Netherlands> Top Annual Events

Dance Valley Festival

Often called the Woodstock of dance music, Dance Valley is a huge open-air music festival taking place in the Benelux zone, Spaarnwoude resort, Netherlands. The hilly terrain is not typical of Dutch geography and offers an appropriate setting for the event. This dance festival first took place in 1995, attracting 8000 visitors. Over the years it has grown exponentially. In 2005 53 000 people attended the event. That year it lasted two days for the first time. The stage lies in a valley amidst a lush park. The decor incorporates two mammoth concrete monuments, the double disc and a climbing wall. The most famous international artists and DJs customarily feature in the lineup. Combine this with an enthusiastic audience of dance music fans, and you are in for a truly exciting experience. Dance Valley is one of the most popular European annual music festivals. There are around ten stages and 13 hours of entertainment. The people who visit this event are friendly and easygoing, quite different from those at other music parties, known for being prone to violence. The festival grounds became something of a camping site last year. Even the horrible weather did not deter partygoers from having a good time. This year the event will run from July 14th to July 16th. The list of performers will emerge in late March. Tickets will be on sale starting March 23.

The event is organized by Dutch UDC. The promoter has a decade of experience, which is an awesome asset. UDC knows more about building passageways through parks than anyone, and there are more visuals here than at any other European music fest. Over time the event has featured great DJs like Ferry Corsten, Tiesto, Paul van Dyk and Paul Oakenfold, who made frequent appearances.

This is a pure dance music fest, but it is not limited to one single style - far from it. The main stage is reserved for the most famous artists, but the myriad of smaller stages are devoted to styles like Eurodance, Experimental, Electro and Hardstyle. These are sub-genres of dance music.

Eurodance was popular in South America and Europe in the 1990s. It is associated with trends like Euro-rap and Euro-pop, named so because the performers and audiences are mostly from Germany, Italy, Sweden, Holland and Belgium. Eurodance developed from rap and can be included in house, trance and techno pieces.

Experimental music challenges mainstream dance and the widely accepted notions of it. The name itself indicates that much. It involves modification of instruments and sounds and use of untypical instruments.

Electro is also known as electro funk and robot hip-hop. This robotic sound was inspired by funk records and can be described as an electronic style of rap. The first electro record was Planet Rock from 1982, making this musical trend a relative novelty. Common equipment in the production of this music includes vocoders, sequencers, drum machines, synthesizers and recently laptops.

Finally, hardstyle is closely related to hard trance, typified by a mix of hardcore bass sounds and synth stabs. Tracks often feature breakbeat sections, breakdowns and reverb. The 2004 edition of Dance Valley was another great success, with 50 000 people dancing non-stop for over 10 hours. The audience was blessed with sunny weather, and tickets were fully sold out. A helicopter flew high over the crowd, dropping paper butterflies and flowers. The 2004 edition featured performances by Tom Harding, Carl Cox, Scot Project and Yoji Biomehanika.