Let’s go on a funfair!

It was a thrilling weekend. Intents Festival took place in Oisterwijk and thousands of people came together in this joyful rollercoaster ride through the funfair of madness! Since the first edition back in 2004, Intents Festival has grown up to one of the most anticipated festivals of the year!

Now, in 2015, it offers a three day festival weekend, including camping, a pre party, two end shows and eight stages with different DJs.

Friday – The Pre Party

The Intents Festival campsite opened its doors Friday afternoon, already a lot of people entered IntentsCity, built up their tents, enjoying some hard beats by Digital Punk, who was playing at the campsite. The sun was shining but when I arrived, the campsite was evacuated!

“Listen up, there is a storm coming”, seriously everyone needed to leave the ground, it was the organizer’s decision and the right one! The people were brought to a gym, right next to the camping ground, they built up speakers and a DJ booth, continuing with the pre party. The gym was packed but the crew brought in free water as well as free sweets to make up for the incident.

It was actually quite funny to watch. Noisecult played a set for nearly 3h, trying their best to make the whole gym to go the extra mile. Supported by MC Da Syndrome they managed the unexpected situation very well.

At 10 p.m. the heavy rain was gone and we could thankfully switch to the camping ground again and continue with the real pre party! It was held in one of the big tents. Due to the evacuation Coone and Audiofreq, Hard Driver and Ran-D played a back to back set, Frequencerz only a 45 min. set and if you were still standing, Warface Live wrecked the place.

The mood was fantastic, although I think a lot of people were really pissed about the situation. Nothing is worse than heavy rain at a festival with camping. But to sum it up, although it was raining the pre party was very nice. The sets were really cool and Warface Live has been always a highlight! So, I think the organizer deserves a huge THANK YOU, for handling the situation that well, keeping it calm and trying to make the best out of it!

Saturday – Main festival

The sun is rising at the horizon and it’s going to be a beautiful second festival day, for sure! After checking the weather forecast it was clear that I need some sunscreen before heading to the entrance. The funfair of madness opened the gates.

Facilities

Intents Festival offered everything you need. Starting at the camping ground with a soccer field, shops with camping equipment, food & drink corners, of course a first aid tent and enough space for all the other tents. At the festival ground you found the obligatory food booths, offering Dutch, Greek and Asian food, Sandwiches, Waffles, Burgers, Fries, Hot Dogs, Fruits and Smoothies and Ice cream.

So, I guess no one had to eat something he or she don’t like. Especially the warm Waffles with chocolate and cream were very tasty!
Needed a new haircut? No problem! Want to get informed about drugs? Yep, no problem! Your Smartphone battery is dying? Get one of the changers! As you can see, Intents Festival offered a lot to make you feel as comfortable as possible.

As the festival name and topic suggest, you also had the chance to take a ride on a big Ferris wheel or a thrilling ride! Two tokens or 4€ for one ride was not too much and I really liked the fact, that you could have paid with tokens, missed that at Fantasy Island for example! After an exhausting dance sessions you could take a seat or get a water pipe with your friends.

The VIP area was placed on the right side of the main stage, with its own bar, big pillows to enjoy the shining sun, a beautiful view of the stage, some free sweets and food to eat and its own toilets.

How was my experience?

Starting at the mainstage with Mark with a K!
Soo cool to see some Tekstyle at the mainstage and although it was the first set, the floor was already packed with a lot people. It was a lovely set and a perfect opening of the festival. The sun was shining and all the people enjoyed it so much.

Right after Mark with a K, euphoric pioneers Wasted Penguinz claimed the stage and continued heating up the crowd. At the same time Act Of Rage played a massive set at the Indoor Mainstage. It’s always awesome to watch him, since he’s a great entertainer on stage.

But I got stuck at the mainstage, although I’m more into the rougher sounds. The nonstop shining sun was the reason, it’s just amazing to dance your ass off while literally getting fried by the sun.

So, next up: Noisecult Live. What a cool set. Very diverse, packed with edits of their tracks and live performances. Furthermore, Noisecult are responsible for this year’s Outlands anthem!
I couldn’t wait for the next duo, Audiotricz. It seems, that these two guys are unstoppable, nearly playing on every huge stage. A really nice set, filled with uplifting melodies and killing drops. They also premiered the official Wish Outdoor anthem 2015, made by themselves.

And another euphoric hero was about to hop on stage. Atmozfears brought us bride leads and melodies we all know. Furthermore, he played some nice edits and mash-ups as well as his new hit ‘Release’, good oldies and a few raw tunes like ‘Funky Shit’ or his remix of ‘Bounce N Break’.

Time to finally switch the stage as Radical Redemption live made the whole raw tent move up and down. One killing track after another! I seriously can’t wait for Brutal 5.0. It’s so BRUU-TAAAL! 45 minutes pure awesomeness and one of the highlights on Saturday.

But no time to relax, let’s quickly run to the Hardcore stage: Art Of Fighters Live! I recently started listening to the Traxtorm podcast and got more and more hooked on hardcore, I really like the Italian hardcore and their live set at Reverze was amazing.

I did not get disappointed and although I just know a few tracks I loved the energy in their tracks and the crowd was fantastic. The sun was still burning down , but I found a shady spot right in front of the mainstage with a perfect view on Digital Punk.

It was time for my personal highlight of the festival. Their sets are more than raw and highly exclusive. It takes 1 and 1/2 hour to jump into their outfits and their live performance is outstanding. Keep it dark and raw and give it up for Moridin!

