Hardstyle fans from more than 115 countries attended the second Defqon.1 @ Home festival. A fulminant experience over full 4 days showing more than 100 artists. From special performances, new tracks and special show elements – Hardstyle fans got served well. Didn’t they? To find out, we will present you the full detailed review day by day with a conclusion on the final 4th day.
Rene
It was a show with huge expectations. Since the birth of pure online festivals in 2020, Q-dance had always managed to impress people around the globe. The first Defqon.1 @ Home in 2020 convinced with a marvelous stage design. Whilst other festivals sticked to the usual stage design built into the height, Q-dance surprised with a red stage design, unveiling its magic from above. A complete flat but huge Defqon.1 picture. For 2021 the expectations were actually higher – but we can say, Q-dance made it again. But first let’s jump into the days – here is the Thursday and the Gathering.
Thursday – The Gathering
The show got kicked off by Wildstylez and his track ‘Sanctuary’ followed by Headhunterz remix of Widstylez’s ‘Children of Drums’. The set was a wooden stage directly at the Defqon.1 sea. Coone took over on a stage surrounded by metal cubes and some nice fire elements. Tracks like Coone’s ‘Beat of the Drum’ and ‘I like to move it’ created a nice set.
The highlight was clearly Dr. Peacock & Sefea with Symphony of Freedom. Last year at Defqon.1 @ Home Dr. Peacock surprised the people with a show at the Pyramid of Austerlitz. A special “Peacock in Concert” edition, but this year he and SEFA performed on a ship. A complete orchestra on a nice three-masted ship. Violins, his guitar man everything. Tracks like their ‘Das Boot’ or ‘Incoming’ or ‘Adagio’ served a nice Frenchcore session. But what a session!!
Closing Adaro & Miss K8
Back at the blue stage, Adaro kicked his set off with ‘Gunz for Hire’s -Hard Knock Life’ which is a complete unreleased track. But also his latest release with ‘Vertile – Walk with me’ and ‘A deeper space’ delivered the great Adaro sound we are used to. Hard but melodic.
The Thursday got closed down by Mrs. Dogfight ‘Miss K8’ with superior hardcore tunes.
The Thursday night
The rest of the night got filled with the Blue Nightparty with a clear focus on Raw-Hardstyle ad obviously a matching of giants with furious newcomers coming from the Roughstate fraction. Frequencerz played a B2B with Delius. The first track was their known ‘Baker Street’ followed by ‘Delius – Our Destiny’. Surprisingly a good matching b2b. The next b2b was Ran D with Galactixx. ‘Ran D & Le Prince – Fight Fire with Fire’ and ‘Galactixx – Good Times’ were clearly our highlights.
The third set was actually a set we all were looking forward to. Mr B-Front with Voidax, the funny guy from the TikTok video that went viral. They started directly with ‘MYST – I Can see Now’ which is really an impressive piece of work. Next was ‘B-Front – Believe’ and ‘Voidax – Time and Space’.
They were followed by Adaro’s second performance together with Invector. Experienced with furious power resulted in a good mixture of classics and new raw sounds.
The closing b2b was Rejecta and Digital Punk. Okay, here we already had two very experienced artists. Consequently, high our expectations. They presented a good mixture of ‘RoughState’ and ‘Minus is More’ tracks deriving from ‘Rejectofrage’, ‘Never give Up’ or ‘Digital Punks – Headmaster’.
Conclusion – Defqon.1 @ Home 2021 – The Thursday
All in all, it was an interesting night. The matching of experienced with upcoming young artists delivered really an interesting entertainment. What all artists had in common, was their obvious fun for the Defqon.1 night. They all delivered powerful sets with a lot of new music.
Q-dance already highlighted that this show will be more sophisticated than ever. More drones, more SFX and a bolder program.
Consequently – as this was only the gathering – we all become more curious for the Friday.