impression on them. They brought MC Gee with them for support and it was clear that they had very well prepared their set. MC Gee didn’t just hype the crowd but also mentioned freedom during his speeches and in our view the most special moment of the festival was when they dropped Bob Marley’s ‘Three Little Birds’ which nobody saw coming.
Conclusion
We had a great time at Bevrijdingsfestival Zeeland and enjoyed the pretty cool line-up! We’ve been definitely lucky with the sunny weather, but if you’re living near Zeeland this is absolutely the place to be!
Reporter: Alexander Bouten
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