100% independent: Why Draaimolen isn’t your average dance music festival

Our Friday starts down at the Aura stage, where Polar Inertia performs live for four hours. Although the sky is overcast, ther are some people sitting down or lying on the grass – one guy sat legs spread doing some yoga stretches–others standing, swaying; all calmly embracing the experience as a collective. There was one punter – already thrashing around in front of a sub – who may have raised some eyebrows at any other festival, but at Draaimolen it’s a different vibe; as one onlooker endearingly put it “ohh! he really wants to feel it!”. The crowd at Draaimolen feels like a gathering of music lovers (dare I say, a meeting of the heads) which, thankfully, doesn’t feel chin-scratchy either. Those who attended Draaimolen last year may have recognised the glass boxes perched in Aura’s corners. Designed by Lumus Instruments, the boxes were suspended above ravers at The Tunnel last year. They fill with smoke and, with strobes shot through, are meant to resemble a thunderstorm inside. Now at Aura, the installation, entitled Entropy, gently comes to life alongside Polar Inertia’s set, which aptly unravels like a storm that gathers out at sea, lets rip when it breaks land, and eventually gives way to glorious sun.

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The music offering at Draaimolen is such that on both days, at any given moment, you are searching for ways to teleport, multiply or divide yourself. One of Friday’s biggest conundrums – besides the closing set clash nightmare – is the toss up between Mancuanian MC and artist Chunky at Blawan and Pariah’s The Pit or Astrid Sonne’s new live show at The Chapel. After some strained consideration, the latter takes the biscuit. Sonne put out a stunning album back in January which saw the Danish composer switch gears into singer-songwriting territory. Sonne’s command of the stage is impressive, backdropped by a mirror installation that reflects and refracts the wires and amps that surround her into a topsy-turvy, Camera Obscura-style puzzle. She effortlessly croons through personal album favourites like ‘Gave My All’ and ‘Staying Here’. With the mic she moves between centre stage and a table just behind, laden with her electronic gear. Sometimes she twiddles and sings at the same time, other times she brandishes her viola with a number of knock out solos.

Live sets are of parallel importance to DJ sets at Draaimolen and that part of the festival truly shines on Friday. In general, The Chapel has a femme-forward running order, with Upsammy and Valentina Magaletti into Astrid Sonne into LUXE, who presents her live show in collaboration with an amateur choir from Tilburg; the first time they ever performed together was in sound check the day before. Just a short stroll up the mud-track at STR/OBE – effectively the festival’s big main stage – Kikelomo and Berlin-based choir A Song For You present a fully choreographed performance that draws on joyous house classics like Roy Davis Jr and Peven Everett’s ‘Gabriel’. Over at The Tunnel, Underground Resistance (with Mark Flash and Mike Banks) make their return to the Netherlands. It’s always a treat to hear the classic’s belted out live on hardware. Their choice to close with the twinkling, always effervescent ‘Jaguar’ is the cherry on the cake.