Lief Festival 2010

Written by Marijn van Laerhoven

June, July and August have flown by within the blink of an eye. Either here or abroad, almost every weekend we would go out for a festival. Enjoying the music, dancing and having fun with friends. With September taking over from August it's hard to face the inevitable truth, the festival season of the year 2010 is nearing its end. September had yet one more treat in store for us. Today's treat was the fifth edition of X-Sense's Lief festival in Utrecht. Tickets to the festival had all gone sold out.

The five year anniversary edition of Lief at the Strijkviertel recreational area again reclaimed the title of the closure of the festival season. Like before, the forces of Rebellion, Solid Grooves and Subculture were rallied to Utrecht, each hosting its own stage next to the two stages by Lief. Honestly our interest of today was for one stage in specific, the Subculture stage. Jon Gaiser, Troy Pierce, Marco Resmann, Marcus Meinhardt and Andre Galluzzi are amongst our favorite artists in the minimal techno genre, the creme de la creme, and Subculture so happened to have booked them. Artists playing at other stages were Lucien Foort (Mainstage Jungle), Sander Kleinenberg (Mainstage Jungle), John Dahlback (Mainstage Jungle), Invite (Solid Grooves), Deetron (Solid Grooves), Joey Beltram (Solid Grooves), Rauwkost (Rebellion Hills), Isis (Lieve Tent), Nobody Beats the Drum LIVE (Lieve Tent) and Boemklatsch (Lieve Tent).

At the press entrance we were handed a welcome letter with some drink tokens, and now that's a first! We quickly headed over to the Subculture stage to check out Marcus Meinhardt, who, according to the time table, had already started playing in the early afternoon. Once we got there we quickly discovered Marcus Meinhardt was playing not by himself but together with Marco Resmann, originally planned to play solo after Marcus. A couple of weeks ago the two were one of our highlights of Sonne Mond Sterne (in Saalburg, Germany) but their set of today proofed their sound works equally well within Dutch borders. No bullshit, just uptempo dance floor minimal. Berlin style, just the kind that we like. The vibe amongst the crowd was great but with Butch taking place behind the decks we decided to excuse ourselves for a quick stroll around the festival grounds. We took a look at the main stage and a listen at the Solid Grooves. The festival grounds were covered in a warm blanket of sunbeams. It was a beautiful day, and people were in a good mood. Back to Subculture. In the early evening two of M-NUS's finest were found behind the booth. First a DJ gig from Troy Pierce, then a one hour live performance by Jon Gaiser. Gaiser in particular seemed to make a big impression on the crowd. People went crazy every time Gaiser would treat us with a new bass line, and for good reason. We have said it before but will say it again, Gaiser's basslines are amongst the sickest around. After M-NUS, it still wasn't over as another crowd pleaser, party boy Andre Galluzzi was entitled to close off the Subculture stage.

Lief festival perhaps isn't the biggest nor the most spectacular decorated happening in the festival calendar but then again it never tries to be either. Lief is intimate, laid back and a great excuse for a day out for anyone who just can't get enough. We couldn't, and we had a great day at Lief. It wasn't until around seven in the morning that we finally called it a day/night after a great, great Subculture after hour with the likes of Galluzzi, Resmann and Meinhardt.