After my short tour across Germany with the three places that I visited across the week, it was time to change my focus to my upcoming festival, The Qontinent. To those not into the scene, it won’t be a festival that is well known if at all. However, to those within the hardstyle and hardcore scene, it is known as Belgium’s biggest outdoor festival for the harder styles of dance music. Based just outside a very small town to the north of the Ghent called Wachtebeke, the festival is hosted at an expansive public area, with the main festival area being on an island in the middle of the lake.
This was my first festival for the harder styles of dance music and I was both very excited and a little apprehensive. The excitement was because this was my first opportunity to see a large selection of the DJs that I’d come to love since getting into this genre of music back in 2012 and fully embrace the harder styles way of enjoying a festival, as it’s almost like a lifestyle in a way. The reason for apprehension was knowing how tired and beaten my body is the day after a nighttime indoor festival, I wondered how bad I would be after two and a half days of it!
You may be wondering what I meant by saying “the harder styles way of enjoying a festival”. Well, I’ve found that each festival has a sort of personality to it, that encompasses the genre(s) and the community around it and this was my time to become one with it by saying I’d survived a full weekend festival. When I compare a more mainstream festival like TomorrowLand to that of festivals for the harder styles, I feel that the crowds have a very different atmosphere to them. Now I’m not saying that the crowds at more mainstream festivals aren’t friendly and a place to meet new people because in the past I have. However, I just find that the crowds of the harder styles are more open to it, they are friendlier and have more of a togetherness to them as they share the same level of passion for the scene.
That is one of the biggest things that I’ve found that sets the two kinds of festivals apart is the unfiltered passion that people have for the music and the people that represent them within the scene and I admit, I’ve fallen victim to this. Again, I won’t deny that people at other festivals aren’t the same but I’ve known people to queue for hours to be right at the front to see their favourite DJ, the people that have all the merchandise, flags, masks and face paints to match their idols or at what festival are you able to organise a full fancy dress day and have people actually do it! Then there’s the tattoos. The tattoo commitment is extraordinary! The names and logos of their favourite DJs, the logos of all the festivals they’ve attended and their favourite song lyrics. Some of the artwork is truly out of the world!
Another thing that I noticed about the The Qontinent that I noticed and further on at Defqon 1, they are relentless! It can get on your nerves a little bit at times when you want to just rest and recuperate but there’s always being blasted out. Whenever I was awake and/or trying to get to sleep, there was always rawstyle or hardcore being blasted out somewhere. I really don’t get how people do it sometimes.
Even though it is part of my story of my trip across Europe, this blog will take on a bit of a different layout. Instead of going with the day by day narratives of what I’ve been doing, it’ll be more a review of the festival itself like I have done before when I review Defqon 1. On the most part, it’ll be a review of my experience at the festival, talking about the things you’d consider prior to attending and then give my thoughts and experiences of each section.
Travel
If I hadn’t told you where Wachtebeke was, I doubt you would have known where it was, as that was certainly the case for me. What would we do without Google Maps in our lives?! Due to that, you’re probably wondering how on earth you get there. Luckily for you, I’ll give you an insight into how I did it and the other methods available.
My method of travel was a pretty clear one but if you couldn’t tell, I got a train into Gent. From there, there were shuttle available for the festival to get you to the campsite, costing only €15 for a return if purchased in advance. The shuttles were on a regular basis and an efficient way of getting there. Though as a warning, they do get crowded with people and their numerous bags but there’s always someone blasting out some tunes to keep spirits up!
Other options available to get to the festival:
- International travel – If you’re travelling from outside of Belgium or neighbouring countries, the best method in is to fly to Brussels as the closest major airport, with Eindhoven being a little further afield, and then get yourself to Gent’s train station to grab the shuttle to festival grounds.
- Buses from Belgium or The Netherlands – From Belgium or The Netherlands, well from a limited selection of locations, there is the ability to get a return coach with starting prices at €19.
- Drive – Easy to reach with a car, there’s plenty of parking available for you to use, costing €10 for a single day or €15 for the weekend.
- Public transport – Aside from the shuttles available to get you to and from the festival to the train station in Ghent, there’s a bus service that will get you to the festival however, these do not run that late into the evening, with the last service being just after 2000.
For full information concerning travel to and from the festival, hit the link here.
Accommodation
Like any modern day festival, The Qontinent offers a verity of tiers when it comes to accommodation to cater for all needs and budgets. For example, when I was on this trip, I was travelling through Europe for a couple weeks but didn’t have the room for an additional tent and sleeping bag, so I was thankful that Festitent was operating here. Festitent are a company where you can book ahead of the festival and they provided me with peace of mind of having somewhere to sleep, with it being affordable to get a tent, sleeping bag and mattress, making me comfortable (in true camping terms). Additionally, they allowed me to keep my expensive personal belongings in their locked cabin for safe keeping as they wouldn’t fit in one of the lockers.
