Lowlands Saturday: also room for a good conversation

A simple conclusion can be drawn: every festival should have a band from The Hague in its programming. Simply: because it’s fun, because they bring friends (in this case Maan, with whom they even arrive in the gossip columns), then Goldband’s performance shows that the rule just drawn is good.

Also, on a more personal note: it’s still special that we can constantly meet people during a festival of 60,000 visitors. Rens den Hartog, once simply happy in Lelystad; Luc van Ruler, who will soon organize a techno festival at Lage Knarsluis in Lelystad; Jop Fackeldey and Jan Gras, who take me to the beer café where you drink beer in a real glass; Joeri Huijssoon (okay, that was agreed), with whom I have an extremely pleasant and in-depth conversation; the mayor of a medium-sized Dutch municipality that organizes the most beautiful festival in the Netherlands within municipal boundaries; an extremely nice lady who asks me if I’m Kees Bakker and thanks me for all the articles in the newspaper, she reads them every week; the odds of not bumping into all those people in an ever-changing population of 60,000 souls are higher than the other way around, so if you do, that’s fine. It is also a party. And if someone from security also approaches me with a piercing finger and says, “Great shirt,” my day can’t go wrong.

But let’s talk about the music for a moment. Look, sometimes there is no way to pass in such a tent. I would have liked to photograph Fred Again, but my God: the Heineken was completely closed far outside the tent, so I hope Fred comes back. Conversely: with Declan McKenna, there is plenty of room to move, jump and dance, but it happens often. There’s even a Polish girl in the lobby, led by a boy in a wheelchair. This Declan, we’re about to see more: cheerful, edgy music, delivered with confidence and energy…this boy will get there (he already is).

Also tasty: Now Genea in the small Lima tent. Far beyond the tent, people are dancing to Italodisco, with a singer with an Italian temperament and a Spanish flamenco dress.

The Kooks also seem to have lost none of their festival power. Here too, a packed Bravo that goes back and forth among the dancers: if it gives a sign, it’s because it feels good.

Jack Harlow spits his raps on the Bravo and seeks frequent contact with his audience. But also in the little X-Ray, an Irishwoman sings and shouts from the suffering world, Sinead O’Brien, in a beautiful mixture of poetry and music.

Oh, there is so much beauty in Lowlands. As long as you have time for meetings and good conversations, between performances. And oh yes, the sun shone most of the day…