What a crazyyyy set, which made the crowd move and the small area shaking. Volume to the max, a set packed with edits, mashups and the set went harder and harder. If you haven’t seen them yet, check out Moridin. It’ll blow you away!

Switching to Frequencerz at the mainstage after this heavy set felt like I was dancing to euphoric. It was now a choice of taste, since nearly every stage were gone over to some rougher sounds. With one exception – Brennan Heart jumped on stage after Frequencerz.

I actually expected a rougher set, but no, he started with a remix of  ‘In The End’ and played his new track together with Audiotricz, who joined him on stage! And I was amazed, since the crowd loved it! I really didn’t expect that. The last 30 min. of his set was more raw and perfectly introduced the next act – Adaro!

Back in the business – the haunter of dark himself. What a great set. A massive track list and a special guest at the end. Regain joined Adaro to present his remix of ‘For The Streets’. It’s a real floor killer!

I think the last act was one of the most energetic performances. They created a new movement, thousands of militants follow them already and their set was insane! Minus Militia closed down the mainstage on Saturday underlined by a massive show. The floor was packed, as most of the other stages were already closed, the mood was amazing and the vibe just crazy! Intents Festival ended with a big bang!

Stages, Show and Line-Up

The topic was Funfair of Madness and I always had the feeling I’m part of it! Every stage and all the facilities were lovely designed, sticking to it. I only missed the candy floss!
Intents Festival provided 7 stages. The mainstage, the indoor mainstage, the Haunted Mansion, Outrageous, Fanaticz, The Radler Easy Island, the Boombox and Knotsgekke Kroeg (a small cozy bar).

The Boombox was the smallest area. It’s just an empty container with two speakers and a DJ booth, but it was interesting to have a look at it. The Radler Easy Island was placed in the middle of the festival ground. Slower rhythms and a chilling atmosphere for those who needed a break or were drunk enough.

The Fanaticz stage was more interesting, offering only raw tunes or extra raw tunes. You could have discovered Degos & Re-done, Delete, The Machine Live, Moridin Live, Requiem, Hardcraft, Sub Sonik, Regain or Jason Payne. A Small tiny area, which was originally a car bumper, but it gave the area a cool touch. The Soundsystem was pretty hard, especially at Moridin’s and Delete’s set the whole area was shaking.

The Outrageous stage was the second outdoor stage, but the dancefloor was covered by a big sunshade. Enjoy your drink while dancing to some cool freestyle beats at this area was great and highly welcomed diversification. The stage had a purple design, with some twisted paintings and a cool veranda with a window. Sometimes you recognized some artists, looking out of the window and taking pictures. It was cool to see that even the drink booths had a different design, fitting to the stage nearby.

The Haunted Mansion was the stage for the pre party, on Saturday and Sunday it was hosted by Dynamite, presenting hardcore! Only the best hardcore with nearly every big hardcore producer. A highlight on Saturday: Partyraiser was the man of the day and performed on stage from 7 p.m. till the end, together with his buddies and colleagues. The design, as the name suggests, was inspired by a scary, old and dilapidated mansion. It was actually a quite big and perfectly set up for the pumping hardcore baselines. Furthermore, they decorated the tent with scary clown puppets!

The Indoor mainstage was hosted by Radical Redemption and the tent was nearly 100 meters long. A massive sound system blew you away. The stage had the design of a carousel and was packed with spots, lasers and fire cannons. It was hosted by MC Nolz and MC Da Syndrome who made a perfect job and Radical Redemption was supported by B-Front, Act Of Rage, Zatox, Chain Reaction, Crypsis, Deepack, E-Force, Luna, Titan and Warface!

The mainstage had a beautiful and stunning design. A huge clown head, with wide open mouth, under it the DJ booth and four arrows showing the way into the mouth. Above it a huge LED screen for the hair, no joke! Above this a half of a ferris wheel, packed with flags and fire cannons, on the sides two columns and an LED screen surrounded by a ‘Flipper-lookalike’ design, finished by a tower on each side, which looked like a carousel.

A fitting and amazing stage! For each DJ they created a unique intro, a crazy voice or some happy hardcore tracks underlined the topic: Funfair of Madness. It perfectly created this feeling or mood of being part of a crazy funfair. I never felt so entertained during the intros!

The show on the mainstage was spectacular, although they switched on the lasers pretty late it was awesome to watch, how they brought the stage to life!

C02, Fire, Confetti, big tinsel, lasers, spots and lights made the show very good. Especially at Minus Militias set the stage went crazy and all the elements worked together. The Endshow was awesome! They did some cool stuff, playing all anthems, starting with ‘The Magical Mystery’ by D-Block & S-Te-Fan, to ‘We Can Escape’, ‘Back To History’, ‘The Hunt’, ‘A Funfair Of Madness’ and ending with ‘First Aid’ by The Viper and Neophyte. Fireworks made the moment perfect!

To sum it up

Intents Festival 2015 was a huge success! The topic was very nice and the organizer used the full potential to create a whole, little world in Oisterwijk. This year’s edition broke boundaries and continued growing. A bigger IntentsCity camping ground and a bigger area in general. The line-up was massive, packed with some specials, the stages were nice and the show spectacular.

It’s definitely worth it, especially with camping. The date for next year is already set and you better mark it in your calendar, too!