If you thought Leeuwarden was the end of the world; you’re wrong! Just a few kilometres from the capital of the north of the Netherlands, you’ll find a dance festival called Promised Land Festival. Last weekend they held their third edition of the festival at one of the most beautiful festival locations, called ‘de Groene Ster’. This weekend festival is one of the few festivals which are held in the north of The Netherlands. We were invited to be part of this festival and visited the festival on Sunday 15th May. Read about our experience below!
A 1,5-hour drive and we arrived at our destination. The parking-tickets only costed 5 euro’s, so the day already started out quite well. When we arrived at the entrance there was no line at all. It seemed that we were one of the first visitors to enter the holy ground of Promised Land which felt sa bit special. It was really pleasant for us that there was no line and we just went straight to our locker. When we locked our stuff we rushed to the Xplode stage, because we didn’t want to miss the set of talent Devin Wild. We partied as hard as we could, because we had all the space of the world. It was a bit disappointing that many of the visitors arrived in the late afternoon, despite that it was nice to have much space to dance.
In comparison to other festivals, the toilets and food-trucks were really nearby the stage. This was such a good thing. You could quickly to the toilet and didn’t have to miss a lot of the DJ’s set. After Devin Wild, it was Rebourne’s turn. He played a lot of euphoric Hardstyle, which I like a lot. I had a lot of goosebumps and 1 hour full of musical enjoyment.
After this the music went straight from euphoric to raw-Hardstyle. In my view it was a bit disappointing that there was no real transition, from euphoric Hardstyle to raw Hardstyle. The music although was very good and the set-up of the tent full of stars was really nice.
Next to the Hardstyle tent we found the Freestyle tent. Known artists like the Darkraver and The Viper were tearing the tent apart that day.
In my opinion the strength of this festival was the diversity of the music and artists who were playing. The Xplode & Cirque du Freakz stages were the only ones which had indoor locations.
All the 4 other stages were outdoor, in the open air. One of the most beautiful stages in my opinion was the CopaCabana stage. It felt like you stood somewhere in Fiji. With the tropical sounds, the stage design and the people I felt like this was the best concept of all six stages. The club Caravana stage was really funky and trendy. The organisation had created the dj booth out of on old caravan, which I found very original.
The last but not least stage was Fissakom. Designed with bright squared colours it took us back to the good old times with songs from the 90’s.
The vibe at the festival was really nice, a lot of people where chilling on the swings, hammocks and blowing bubbles.
Next to the festival there was a campground where 200 visitors spent their night, to have a whole weekend full of joy, music and new friendships.
Conclusion
Overall a great festival which can be described as a hidden gem with a lot of growing potential. It’s worth it to drive a couple of hours to visit in our opinion. We suggest you to keep an eye on the festival because we can’t wait to see what they’ll come up with next year!
© Festivalling.com
Reporter: Nathalie Wobben