It was the time way too many people were looking forward, time for one of the biggest festivals within the hard dance scene! We all loved the previous editions, we all love the concept, we all love the crazy campsite, the unforgettable stories and the absolutely insane shows, stages and sets! But most of all we love to celebrate Defqon.1 with our best friends! A new year, a new theme – Dragonblood unites us all, Defqon.1 UNITES US ALL! Was it worth traveling to Defqon.1 2016? Could Q-Dance manage to top previous editions? Let’s find out in our review!

Friday – The Gathering of Defqon.1

The preparty took place in the Blue and Black area, starting at 20:00! The two areas were open to all the campers and all the people who wanted to welcome Defqon.1 in style!

Bass Modulators & NCBM

Bass Modulators kicked of The Gathering by playing a mix of some classics and some well known tracks by their own like Oxygen or the Defqon.1 2016 anthem Dragonblood. After half an hour Noisecontrollers joined them on stage and they continued as NCBM! Their first track was of course Solar and everyone on the dancefloor went wild! The atmosphere was insane as expected! Everyone was ready for a weekend full of madness.

Da Tweekaz

Next up were Da Tweekaz, who had the honor to play in front of a packed Blue area! It was just the second set, but It looked like the whole camping ground was gathered together within the two areas. Da Tweekaz played one of the most fun sets of Defqon.1 2016! By mixing together their best tracks like Wodka, their Faded bootleg, Bad Habit in the Reverze Edit, their bootleg of the Game of Thrones theme or Heros, which turned out to be super fun in the happy hardcore edit! Da Tweekaz are always worth to attend. Their sets are highly energetic and always highly enjoyable. Glad they played at The Gathering!

Frontliner & Max Enforcer

A very interesting combination of two artists which I didn’t expect on the line up. But with On The Go they already proven what real hardstyle is all about. Their set definitely reached its peak with Halos (The 2015 edit) and Max Enforcer’s Lost in Paradise. Both tracks are one of the most beautiful tracks we have and the atmosphere while they got played was amazing. Besides those two tracks WKND passed by, as well as many Frontliner tracks, either newer ones or his classics as well as certain Max Enforcer tracks like Gold! Ending their set with the HC edit of Melody Man we left the tent to take a look at the Black!

Traxtorm Gangstaz Allied

After visiting the Blue area for the opening of DEFQON 1. we decided to split up and some of us went to the Black area for the first time to check out Traxtorm Gangstaz Allied! This devistating act is a team formed by Dj Mad Dog, The Stunned Guys and Art of Fighters. The best of italian hardcore is ready to wreck the dome. The sound was a bit softer than in the Blue area at this point, especially on the left side of the tent. so, we fought our way through the crowd to the mid front. The view was nice and the sound way better – ready to dance to the fast beats by Traxtorm Gangstaz Allied.

They did start their set with Meccano Twins & DJ Mad Dog – Meccane, some pure Italian Hardcore feelings here! After that they played Traxtorm Gangstaz Allied – Hardcore Italia, Art of Fighters – Words of War and Dj Mad Dog – Call of Fury. Also a few ID tracks which we didnt heard before passed by while DJ Mad Dog was playing behind the decks. So expect some new stuff coming from him! Art of Fighters dropped their remix of Bass for your face by AniMe and their 2013 refix of Earthquake.

The atmosphere was great inside the tent of the Black and it was not that crowded as in the Blue, which I liked a lot. In the Blue it was hard to find a good spot to even see the DJ. Here you could walk everywere you would like! Ofcourse DJ Mad Dog dropped his track Agony ft. MC Jeff, which is a sick track in my opinion! He also dropped Rewind (which we did hear a lot this weekend). It seems that this track will be played in every set that includes Dj Mad Dog behind the desk. It’s a good track to create an awesome vibe. Art of Fighters dropped Your Betrayel and in the end they also played Artwork in the Tha Playah Remix. Traxtorm Gangstaz Allied went full throttle ending their set with Skrillex – Ragga Bomb (Art of Fighters Bootleg) in a special Dj Mad Dog edit! What a great way to end your set!

Ran-D

Ran-D kind of diappointed me! His set was .. well .. he had way too many gabs and cooldowns within the set. You heard his heavy kicks and then the mainpart kicked in, but all you wanted was to continue dancing to the beat. I don’t usually say that to Ran-D set, since he probably knows how to spin a good set, but this one had it peaks, yes, but was a little boring, compared to the others sets of the evening. He played tracks like Firestarter, his Defqon.1 anthem 2015, Raise Your Fist or Wolfpack!

