THE PERFECT SUMMER ENDING: WANDERING AND DANCING AT DRAAIMOLEN’S MYSTICAL FESTIVAL TERRAIN

With its unique sound and unconventional approach to music, Draaimolen has once again made its mark with a lineup and experience you won’t forget soon. The festival, known for its intimate vibe, lets you wander through art, nature, and music and is highly recommended if you are an electronic music enthusiast. 

This year’s sunny weather made sure the amazing location in Tilburg felt like a mystical resort, where you could stroll around the forest paths surrounded by pine trees and with open spaces to can hang out. The event attracted attendees that carried an electric and positive vibe, that gave the whole experience a sense of underground unity. 

This edition the festival hosted 6 stages with each their own unique design. One thing that differentiates the festival is its close collaboration with creatives that take care of innovative stage designs and art installations, for example, this year’s lightboxes at The Tunnel and The Pit’s Strobe Orb flying over your head. 

The location makes it the perfect spot for interesting collaborations between DJs, and experimental sets. This year the festival made a place for contemporary favourites such as Skrillex, LSDXOXO, Anetha, SHERELLE, and James Holden. There were a lot of impressive sets that definitely grabbed our attention, for example, Evigt Mörker on Friday who played a compelling live set, that remained interesting from start to finish. Blawan B2B with Skrillex was  legendary. A bold contrast between both genres, full of musical collisions. It was clearly audible which records came from Blawan and which from Skrillex, but this is what kept it so interesting. Another closing set that was insane was KI/KI who decided to invite a star from a completely different world. Together with trip-hop artist Sevdaliza, she put together an energetic set full of techno and trance heaters. On Saturday Mor Elian got us in the mood at The Pit stage with some upbeat and dynamic tunes. The crowd’s enthusiasm was undeniable when Gigi Fm mixed some speedy and feisty techno sounds together with Quelza at The Tunnel. DJ Carista from Utrecht knew how to blow us away at the Forest Rave stage with some highly danceable house sounds, which matched perfectly together with the incredible light show that flickered through the trees. The highlight of the day was Call Super and Pariah who turned The Pit upside down with a genre-defying set full of UK flavor. 

Unfortunately, I had to skip the afterparty, but honestly, I did not feel the need anyway. This was the perfect festival to end the summer and my serotonin levels can live on this for the upcoming weeks. The stages, the sets, the DJs, and the energy of the crowd were very wholesome and I can’t wait for what is coming next year.