To better understand what’s offered by the festival, I’ve listed them below, should you ever decide to go. The options that I’ve listed below are what’s currently on offer for future versions of the festival, with there being a few additional ones from when I went:
- Qontipi – These are set up for you and as the name suggests, are tipis for you stay in and come in varying sizes. Prices: €89+
- Qontitent – A standard but limited edition tent for that version of the festival and one that you can take with you afterwards! Another bonus is the tent is already sent up for you, making your life easy once you’re at the campsite. Price: €100
- Kartent – A “tent” made of cardboard coming in various sizes. Due to so many people leaving their tents behind, this has created to allow it to be left behind and then properly recycled, looking after you at the festival and the planet after it. They are allow you customise and create your own tent design too! Prices: €60+
- Festitent – As mentioned before, this was the option I went for. Fairly similar to the Qontitent set up in that you have a tent set up for you upon arrival for you. You just check in with the Festitent team there who have an allocated area and away you go. The only difference with this is you just check out and leave the tent for the company. Prices: €50+
- Sahara Tent – Something that is a little more spacious and comfortable than your standard tent, offering plenty of space for four people and their luggage easily as well as the added amenities to make your stay that little bit better. Price: €269
- Deluxe Tent – If you’re wanting to take your festival experience to glamping levels, this is the one for you. With ready made beds compared to an airbed, you can see why you would want to stay here instead. Price: €200
- Deluxe Cabins – Want to stay on the campsite but have the experience of staying in a hotel (or as close to) then these are the ones for you, coming in a variety of sizes to cater for your groups needs. Prices: €360+
- Hotel – With Ghent just to the south of Wachtebeke, there’s the ability to spend you nights in a hotel with all the known comforts when compared to staying on a campsite without having to pay for the premium prices for the cabins. The only downside is the time required to get to and from the festival each day, which is why the price is a lot lower than that of the cabins. Prices: €63.72+
For full information concerning travel too and from the festival, hit the link here.
Amenities
Amenities are always something that European festivals have managed to get right. From UK festivals, I hear and have seen many horror stories of the quality of the toilets, which you either have to brave to do your business when nature calls or pay for the pleasure of going to one where you aren’t letting wondering what on earth the people before you have done. From my experience of a UK festival, it didn’t have showers but I can only guess what would happen to them. On the flip side, all the European festivals seem to have this down brilliantly and I’ve never had an issue with them. I’m not sure if this is a reflection on the facilities or the people using them, I’ll leave you to debate that one.
Starting with the toilets, they aren’t just your standard portaloos delivered in bulk, not touched and then picked up at the end of the weekend. Instead they are hard standing toilets, that are cleaned and freshened up all weekend by an army of workers throughout the day, ensuring you don’t walk into the odd occasion they don’t flush and left for you to encounter what the last person left. Next one that people tend to be interested in are the arrangements to be able to freshen up a little more thoroughly. You’ll be glad to know that the showers are to the same level of the toilets. They are looked after, the water has always been pleasant and it’s not over priced. After a day of partying hard in the sunshine and a night in your sleeping bag, nothing beats a pleasant shower to refresh yourself in the morning, ready for another day of it.
A key one for people, especially if they have come International and are somewhat paranoid about losing vital things such as passports, is the ability to lock these sorts of things away. Obviously I thankfully was able to lock mine in the Festitent van but for those who don’t have this facility, you’ll be glad to know that there are plenty of lockers for you to hire, coming in two sizes should you want to band together and split the cost or just have large objects to store.
Final one to cover off the campsite, there are a variety of seating areas to eat, some of them under the cover of a large canopy or for you to have a make shift BBQ in the summer sun. These accompany the usual food and drink stands, which are offering the expected assortment that you’d find at any festival. The only difference is that there are two menus for the morning versus the rest of the day, offering the their spin on breakfast.
In the festival area, between the stages, aside from the expected layout of stages with bars next to them and food a little further away, they had a pretty cool sit down and chill area, filled with some interesting decorations and bespoke stands with their own food and drinks on offer. A firm favourite that comes to mind was the smoothie and protein shake, revitalising you as you took the weight off your feet and relax so you can recuperate between acts.
All in all, I wasn’t left found wanting of anything whilst at the festival and had all my needs met to make it an enjoyable weekend. The Qontitent hit the spot when it came to amenities.
