A new year, new experiences are just a blink of an eye ahead of us all. A new year means new music, new artists who step into the scene, new surprises and of course new editions of what we love the most: Festivals and events. Today we take a look at a specific one!

Rebirth Festival 2017 will take place on 8th and 9th of April and will kick-off the festival season! We are visiting Rebirth Festival since 2013 and are surely hyped for this years edition: The Unexpected Journey does indeed sounds very interesting. Since 2009 Rebirth delivers the best festival vibe, the best artists and a kick-ass show. With its expansion to 2 days festival-madness Rebirth Festival is one of those events you shouldn’t miss. We took a look at Rebirth’s history and wondered: What makes it, not only, worth to go, but also as important as it is and especially as special as it is. Within 8 years Rebirth Festival evolved into one of the most important festivals of the year – just one reason to dig deeper!

The Weekend Experience

Since 2013 Rebirth Festival offers two festival days to its visitors. It turned out to be a full success! The crazy Sunday, how they called day two in 2013, with Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo, Yellow Claw and The Partysquad for example. It was a logical step for the organizers to expand Rebirth Festival up to two days. The interest visitor-wise was growing over the years and with up to 4.000 visitors in 2012 it reached its peak.

Starting with 2013, a new chapter began. In small steps Rebirth Festival evolved into a full weekend experience. Already in 2014 day 2 offered a complete line up on the mainstage, as well as a Crazy Carnival area. It also marked the start of Rebirth Festivals specific line up for day 2, artists playing versus each other, from slightly more euphoric sounds by Frontliner or Max Enforcer for example, till rough and heavy beats by Digital Punk vs. Titan. In 2015 the organizer even introduced themed sundays and special hostings by specific artists.

But there is more than just a second festival day. With the expanding festival ground and visitor numbers, Rebirth Festival introduced more and more area. Most of them are even stand-alone parties like Rebellion, Relish or Reactivate.Rebellion – Rebellion stands for the heaviest shit you can witness. Only the roughest artists play in the second biggest area. Over the years the area grow bigger and bigger. Kick ass versus sets, crazy solo experiences and the best live acts!Reactivate – You are still in love with the classics? I mean, who’s not! In Rebirth Festival’s Reactivate area you can hop into the time machine and go back to the golden era. Artists like D-Block & S-Te-Fan, Alpha² or Crypsis, Josh & Wesz or Scope DJ will guide you through time and space.Relish – Introduced in 2014, just as Freestyle gained more and more attention. Crazy mixes and sets are normal. Mosh pits going from left to right. All kind of music-styles in one mix. The Relish area mainly focuses on the freestyle sounds of hard dance music. Artists like Dr. Rude, Mark With A K, Bass-D, Mental Theo or Darkraver turn this tent into a crazy party temple.

With all this variety and extraordinary services, Rebirth Festival tickets are still cheap, compared to other festivals with the same offers. Just 39,50€ for a main day ticket? In return you get access to four areas, special performances, live acts, great shows and a really good festival. It’s even cheaper if you go for the whole weekend. We’d suggest to grab 4 friends, pay the 54,50€ have a fucking nice weekend!New in 2017: Reborn by Scantraxx!

Read our short Q&A with the organizer

How would you rate the importance of Rebirth Festival’s second day for the visitors?
We’d rate Rebirth Festival’s Sunday 4/5 when it comes to importance. We believed that a second day has to add value to a festival weekend, and the following four facts explain why our Sunday does so;

The yearly artist showcase; each year a leading hardstyle artist showcases his newest creations on the Rebirth Mainstage, accompanied by a good set of DJ friends. In 2015 Crypsis kicked off, in 2016 Frequencerz launched their record selling album Medium Rare and this year it’s up to B-front to show what 2017 has in store. We’re happy to kick off the festival season this way, and hope to be showcasing new projects in the many years to come as well.

Puinhoop Extravaganza is a festival hosting by local heroes featuring a typical party-Netherlands atmosphere; confetti, randomness, crazy acts, and lots of hilarious surprises. Hardstyle heroes NSCLT do their carnaval act Hoscult, there’s a true Rave-wheel-of-fortune, and a lot more in that category.

De ‘Gezelligheid Kent Geen Tijd’ is a fully Dutch branded area. Various Dutch singers will come along for those who like a sing-along song on a sunday accompanied by a good amount of beers. The area will close with 90’s dance music.

The new Reborn area will inject a great dose of hardstyle talent into the festival. This is the first year that we’re doing a talent area, and we’re doing it on both days in fact! Saturday’s Scantraxx area is more focused on the euphoric kind of hardstyle, while the Sunday will showcase the best raw newcomers.

Was it always an aim to deliver something different on day 2? Line-Up wise, stage-wise etc.
Throughout the years we’ve been puzzling with the festival’s Sunday. Originally the Sunday was focused on typical Dutch-dance & party music and house / trap / EDM, but not filled with hard dance music to make sure that the festival would not be the same on Sunday as on Saturday. The Sunday served as a great afterparty & closing for the locals who worked hard on Saturday and it felt like a different, but second celebration for us in the same weekend.

We were happy with that, until various parties starting enthusing us for doing something with the harder styles of dance music on Sunday anyways. In 2014 we tried a similar programme as on the Saturday, but we experienced that that was not the optimal setup due to a lot of overlap. Being hardstyle fanatics ourselves, we then insisted on having an original setup for this Sunday and to avoid a copycat of the festival’s Saturday at all cost. This resulted in the Crypsis artist showcase in 2015.

