The very first outdoor Hardstyle festival inside The Hague we have ever visit. With a very decent line up and two different stages this small festival looked quite promising. The third Kingsday event we visited – let’s see how we experienced Solid Kingsday and how it was compared to the other events. With an event that was so nearby, we couldn’t let this one pass through. Let’s have a look at Solid Kingsday 2016.
We could have cycled to this party, but the weather wouldn’t allow us. We arrived at 13.15 with the train and noticed, that the location is ideal to visit. We arrived just on time for euphoric beats of Code Black, one of the bigger artists within the lineup of Solid Kingsday.
First of all, let’s get ourselves a locker, because with this weather we were packed with a lot of clothes. We got our self a ‘big’ locker, which was the first problem we spotted at this festival. They weren’t big at all. But that wasn’t a big deal at all. Next step for us was to explore the areas and look at the different possibilities to fill our stomach with. Unfortunately, a small festival comes with a very small variety of dining/drinking options and we weren’t able to buy cigs at the event. We had the opportunities to choose between coconut macaroons (Yes we have absolutely NO idea what this corner was doing here), French fries and hamburgers. Luckily most of the Hardstyle lovers aren’t vegetarians. Let’s move on to the music, that’s the thing that matters, right?
Talent stage
The talent stage was a really small area and unfortunately really cold. We can’t blame the organization for the bad weather, but the stage was more likely to attend if the temperature was comfortable. Unluckily for the DJ’s that played at this stage because the crowd was noticeable smaller than at the mainstage. On the plus side, a low populated area makes more room for those that are extremely enjoying the music and show off while they are busy with hakken. We’ve absolutely liked the act of Zygoma & Zenda which we have never seen in a live act before. The other DJs, we highly enjoyed, were TWSTD VS. MICKEY G, seeing those guy just makes you happy. Even though Cyber was placed exactly at the same time of Radical at the mainstage, we had to take a peek at his set. Cyber didn’t disappoint us with his amazing Hardstyle sounds. Followed up by The Shade which was another DJ we have never spotted at a festival.
This talent surprised us with his raw sounds and incredible act. We expect to see him more often at major festivals. To be honest the talent stage wasn’t tempting enough to visit all the artists that where playing there. The temperature made the choice easy to move on to the mainstage. We’ve only payed one more visit at this stage and that was for the one and only D-STURB. We needed this closing act, we all like to end a great party with the hardest music right? And he absolutely smashed it. Let’s move on to the mainstage.
Mainstage
Wasn’t this a big line up for such a small and new festival? Makes us question; ‘how the hell did the organization did this. The mainstage was the opposite of temperature of the talent stage. Really cozy and a comfortable temperature. A bit more crowded, but still enough space for every Hardstyle addict to dance their feet off. We started off with Code black, the artist that made us visit this event a bit earlier then we agreed too. Fortunately, the set of Code black was really good with the euphoric number like ‘Pandora’ and ‘The Red planet’ passing by. This set was a great warmup for the festival with shitty weather.
Followed up by Atmozfears who played tracks from his new mini album, including the Qlimax edits and tracks together with Energyzed. On you make vs Singularity, what a crazy mix was that! And of course Keep me awake couldn’t miss this amazing set. Beautiful to see how Solid cut the Hardstyle variety in half and started of the day with mostly euphoric beats that where slowly taking over by the raw sounds within this genre.
Nobody else but Radical Redemption was the artist that smashed his raw beats trough the speakers. It’s always so nice to see the reaction of the crowd with this artist coming up, and everybody is participating in the act of radical. Within this set we heard Suicide Bassline, Mad man and Brutal 5.0 coming through the speakers and that made the whole set just really enjoyable. Although we have to say, we’ve seen better from him, but what can we expect on a party on this scale.
The next artist we were able to enjoy was Crypsis. Really nice that he was able to visit this event while we usually expect him at parties like Qapital and Defqon.1. The raw set of Crypsis combined with Radical before him was for us the real start of the event. The raw sounds from Cracking your ribs, Tuatara and Get Hit are those nice songs everybody from the crowd is joining in.
You may keep asking, which was the best set? Well, Frequencers with their medium rare set. They were the symbol for breaking down the tent figuratively with an amazing balance of euphoric and raw beats in their Hardstyle music. We heard the songs passing by: Gods, Rockstar and A muse which are just astonishing. From there on the Tent was literally going to tear down with Bass Chaserz VS. Kevin Kaos our DJ from The Hague! Followed up by Requiem who finished up perfectly with some real Hardcore sounds.
Conclusion
For an event at this scale our expectation were really low. But ‘wow’ did they deliver a good job for this Kingsday. It’s hard being so critical to a fairly new event, but if we had to compare it to the party’s like: “Beat the Bridge” or “Supersized” there is a lot more Solid Kingsday can learn from. But every organization has to start somewhere and how they started, thumbs up. Also coming with a line up witch such big artist for a small event like this is just amazing. Our decision next year will be a lot harder if Solid Kingsday is going to expand. It has a great potential and we’d love to see a bigger edition next year – maybe with an outdoor stage.