Location: Wantijpark, Dordrecht (The Netherlands)
By: Elvira Visser
This year Wantijpop, a small and friendly festival in Dordrecht, attracted 35.000 visitors spread out over both days. The thirteenth edition was visited by individuals, complete families and groups of friends. The festival held in a green park is a free festival with two stages and a lot of other activities such as dance performances and kids entertainment. The festival consists of two days, where each day go under a different name. When walking around the days have a different atmosphere, besides being a relaxed festival. Wantijpop is the day with music from metal to pop and hipop. Rainbowpark is more about world music. Besides music and entertainment there is also a festival market. To get in the festival mood the night before there were different venues open with programs called Wantijclubnight. Tempelores visited the “Dordt is hard” (Dordrecht is loud) with bands such as Headhaunter, San Andreas and Menesis. Local bands that attract a good amount of people to build a pre-festival party. When the bands there done there were some DJ’s to put the place up side down with dance and even happy hardcore. For some to catch a little bit sleep and off the park for a nice day of chilling and music. Wantijpop is for a lot of people a place to go for many years as this is the 13th edition. People will meet up and chill in the park for the atmosphere as well as those who mainly come for the music.
| Besides a main stage there is a local stage where prize winners from different competitions will show their skills. Not so many people were gathered at the local stage when Dion Mase was showing his hip hop/rapstyle. The rapper has already produced his sixth release. And played many places in the Netherlands. This day the crowd is or still asleep, strolling the festival market or waiting at the main stage because there are not many people that watch his act. It is hard for Dion Mase and his friend who are on stage to get the crowd responding to what they say. There are some fans of him that cheer but other then that it is a bit sad. His raps are nice sounding and he used different styles of music behind his raps, so that not everything sounds the same with the same beat. He even got some more metal sound to one of his raps. Which shows he is a versatile rapper. However today it was not his day, not convincing and lacking crowd. |
| On the main stage it was time for one of Dutch glory singer song writers Bertolf. Last year was a very good year for Bertolf as he presented his debut album which brought him at various big festivals throughout the country. 2010 is the year where he promotes his second album “Snakes & Ladders” and to promote this he played a couple of tracks from this album. His pop tunes are easy to listen to but the show is a bit boring to watch after a few tracks nothing happens any more. The best thing to do is to sit down and chill. He also plays his known 3FM (radio station) tracks and asks the crowd to put their hands in the air at the chorus. The audience immediately put their hands up in which replies: well not now, I will give you a sign when the chorus starts. The highlight of the set might actually be a cover from the Beatles “Don’t let me down” which a lot of people on the field seem to sing along. Nice pop tunes and perfect for the afternoon. |
| Diva Down on the local stage was giving their farewell performance, as this was their last show as Diva Down. The band was together for three years and have seen the inside of many Dutch venues and even some Belgium ones. The band however decided that after three years of Diva Down they all have to explore new opportunities. Most of the band member are studying at the pop academy in Holland and they say it we will see them back on stage. Diva Down is a local band that knows how to give their emorock sound a good sense of emotion and creativity. They have gathered many people in front of the stage and their performance goes very well. In their own words: the time has come to move on! Hopefully there will be blossoming some cool bands out of this because the sound of the band is very nice. The crowd claps along and cheers and applauds when the last seconds of Diva Down ticket away. A nice performance! |
| Next up on the main stage was the little crazy sounding Austrian gypsyband Mad Manoush that have showed his skills in the Netherlands before at prestigious festival Lowlands. The band played today in the full sun, and if you had no sunstroke this band made sure you kinda had to give in to the tunes and loose your mind and let the music take over to these gypsy tones. Founder of this band Egon Egemaan has some gypsy blood from his Hungarian granddad. In the United States he experiences the energetic gypsypunkscene. This he brings with his band on stage and makes sure it is hard to stand still and resist the music. The band brings us as they call it a gypsy revolution! With a guitar, contrabass and violin you get the gypsy sound together with a punk rhythm and sing along hymns it is hard not to get a smile on your face and start dancing as a lot of people in the crowd did. A very nice band for a sunny festival day, maybe best enjoyed with a few drinks. |
| A surprise was Sugarsweet on the local stage. Never heard about this band you might suspect something else that what you will get. Their music is not at all sugarsweet but Sugarsweet has some groovy and dirty rock riffs to bring. The band hails from the north of Noord-Brabant, the Netherlands. The band was founded back in October 2008 and is influenced by bands like Audioslave and The Parlor Mob. It was not that crowded at the stage but those we where standing there were served some great show. Their jazzy, groovy rock put a smile on a lot of people. The age that was standing in front of the stage was a lot higher then for example the teeny fans from Destine, which were playing later today. What this band has is great enthusiasm to play, great guitar solo’s, a nice jazzy vocal sound and a very good stage presence. It seems to connect all together, I guess when this band develops a bit more, there will be a hell of a band. No wonder they won their place at Wantijpop by winning a competition. |
| In a world where fame gets to people in various ways former lead guitarist Brian Welch from KoRn experienced this the hard way. In the year 2005 he wanted to change his life completely and decided it was time to quit KoRn. One of the hard things he overcame was an addiction to drugs. Christianity helped him to become the person he is today. A person that wants to show the world drugs is a dangerous thing and wants others to show there is another way. After this change in his life he still had the need to make music and founded a new band. Today he was playing at Wantijpop and people gathered in front of the stage in masses to see this band, to see him. Many people were curious and the band delivered a good show. The former lead guitarist wrote a lot of riffs for his old band and you could hear that in his own sound with this band. Sadly the way of singing reminded me a lot of KoRn’s singer Jonathan Davis. The vocals do have a bit more emotion, and the lyrics tell a story. The music rocks for one thing, but does not sound that original. Opinions were diverse about their show. Some totally loved it others found it a little rip off of Brian’s former band. The quality of the band was good and I guess maybe the better performance today. |
| The audience in front of the stage changed completely, all of a sudden hundreds and hundreds of young girls suddenly appeared to claim a spot on the first row or as close as they could get. Totally different then the metal Brian Welch just played is this hit sensation Destine. Poppunk that attracts a totally different crowd. When the boys enter the stage the girls and some boys starts to scream and maybe even some tears. Teeny hysteria. The band plays nice pop songs with a little punk, the real punk is not really present though. The songs and lyrics come across as simple. But probably qualified for the big group of fans they have. For those who enjoyed the metal before this band this is a little disappointment. The bands should have been switched on the program. This band is the Dutch answer to bands like Fall Out Boy and New Found Glory. They are hot right now, but I wonder if they still are in about two years. |
Wantijpop on Saturday was this year very nice to enjoy. Musically the line up could have been better to my own liking but it had band from a lot of different genres. A very nice free summer festival and looking forward to next years Wantijpop.
More photo’s of this event can be found at Photographic Retentions
Links:
Wantijpop Website
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