Angerfist & Partyraiser

Let’s go back to the Black area again! The battle of two hardcore legends was about to begin. Well.. can we call it a battle? I guess these guys have great respect for each other and they are willing to play together and give the best they can! They played a very original set! They did start their set with N-Vitral – Bassface, followed by I:Gor- Straight Outta Kielce. When these kinds of tracks are dropped as opening tracks, you know were the set will take you! After that they did drop eDUB – Call to Jesus and the collab between Warface & Destructive Tendencies – Release the Kraken. There was more N-Vitral to come.

N-Vitral did create a collab with Angerfist for his new album. The track is called Fist in your face. A great track with a nasty bass pounding trough the speakers. For sure a must check, just like the whole album by N-Vitral called Louder than a Bomb! At this time it was way more crowded compared to the other sets at the Black, but still you had some space! Especially the right side of the tent offered enough space. More lasers were showing themselves and the decibel did rise.

Partyraiser was giving his best and dropping the number one tune in the hardtunes chart at this moment. The track is called Middle Fingers Up, by Partyraiser and  Cryogenic. What a horrific thick track this is! The people were going crazy, dancing their ass off, going totally crazy! You could see Partyraiser was enjoying it very much. We think that Angerfist was enjoying it too, but we coudn’t see a big smile on his face because of the mask, haha! The BPM rised again to an enormous height. Angerfist did drop Radical Redemption & Bloodcage – Killswitch, which is a great track with that crunchy bass drum! After that he played N-Vitral ft. Aux Raus – Getverherrie, DAMN, this track is huge! When this one blasts trough the speakers you better be prepared, what a phat tune! They did end the set with Hardbouncer ft. MC ADK – The Sound Of Hardbouncer, Angerfist- Deathmatch and Caveman. The show during this set was amazing, as was the vibe! One of the greatest sets of Defqon.1 we can say!

Crypsis Live

Last but not least we need to talk about Crypsis live! What can I say, he probably destroyed the Blue area! Lovely set, perfectly mixed and timed, filled with cool mash ups and a rollercoaster ride through his discography. Especially Hell & Raise made me go crazy – Insane track on this huge sound system. The crowd reacted amazing and everyone went full force during the last 30 minutes.

We really enjoyed The Gathering! 

The Campsite of Defqon.1

Around 11:00 we did set sail towards Defqon.1. Arround 12:15 we were stuck in traffic for 1 hour because the campsite was did not open his doors yet. After 13:00 we could finally ride a few km, before we did get stuck again. At 14:30 we did finally arrive at the parking area. The grass at the parking lot had been driven completely destroyed. Because of this there arose a slushy mess. Our car was immediately stuck in the mud, but that did not spoil the fun, because we were fucking excited! Luckily for us we had access via the guest entrance, where we received our bracelets for Defqon.1. Again we would like to thank Q-Dance for this unique experience and for the whole weekend 🙂
We appreciate this very much, thanks for the opportunity!

Last year we did also arrive around this time, back then it was still easy to find a spot at field 2 to build our tents, but this year it was many times busier at the campsite. Because of that we had to move towards campsite 4 already! For the first time I had to defy the famous ‘bridge’, haha. The carts, grocery carts and trolleys were difficult to lift across the bridge, but for the lucky ones there was also a bridge with furling. At this time we were sweating in the heat. But this does give the ultimate defqon feeling! No camping, no Defqon! The weather was still favorable. In the sun we could set up our tent.

There was enough room for everyone. However, the latecomers were less fortunate. Some stood next to the ditches, or under the trees. Something you would not do naturally during Defqon, as it always does rain a few times during a Defqon weekend! The Dutch summers are not always favorable to us 😉

At the entire camp were not too many dining tents available. Actually, the best campsite to stand on is area two, because of the facilities. On field 4 was a kiosk for drinks, but you could not obtain food. Because of the rain and the mud we had take a detour to get out on the campsite two to buy some food, merchandise and camping articles, if needed.

At every campsite there was a building with toilets and showers, for one token you could take a shower, but the waiting line was huge so you had to wait or shower in the afternoon when there was no waiting line. The toilets were provided with a flushing system, but you had to throw away your toilet paper in a separate container. Many people did not do that, so the system becomes clogged. Because of that the water did rise untill the seat level. They had to close the whole toilet area to clean.

