Five reasons why Awakenings Festival 2016 was out of this world
By Matty Adams
The final weekend of June saw more than 70,000 thirsty techno addicts invade the Dutch capital city of Amsterdam to embrace a taste of one of the most important and largest outdoor techno festivals in the entire world – Awakenings. With Spaarnwoude Houtrak playing hosts to the 16th ever edition of this two-day spectacular, Awakenings Festival showcased a grand total of eight impressive stages presenting more than 100 of the techno world’s finest talents behind the decks. Now two days and 22 hours of titanic techno music later, we can officially say that highly decorated Dutch outfit delivered in every single department ensuring one of the most faithful international crowds existent today ticked every single box of their Amsterdam raving experience.
Here are five reasons why Awakenings Festival 2016 was so amazing.
Incredible line-up complete with techno supremacy
Straight from the very off set, the Awakenings line-up was on-point in terms of deliverance, sound and atmosphere ignition.
Techno heavyweights were spread out across all eight stages over two days in order to give revellers as much opportunity to experience all of them across the duration of the weekend. Such headliners included the likes of Marco Carola, Joseph Capriati, Sven Vath, Nina Kraviz, Maceo Plex, Apollonia, Adam Beyer, Joris Voorn, Richie Hawtin, Ben Klock, Marcel Dettmann and several more.
These techno titans were complimented and spaced out perfectly by the inclusion of some of the genres fasting rising stars of today offering a sense of intrigue and diversity in between. Names like Sonja Moonear, Mind Against, Florinz Janvier and many more appeared thus providing a bit of variety to the billing.
Some heavyweight names appeared on both days
Having read through the names advertised on the billing and the timeslots they were given to perform at through the weekend, it wasn’t difficult to notice that some of your favourite artists clashed times and if given just one set, there was no way you would have been able to witness everyone perform.
Therefore the likes of Joseph Capriati, Adam Beyer, Pan-Pot, Joris Voorn, Maceo Plex, Nina Kraviz, Sven Vath, Ben Klock and more gave us to privilege to experience them twice in one blazing hot sunny weekend in Amsterdam. This meant we got to see them on different stages, performing different sets and we got double the delight – kudos to everyone on double duty at Awakenings.
Spectacular live performances
Be able to perform a live DJ set is a pretty impressive achievement and being given the opportunity to do so on a platform as big as Awakenings Festival is a blessing in itself. Creating your tracks on computer software live in front of an audience is no easy task but when pulled off to perfection, the results leave everyone looking on in awe.
A couple of names that stood out for me personally were that of KiNK over on the open-air stage of Area C on the second day, Voices From The Lake over on the Area Z Electric Deluxe platform and an impeccable open-air live performance from Gaiser over at Area W amongst other accomplished names.
Breathtaking stage production
The stage production at Awakenings Festival last weekend was of only the highest degree. From the aesthetically-pleasing visuals that caught your eye immediately and the chilling ice-cannons providing revellers with a brief refreshment from the sweat that trickled down their backs to the seizure-inducing light displays inside and the captivating firework displays at the conclusion of the weekend, the Dutch outfit ticked all stage production boxes with a purpose.
The set-up of the main stage over on Area V hosting Adam Beyer’s Drumcode label was particularly gripping – once you had laid your eyes on the multi-coloured blocks that were assembled over the DJ booth, you just got magnetised even further into the crowd.
An international audience united by a global love for techno
With techno music enthusiasts gathering from all four corners of the globe to experience this two-day classic known as Awakenings, the atmosphere at Spaarnwoude Houtrak was second-to-none all weekend in the world of electronic music.
Having seen flags from England, Ireland, France, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Bulgaria and of course, the Netherlands, the occurrence of Awakenings united 70,000 revellers from around the globe to come and embrace the sounds of their favourite techno superstars and that reason alone was enough to convince me to come back to Awakenings Festival next summer.
Thank you Awakenings, see you next year.
Photography by Dennis Bouman and Photo-Company.nl