It was something new, but the showcase kind of festival programme was very well received and the amount of Sunday visitors grew significantly. The next year we improved greatly with the perfectly thought-through Frequencerz – Medium Rare concept. At that point we were 100% sure that we would love to continue kicking off the festival season with an all new artist showcase. This year it’s B-Front’s chance to show himself. We’re sure he’ll meet the level we expect, and it’s up to the visitors to experience that as well.

You already did expand Rebirth Festival’s day 2 with a third area. Do you plan to go even bigger this year or maybe next year, offering the same amount of stages like day 1?
For us it’s important that the dutch-party-dance music remains a key element of Rebirth’s Sunday, also too avoid overlap, but as mentioned we’re harder styles fanatics ourselves. That’s why we’ve decided to make room for talent on both days of Rebirth; euphoric by Scantraxx Recordz on Saturday, and raw by Hardnews on Sunday. We’re happy to now be able to welcome a greater amount of starting hardstyle DJs to the festival, and we’re really curious for how they’ll do.

If the Sunday continues to grow as it’s doing now, we’re definitely interested in exploring other music genres for adding additional areas. We are still keeping those options open however.

Could you describe the possibilities of the growing-potential of Rebirth Festival? What can you imagine Rebirth Festival could go in the next 5 years?
In consultation with the municipality, we’ve reached our legal growth potential each year. Every festival has it’s limits due to local governmental policy, and we’ve been able to meet them each year. In 2017, they’ve given us a green light to grow a bit on both festival days. We’re very happy with that, since we’ve noticed that there are always a lot of people that want to go while the festival was already sold-out. For now that means we can focus on making the Saturday and Sunday grow, which was our ambition all along. If we can continue like this each year, we’re in for a steady growth!

As Rebirth Festival can be defined as the festival kick-off did you ever thought of a real outdoor stage? Is this something visitors could expect in the near future?
Each year we’re calculating to postpone the production plans a bit and allow for this option, but since weather is very unpredictable, we’re caused to choose for indoor safety over risk each year. Sure it’s a dream to do it at some point, but the safety and comfort of visitors by building tents will always be our #1 priority over anything else. But who knows!

New experiences & special acts

When there is one aspect of Rebirth Festival we absolutely love, it’s the diversity of its line up. Packed with just the best artists is not all: Several live acts performed over the years starting with E-Force live, to Warface Live, Radical Redemption Live, Gunz 4 Hire Live, B-Freqz Live or even Da Tweekaz live. There are always new acts to discover.

This year you can face: B-Freqz Live, Minus Militia Live, Ran-D Live, E-Force Live, War Force Live, Crypsis Live, Theracords: The Opposition Live, DNR Live, Pat B Live and 2 Sidez live .. this leads us to another aspect of Rebirth Festival!Ever seen Theracords The Opposition act, D-charged, RVAGE or Reloaded?

D-Charged – a Scantraxx artist from Sweden. Very young talent you got some great attention with his latest release Fanfare and his 2 hour 2017 festival mix. In case you ever wanted to discover new sounds or artists, talents within the scene: better be there for D-Charged.

Reloaded – His identity is unrevealed until now. Who is Reloaded? Where is he signed? It will all be revealed at Rebirth Festival 2017! Stating that quality comes over quantity and with his aim to “reload the scene”, he released some quite solid tracks so far. A nice mix of melodic and rough elements. He wants to bring back the original meaning of hardstyle. Does a real identity matter? Decide on your own at Rebirth Festival 2017.

RVAGE – A2 Records latest face in its roster. Young talent RVAGE hit the charts hard with his first releases About To End This & Bad Motherfucker. This boy likes it rough and will definitely tear down the future stage at Rebirth Festival day 2. If you’re curious, find out a little more in our interview with him!

Theracords: The Opposition Live – What the hell? A new Theracords live act besides Theracords Live, Thera Live & Theracord’s A-Team? We are very curious who’s behind this new act. There is not even a Facebook page or a picture yet online. Will it be a “resident” rumble? A mix of euphoric and raw? Who knows. But we will definitely find out at Rebirth Festival!

Artist Hostings on Sunday

In 2015 Rebirth Festival not only extend it’s day 2, but introduced a whole new level: Artist hostings. It’s not really new to the scene that specific artists are dominating a line up and function as host for the whole day/night.

Crypsis 2015 – Minus is More hero Crypsis was hosting Rebirth Festival’s mainstage on day 2 in 2015. Together with his Minus is More colleagues they absolutely wrecked the place. Radical Redemption, B-Front, Frequencerz, Warface Live, Act of Rage, Jack of Sound & Titan are just a few names. Unlike others he performed with nearly every artists. Didn’t he even broke his leg, at least that’s what we still remember hehe.
Frequencerz 2016 – How do you like your steak? Medium Rare? Frequencerz got it for you! With all their friends and artist who were also featured on the album, Frequencerz hosted the mainstage on day 2 of Rebirth Festival 2016. Just like in the previous year, they were on stage with nearly every artist and made the second day a day to remember, proving that Rebirth Festival is a true weekend experience.B-Front 2017 – Nearly 2 months to go, until Rebirth Festival will kick off the festival season in style. Like we got to know a few lines earlier: The festival is expanding again. The honor goes to B-Front this year to host the mainstage of day 2. If keep a short look at the line, it becomes clear, this second day is more than a gathering of artists. B-Front invited his friends and fellow producers. If a B-Front early set, B-Front vs. Phuture Noize, E-Force Live and a Roughstate closing doesn’t convince you … there is no help for you at all!