#Hype #culture #rampant #DGTL #Amsterdam #Sunday
That was it: the rave kick-off to the festival season. For three days, NDSM Docklands was the site of DGTL Amsterdam 2024. The weather turned out to be a major factor at the event and provided a soaking wet backdrop. The sold-out Sunday is therefore all about ‘being dry’ and – how could it be otherwise – DJ Daddy Trance, aka Marlon Hoffstadt.
Marlon Hoffstadt op DGTL Amsterdam 2024. Photo credit: Rosa Krastel / Festileaks
Logistical challenges
DGTL gets through the eye of the needle logistically. There are several times throughout the day problems with the sound, eateries are located in a strangely isolated place, there are occasional problems with the internet and security connections, anyone who arrives at peak time stands in line for more than an hour, and you suddenly have to pay for your first recycling token (that’s Isn’t that the idea behind why we use those things?). But the heavy rainfall that the festival experiences from mid-afternoon is particularly detrimental to the festival. Staying dry becomes the priority of the day, but unfortunately a roof over your head is no guarantee of this: due to poor drainage of rainwater, huge puddles form in several tents.
Dancing with wet feet is not an option for visitors, making large parts of the Modular main stage, the AMP greenhouse, food courts and toilets impassable. The Generator and Boiler Room, both located inside the NDSM warehouse, are dry and that causes enormous traffic in the inflow and outflow. Security therefore adjusts the walking routes several times during the day, resulting in confusion among the public.
WhoMadeWho op DGTL Amsterdam 2024. Photo credit: Rosa Krastel / Festileaks
De Daddy Trance hype is real
During the day it quickly becomes clear that the majority of DGTL attendees have a clear goal: Marlon Hoffstadt ‘to experience’. Daddy Trance is planned as the Big Closing Event on the main stage. This is already noticeable during the preceding live performance of the indietronica trio WhoMadeWho: entire groups of friends move towards the stage from an hour before the start. People are being ruthlessly knocked aside left and right, while the person in front has one eye on the latest updates in the app group called ‘March 31 Marlon’.
When the headliner kicks off his show, it is so busy in the Modular (partly because part of the tent is impassable due to the water) that several festival goers decide to look for entertainment elsewhere. There is hardly any room to move and the fear of oppression is increasing – and not unjustified, as it turns out later when several people are taken to the emergency room and the set is even briefly stopped because someone passes out.
No one will dispute that the booking of DJ Daddy Trance is a success. But that the artist (just like a day earlier at Paaspop) completely empties the rest of the festival site, would not have been the intention of the organization. Artists performing simultaneously (with Avalon Emerson, Chris Stussy in Narcissus not even small acts) perform in tents that are a maximum of a quarter full. Although that didn’t detract from their enthusiasm, at the end of the day such an ‘absolute headliner’ doesn’t feel like DGTL’s.
Patrick Mason op DGTL Amsterdam 2024. Photo credit: Rosa Krastel / Festileaks
Hyper-energetic Patrick Mason enchants audiences
During many sets, festival goers seem to be mainly concerned with looking good, staying dry and catching up with their group of friends. It makes for a lot of standing or walking people, but little for really good dancing. It’s a shame to take a look at the fantastically diverse line-up. Fortunately, there were exceptions.
As with the set of Patrick Mason – next to Marlon Hoffstadt, another hype act on the poster of DGTL Amsterdam 2024. In no time, the German grew from a DJ who streams live sets from his living room, to an act that is a real hit at major festivals such as Tomorrowland. Techno Extravaganza show delivers. Mason also manages to gather a large crowd at the Generator stage at DGTL Amsterdam 2024 and treats them to a combination of his expressiveness and high energy techno. Nowhere else is there dancing as hard as here – and that at an afternoon slot.
Boys Noize at DGTL Amsterdam 2024. Photo credit: Debbie Spaan / Festileaks
A production of Boys Noize from ten years ago says it all: ‘Don’t Believe The Hype’. Although the set of Berlin-based DJ and producer Alexander Ridha partly overlaps with Marlon Hoffstadt’s performance, he manages to bring a nicely filled Boiler Room to a boiling point. With his technical skills and showmanship, he seemingly effortlessly captivates the audience in front of and behind the DJ booth.
In just one hour of playing time he treats us to techno beats, dirty electro, samples of classics such as ‘Satisfaction’ (Benny Benassi) but also ‘No Limit’ (2 Unlimited). Boys Noize visibly enjoys the energy he creates and dances and jumps along enthusiastically. It may have taken some searching at the festival, but everything was just right between 8:30 PM and 9:30 PM. Dancing audience with an eye and space for each other, an energetic performance by ditto artist, with the only wetness being the sweat on our foreheads.
What did you think of DGTL 2024?
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The festivals with the best scores will win the Festileaks Festival Awards in September, the audience awards for festivals.
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DGTL 2024
Location Amsterdam, Netherlands
Date March 29-31, 2024
Tickets No longer available.
