Dance Valley

Dance Valley. Already our fourth festival this summer, and yet another new first. She knows the festival from previous years, he was there for the first time. Beforehand we had some doubts: Dance Valley is honestly a bit large-scale for us. But the line-up was so strong the doubt disappeared fast.

Anticipation

Doubts about the scale, won over by the line-up

So we knew what was coming, at least one of us did. Dance Valley has been running since 1995 as one of the classics on the Dutch festival calendar, and that’s exactly where our doubt came from: a big festival, with everything that comes with it.

Against that stood a line-up neither of us wanted to miss. That’s what won out over the doubt about the scale.

Here we go

Tokens instead of cash registers

Traffic meant we arrived later than planned. Parking went surprisingly fast after that, though we still had a decent walk to the entrance. There was a long queue at the ticket check. We probably arrived right at a peak moment, since people who came earlier or later told us it was no big deal for them.

Once inside came a nice surprise: instead of cash registers there was a whole wall of machines to buy tokens. That went smoothly. Right by the entrance was also the techno stage, with Schrotthagen on it, one of the acts high on our list. So we caught that one just in time.

After that we explored the grounds, which according to the organizers have been in Spaarnwoude since the very first edition. It’s definitely big.

In the thick of it

The list, let go of for wherever it clicked

What strikes us every time: even though festivals are, at their core, ‘just regular parties’, familiar and still-unfamiliar open-minded people find each other there anyway. That happened again this time.

We’d made a list beforehand of acts we wanted to see. We let go of that list pretty quickly. Instead, we went wherever we were having the best time, and that’s how we ended up sticking around a smaller stage for a long while. The music there was surprisingly good, and the vibe felt exactly right.

Making contact was easy, especially on the dance floor. We’re comfortable approaching people ourselves, but we were also approached constantly. A shared smile is often enough to start a conversation, and sometimes that smile alone is exactly enough.

We also ran into almost everyone we knew and expected to be there, including a few Pineapple Club members. On top of that, we met new people too. Within no time, friends of friends had stuck pineapple stickers on both of us. Shortly after, we ran into family, who of course asked what that was about. But they have a rough idea of what kind of parties we usually go to, haha.

Top line-up!

The Open-Minded Meter

How free did it feel?

The vibe was really relaxed. Contact came easily, with a smile as the opener, and that applied to familiar faces and strangers alike. Not every encounter has to lead anywhere: sometimes a smile is enough, and that felt exactly right.

Good to know

Tips if you’re going

• Arrive either right at the start or right at the end of the afternoon, it saves you queueing at the check.
• Drinks were reasonably priced: a large bottle of water cost one token, versus one and a half tokens for a smaller bottle at most other festivals.
• Heads up: there are no separate deposit tokens. You pay the deposit with your first drink, so hang on to your cup or bottle, or you’ll be charged half a token in deposit again.
• Some bars got pretty busy, but a little further along you can almost always find one with a short wait.
• Come with an open attitude, as our code of conduct also says: you don’t have to do anything, but there’s plenty of room to run into familiar and new faces alike.

The Morning After

Our verdict

The best moment: seeing big names is always fun, but discovering new names again was what we enjoyed most.

This surprised us: how quickly we let go of the list we’d made beforehand. We ended up choosing wherever we were having the best time, like that smaller stage where the music and the vibe held our attention longer than expected.

Who we’d recommend this to: anyone into a wide range of music, from house and trance to techno and hardstyle, with big names on stage and a crowd spanning young to old.

Would we go back: maybe, if it fits our plans next year. Though we do have a soft spot for slightly smaller festivals, like the one from Geheime Liefde.

We had a great day. Over 30,000 steps, though that’s surely including all the dancing.