Stekkerfest 2010

Written by Thijs van Dun

Event Review -

Saturday the 14th saw another edition of Stekkerfest, held at a fresh location, Park Transwijk in Utrecht. The yearly festival is organized by Versvermaak, a young and dynamic Dutch organization which is active in different ball games like art, culture, media and entertainment. Together with more than 10 different creative collectives like Je Moeder, PDE, Kranck, Green, 030303, Bar Weinig and camping comfort zone they made Stekker Fest to an inspiring, creative and uplifting dance festival.

Besides dance music there were loads of other side activities at Stekker Fest to entertain the crowd. For example the "wipkippenrace" which can be best described as riding wobbly play garden thingies with a high-speed camera recording the action. Extremely funny to see four totally out of their head party people racing against each other on a wipkip! Definitely a must see and not don't do!

Next to this extraordinary race there was the possibility to trade stuff with other visitors. The perfect way to trade those old vintage sunglasses against a cool belt when you forgot yours. Add some legendary and antique Dutch games to the mix and you've got a proper afternoon of entertainment.

It was definitely great to hear and see de badmeesters at the Je Moeder stage. Normally these guys Brent Roozendaal & Aron Friedman perform under the name mesjokke DJ's. But for this "special" occasion they performed under the alter ego de badmeesters which translates to the lifeguards. The location of the stage definetely justifies their name change, since it was right next to small pond. Nicely dressed in speedo's and covered in sun cream they created a varied sound with old house classics, trashy electro and disco.

Between the DJ's and acts it was extremely comfortable to chill at the camping comfort zone. A nice trashy looking chill out zone with small tents, comfortable chairs, pillows and the possibility to get a coffee. The stage at the camping comfort zone was hosted by the Utrecht collective 030303. They produced a great combination of dubsteb and some forms of experimental beats.

One of the closers of the day was legendary Dutch techno jock Michel the Hey. A nice minimal set was pumping through the speakers with as absolute highlight Ruede Hagelstein's Emergency. What a superb and balanced track that is.

To conclude Stekkerfest was one of those weird but definitely very cool festivals. The combination of music, games and other weirdness created a friendly atmosphere in which anybody would feel welcome and ready to dance!