Review: Amsterdam Open Air Festival, June 8th & 9th

With reports and counter reports about the weed situation in Amsterdam buzzing around for ages, there has never been a better time to visit the city than now, before its too late, and especially on the weekend when Open Air Festival returned. Now in its third year, the festival has really settled in with a diverse music policy and plenty of great things besides. One of them was the teepee camping: a luxury tent site with plenty of mod cons including your own toilet roll – an essential for any hardcore festival goer!

Great hospitality was a feature of the whole festival from start to finish, as was spectacular production. Opting for an obvious summer outdoor theme across the whole site, the decor was hypnotic and hippy, and was subtly married to plenty of future innovation like lights, strobes and killer sound systems throughout. Also nestled across the site are quirky little hangouts and magical chill out areas all spread around the glistening lake, with every single one of them coming from in and around the local area. Homegrown promoters were in charge everywhere which is a fine testament to the Dutch scene in 2013.

Across the 7 different arenas there was many musical options to chose from. From big hitters like techno legends Derrick May and Paco Osuna who took no prisoners with their amped up and texturally rich sets, to more underground but just as esteemed names like local boy Tom Trago. His genre spanning set took in plenty of his own great productions alongside the finest in house, disco and techno. Fellow Dutchman Gerd was just as on-point with his varied but coherent set, whilst the inimitable San Proper mined a vein of abstract, stripped back techno to perfection. For more rolling, infectious and hypnotic house fair Circo Loco’s Matthias Tanzmann was on hand, whilst DJ Sneak also did his big, bad and bold booty shaking house thing too.

As essential to the fun are food and toilets and drinks, all of which were well placed around the site, well staffed and stocked and so no one had to wait very long for anything, which is always nice. One thing is to note for next year – take all the money you will need as getting hold of cash on site is a bit of a challenge. Still, if it all gets too stressful you can always retire to one of the many chill out zones.

Despite myriad competition in the festival market all over Europe, Open Air really manages to find and nail its own niche. Fun and magical production, killer attention to detail and great hospitality all coupled with an on point and genuinely underground music line up make it a must do event for your annual clubbing calendar.

– Stephen Flynn