Throughout the weekend there was a lot of rain, making the whole camp was a muddy field. There was only one paved road, but this was a bit of a detour. Of course, the organization can not do much against the rain, perhaps they could have put down wooden panels on the walking routes under the trees. In addition, all facilities are present, but not really fair spread over the entire area. Perhaps this is technically not feasible. We must also add that the organization has done his best to improve the bridge with the roller mechanism. With such a large crowd is of course difficult to control everything, every now and then there are big cleaning were held on the premises which it was not a huge mess. However, you must keep in mind that this is a free site, it has a lot of atmosphere, it really belongs to defqon. Life without luxury, but everyone makes the most of it, and that makes it so much fun!

Saturday – The Night-Party of Defqon.1

This year there was only a night party in the Blue area. Maybe thats the reason why the Blue was way bigger than last year. After all I think that it is better to host an after party like this in two areas like they did in 2015. There are many hardcore lovers out there and for sure they are less likely to go to Triple T From Italy, because thats classic hardstyle. Luckely for us, Hardstyle Mag, we like all sounds of Hardstyle, Rawstyle and Hardcore, so we went completely nuts during this Night Party! Let’s start with Triple T From Italy!

Triple T from Italy

We did arrive during the set of Triple T From Italy, the italian formation formed by Tuneboy, Technoboy and Tatanka. They were playing a really classic set. During In My House the vibe was amazing. I really love this track, everybody seems to know this one, it’s one of my favourite classics of all time, and for sure of many people! They kept playing classic tracks like Tatanka – Africa and Digital Nation. They did create a cool atmosphere and we were ready for more. Lets enjoy the sounds by Hard Driver!

Hard Driver

If you have to name a DJ, which is also a great producer, than u surely mention Hard Driver! He always finds the perfect balance between the raw and the euphoric sounds. Hard Driver was playing the best set of this Night Party by far. Ofcourse you could guess some tracks that he will play, cause he did a grand project lately. Still, the sound design of his tracks, the pure hardstyle sound, the DJ skills combined to the producer skill, they are amazing to witness live! He was playing his new track #NOSLEEP which is a great banger with a huge atmosphere included! He also played Never Stop me and the Intents anthem (which is, so far, the best anthem of 2016 in my opinion) called It’s All in the Game! People were going completely nuts on this anthem, but they did even party harder at the Defqon 2015 anthem by Ran-D, No guts, No Glory! This anthem is still going strong, I did hear it more often than the 2016 anthem!  Hard Driver did also drop F#CK No, Mission For Disaster and When U Wake all from his No Sleep project.  Besides that he did also play the new collab with Frequencerz called Snap Ya Neck! After Hard Driver it was time for some rougher sound, with a hardcore flavour! It was time for High Voltage!

High Voltage

High Voltage did open his set with an ID track but after that he did play his collab with Bass Chaserz called Karate Kidz. People were kicking their heels in the air, slamming at the beat, still a track going strong! After that he dropped his new collab, that’s also still TBA, with D-Sturb! A great track with the true D-Sturb sound and kick rolls! After that he did drop Break Zero & Deetox collab. – Rock It! I still love this anti-climax track which creates a good vibe! The atmosphere was huge while Warface & N-Vitral – Fuck The Drum Machine was pounding trough the speakers. The decoration above the audience was still moving arround like a dragon skeleton and the lasers were creating a nice show!

It was time to go a bit rougher, High Voltage dropped Delete his classic track Formula! After that it was time for two ID tracks, which were sounding great like all the High Voltage tracks! In the end he dropped Riiho is new track called Execute, a track we did hear more often this weekend, but what a track! After Execute, Sanctuary was pounding trough the speakers, the collab between Warface & High Voltage. Ending his set with another ID track and Radical Redemption – Piece of Shit, High Voltage really gave his best. The area was still packed, ready for some hardcore, ready for Korsakoff!

Korsakoff

Korsakoff was playing many of the same tracks she played during the gathering in 2015. She did drop tracks from her Stiletto album like Lyra but also the track Gaan Met Die Banaan by Ruthless. You can almost hear it in every Korsakoff set, which is not very original anymore. Ofcourse Korsakoff is hardcore, but I think her set was way softer than the set of High Voltage, which was not a good thing. For sure she dropped some cool tracks like Rattlebrain (Korsakoff Remix) and Unleash the beast (Angerfist remix) but still this set didn’t gave me a great feeling. We decided to leave after 40 minutes into her set and make our way towards the campsite, catch some sleep and prepare ourselves for the sunday at Defqon.1!

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