Last Saturday we visited the 8th edition of Dance Boulevard in Bergen op Zoom. The festival is organized by Focus Events and consists of 4 areas (House, Freestyle, Hardstyle & Ralvero’s Rage) and a total of about 40 acts. They expected about 4.500 visitors which is nice for a local event. Considering the nice line-up we were definitely excited for this event. Check out our experience in the report below.
Timetable
We decided to use a shuttlebus from Bergen op Zoom station to arrive at the Boulevard of Bergen op Zoom. We could see the tents rather quickly from the bus. Entrance was really quick and after getting a locker it was time to check out the terrain. We had checked the timetable obviously but we wanted to just check everything & see what would surprise us.
The first stage you saw when entering was Ralvero’s Rage, a concept of DJ Ralvero, that also was a part of last year’s edition. We heard Crossnaders playing Laidback Luke & Chocolate Puma’s collab ‘Snap that neck’ and already some people were shuffling to the beat.
The second stage visible was the Hardstyle stage located in a tent with some nuclear logo’s on the stage, Falqon was opening there with some early Hardstyle, something we can always appreciate, and also at this stage people were already having a good time.
Stage number 3 was also located in a tent. The house of colors stage had a nice colorful design with a lion in the middle like it was reigning over the entire stage. Wessel S, who you might know from winning a Dancetour contest some years ago & rocked Tomorrowland this year, was warming up with some eclectic house featuring dope tribal drums.
The last but definitely not least stage was the Freestyle stage located near a fun carnival attraction. Dustin Hertz & Clayton Cash were pleasing the crowd with Tatanka’s ‘Africa’, ‘Wonderwall in a Freestyle edit & much more.
Sound Rush
Sound Rush have been out there for about 1 year now, played on big main-stages already and are characterized by euphoric sets with awesome melodies. This set was no exception to the rule. Starting with some tracks of Wasted Penguinz’s album Whistfulness, going oldschool to Pavo’s ‘Communicate’ & Noisecontroller’s ‘KYHU (Keep Your Head Up)’ and playing some of their own tracks like ‘Worlds of Space’ it was really fun to watch.
Dr Rude
Dr Rude is becoming a real pioneer. He’s mostly known these days for his Freestyle sets but he’s also playing ‘hard-drop’ sets. At Dance Boulevard he got to perform both his styles, first on the Hardstyle stage and in the evening on the Freestyle stage. As we had hoped his set contained his ‘hard drop’ edit of Kavela’s ‘Shot me Down’, Isaac vs Crystal Lake ‘Stick ‘em’ and some of his more recent edits.
NSCLT (Noisecult)
Since we’ve seen this duo playing at Rebirth Festival in 2014 they’ve only grown bigger and bigger. When they played their Alphaverb ‘Got it’ remix we were quickly reminded of that set. The guys showed their diverse production skills with ‘Freight train’ and got the crowd happy by blasting Ran-D’s ‘My Way’ through the speakers.
At this point we decided to get something to eat & were attracted to the freestyle stage since legendary DJ Zany was playing there.
Zany
When walking to the stage we saw stickers all over the place from the DJ’s who had already played at the Freestyle stage. Zany was entertaining the crowd with an edit of Alvaro’s ‘Welcome to the jungle’ and made a transition to a Freestyle version of Martin Garrix & Usher’s ‘Don’t look down’, what a track that was! Further he played an edit of ‘Break Down Low’ and ‘Just as easy’ both received really well by the audience.
Freestyle Stage
Audiotricz
Yes fortunately the terrain wasn’t too big & we decided to rush back to the Hardstyle stage to see Audiotricz in action. With ‘lose my mind’, ‘infinite’ and the wildstylez remix of ‘We are the lucky ones’ this duo brought some great euphoric vibes and a nice atmosphere to the Hardstyle stage.
E-Force LIVE
We definitely had looked forward to this moment! E-force’s sets are always very energetic and we were curious how he would be hyping the crowd with this LIVE-act. His energy behind the DJ booth was infectious for so many people. E-Force flags were up in the sky from the die-hard supporters. The set was Raw as it should be with hard kicks & screetches. A nice moment was when people decided to do a sitdown on one of his most famous tracks ‘Seven’. An eclectic atmosphere amongst the crowd was what E-Force achieved with his set.
Titan
Titan was up next, who had included loads of tracks in his set, mixing them in smoothly. The Machine & Gemenizers ‘Godcore’, Delete’s ‘Fast lane’ were amongst his set-list & Titan was visibly having a lot of fun behind the decks drumming on the kicks of some of his tunes. A wonderfull moment was when he included a part of Southstylers’s timeless classic ‘Pounding your senses’ with some Raw kicks!
Adaro
Adaro, 50% of Gunz For Hire, is someone that anybody will mention if you ask about Raw Hardstyle artists, everyone knows he’s had problems with his hearing and we’re so glad he’s still able to play. We had the honor to meet him & meet his dad, known as ‘Padaro’ shortly before his set. With ‘Soul to keep’, ‘Answers’, ‘F#ck the fake shit’ and obviously the massive Regain remix of his track ‘For the street’ he delivered a very awesome set!
Radical Redemption
Joey aka Radical Redemption keeps getting bigger. Just recently his own ‘one man army’ night at the Heineken Music Hall was announced & considering what he accomplished such an evening is well deserved. At Dance Boulevard he instantly went full throttle with his set. Even though he played a relatively standard set with for example ‘Brutal’ & ‘Suicide Bassline’ there were so many fans in the crowd with his cap that the atmosphere was nice.
Digital Punk
We believe Digital Punk stood for a difficult task to close after the string of great artists and it became clear he was the man to get the job done. With nice melodic breaks & cool kickrolls he delivered exactly what the audience had asked for. As the Hardstyle took place in a tent obviously there couldn’t be fireworks inside so we decided to walk to the Freestyle to see whether Mental Theo still had it in him to close a Festival.
Mental Theo
We couldn’t have been more wrong doubting if he still had it in him. Mental Theo was blasting basically all 90s tracks and included some happy Hardcore of his own to the set. When he started in ‘Nobody said it was easy’ in the Evil Activities remix we got a little emotional & then really happy because of the huge flames coming out of the top of the Freestyle stage (timecoded on the kicks).
If you’re curious about the fireworks that followed check out our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/festivallingcom).
Conclusion
Focus Events has organized a very cool 8th edition of Dance Boulevard. We liked the variety in styles at the 4 areas that offer something for everybody. With about 4500 visitors they did really well considering it’s a local festival where most people know eachother, especially by managing to put together the pretty good line-up. We were happy about the positive atmosphere throughout the day. If you’re living nearby and didn’t visit Dance Boulevard this year we would recommend you to visit it in 2016!
© Festivalling.com
Reporter: Alexander Bouten