It’s becoming quite the tradition. Like every Easter weekend over the past few years, DGTL festival descends on the abandoned NDSM shipyard for a two-day music extravaganza. From the overall surroundings, to the various stages, over to the artists performing there, the festival, spanning from Saturday till Sunday, has everything on point.
Since its introduction back in 2013, DGTL festival has been marking the start of a new festival season for five years now and done so in great fashion. The massive event brings over 15.000 music enthusiasts to the docklands area – located in the Northern part of Amsterdam – without loosing its fair share of character. With six different stages, which all have their own vibe and impressive light show, the organization goes to vast lengths to insure the surroundings contribute to the overall experience.
Some stages are located in abandoned shipyards; others are built out of shipping containers or tents, but they’re all connected by the industrial looking area. Next these stages, DGTL’s landscape is filled with a variety of interactive props, hangouts and decoration, resulting in an overall intimate atmosphere – although being a relatively large event. Combine this all with DGTL’s Revolution project, which aims to continuously keep sustainability as priority, and you’re left with a world-class production.
![photo: @[232306510283671:tomdomscom]](https://liquidyouth.nl/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/TD-20170416-DGTL-022-8797-1024x683.jpg)
But as with every music festival, it’s all about the music. The festival houses space for over 60 acts in the course of the two day event, including international powerhouses like Dixon, Motor City Drum Ensemble, Talaboman, Joy Orbison, and local favourites such as Job Jobse, Beesmunt Soundsystem and Oceanic. With the musical scale ranging from deep house and disco, to house and industrial techno, DGTL brings more then enough variation and diversity to the table and opens 2017’s festival in the best way possible. Here is our selection of musical highlights during DGTL Festival 2017 – Amsterdam.
Solar – 5 Seconds (Original mix)
Hometown favourite Job Jobse was our personal winner of this year’s DGTL festival. The local served its fair share highlights during his two-hour set at Sunday’s AMP stage, one of them being Solar’s long-awaited track “5 Seconds”. The atmospheric ambience of the track, combined with its rolling bass-line, set the tone for things to come at the beginning of Jobse’s set.
Etienne Jaumet – Repeat Again After Me (Âme Remix)
Âme’s timeless rework of Etienne Jaumet’s track “Repeat Again After Me” never fails to gain the attention of a crowd. Played by Dixon, the track slowly gains momentum with the layering of various wind-instruments before unleashing its powerful kick-drum. Combine this with the impressive light-scape of Sunday’s Innervisions stage and you’re left with an pretty memorable moment.
ROD – Hor (Original Mix)
High-energy techno tune, creating a moment of extensive euphoria. As part of his recent four-track release on Klockworks, ROD’s new track “Hor” did its job very well when Job Jobse played it during his performance on Sunday. The pumping peak-time weapon, played over the impressive sound-system of the AMP stage, was an absolute delight.
Sucker DJ’s – Lotta Lovin’ (Paradise Soul Mix)
Played by several DJ’s during the two-day event; the Paradise Soul mix of Sucker DJ’s track “Lotta Lovin”. Making thankful use of a sample of Don Ray’s disco classic “Got To Have Loving”, the track builds slowly through-out its length before unleashing its powerful break around the 4-minute mark.
Denis Horvat – Lodi (Original Mix)
As with every event, there is a good amount of tracks being played that haven’t been released yet. DGTL was no exception on that account. With forthcoming material from Patrice Baumel, Rampa, Manoo and Mr Raoul K heard there, too name a few, the festival gave a good insight in things to come. Same goes for this upcoming masterpiece by Denis Horvat.