Line-Up
This festival may be small compared to others but it is definitely mighty! Having five stages to fill for two days, there was plenty of hardstyle and hardcore talent on show during the weekend, with some of the biggest names in the scene showcasing their music and skills. From the first evening, which some would deem a mere warm-up, on show was some of the biggest talent within the scene and this carried on all the way through to the final acts on Sunday but the last end show of the weekend. It always amazes how cheap these festivals are, with me covering the price later, when there’s just an array of the top talent from the scene.
Stages
The festival played host to five different stages, each with its own genre for you to find your favourites or discover some new ones. With that, they had their own individual designs to fit the theme of the name given to that stage and the overall theme to the festival given every year. I must admit that I was expecting the stages to be a little bigger after watching the videos of the events from the year before but then again, that’s probably down to some good work with the cameras and being spoilt with the huge and impressive stages at TomorrowLand for the last few years. Either way, the stages, the light shows and the firework displays were great during the weekend and there was plenty of room for the crowd without it being cramped, even for the popular acts, with the open plan layouts.
Novelties
Looking back at other festivals that I’ve attended, I can’t think of anything that stands out as a novelty for the festival. If I were to put anything into this category, it would the standard endshow at the end of each day that you find at outdoor festivals for the harder styles. There are a combination of light show, fireworks and premixed DJ set for 10-15 minutes, that I like to just stand back and watch after a long, hard day of dancing in (hopefully) the sun!
Currency System
My “favourite” currency system found at European festivals was back again. This was another festival that used the dreaded token currency system I’ve spoken a few times in my other festival reviews about what I found annoying about this method of paying for food and drinks at a festival and I’m sorry for bringing it up again but for some reason, it really bugs me! It’s probably just me but I’ll explain as to why this is the case:
- Queuing for tokens – I know I’m British and we love a good queue but sometimes, it’s overkill especially if you’re wanting to get back to the action enjoy the music. So when you have to get in a queue to get something to be able to then go and queue to get what you want to eat or drink, it can be pretty annoying. Then again, I can see that when not needing to give change and that makes things run smoothly at the bars and food places.
- Mixture of cash and tokens – It can be annoying having to balance having cash and tokens on you when it comes to the other stands around the festival ground, such as the campsite store or merchandise. It’s more for you lose and you always end up at one point having not enough of one of them.
- Spread out token dispensers – I see the sense in this but at the same time, it’s definitely irritating when you’re having to go searching for a dispenser, queue up, get the tokens, get your beverage/food then fight back to your spot. You can miss 10-15 minutes of the action and have to solve the puzzle of the quickest way to do it
- Overspending – Potentially me and my maths skills letting me down on this one or just over eating however, when going from pounds to euros to tokens, you can easily lose track of what you’re spending.
As I’ve written out this part of the blog, I’ve mentally countered my own arguments but it still gets to me and I don’t know why! It’s just something that I’m going to have to live with.
Pricing
As I mentioned before, the pricing of a festival for this genre of music for me has always been terrific. I guess this is down to the genres not being as main stream nor popular but for us fans of the harder styles, it is the equivalent of having the some of the biggest and best mainstream artists such as Martin Garrix, Tiestö and Steve Aoki but at half the price! I find they are relatively cheap and give you everything you need to be comfortable, enjoy yourself and get a thoroughly fulfilling experience of your favourite DJs within the scene. As much as I love the scene to be making it big, I don’t want it to get too popular as it’ll drive up those prices!
Summary
Now it’s time for me to put into words my final thoughts and feelings about my very first harder styles of dance music festival, what I thought of it as a festival and how I coped with it all. After making the jump up from a few events that last for only one night, The Qontinent for me was the perfect way to be introduced to the intensity of a full weekend of hardstyle and hardcore fun! The variety of artists on were brilliant, having a few of my favourites,
Alongside the music side, which most people come along for, it had all the facilities spot on to ensure that the experience went both smoothly and comfortably like every other festival I’ve attended on the continent that I’ve attended. They didn’t helped with me handling the intensity and graft of dancing hard for the whole weekend and these were definitely needed to allow the party to continue strong.
To give it an overall mark, comparing it to the size, scale and finesse of other and larger festivals such as Defqon 1 is what knocks it down a couple of points so I’m going to give it a solid 7.5/10.
There we have it, my first festival of the harder styles and I bloody loved it! It was a great experience and certainly prepared me for the bigger and crazier events that are known in the scene. It also gave me an opportunity to see plenty of DJs that I hadn’t up to that point and as I said before, meet some great people that I’ve been able to share more events with!
As quick as it started, it was over and it was time for me to move on to my next stop, which meant more trains, another border crossing and another city to visit. I was heading off to Rotterdam and this will be what the next blog on this journey will be about so be sure to look out for that. Want to be one of the first to hear about its release? Make sure you are following me on my socials and you’ll get a heads up!
Brilliant festival in 2016
Love those memories ❤️