PHOTO CREDIT: Katarina Cvetko
Last weekend marked the final edition of Holland’s beloved Hard Bass Festival. The sold out harder styles event hosted over 27,000 visitors from all corners of the globe at Arnhem’s GelreDome. Five carefully curated teams ranging from hardstyle to euphoric, raw and hardcore, took to the stage for ten hours of exclusive back to back sets and live performances. Being b2s’ largest and longest running event, I had very high expectations of this event; and I was definitely not disappointed. Here’s what I loved about Hard Bass: The Last Formation.
THE VENUE
Home to many large indoor festivals, the GelreDome was the perfect venue for Hard Bass. The covered stadium featured a large open space for thousands of visitors to gather on the dance floor, as well as viewing decks and seated areas along the sides and back. Plenty of clearly marked exits made getting in and out of the stadium quick and easy and everything from food and drinks to merchandise was easily accessible.
THE PRODUCTION
One of my favourite things about any festival is the production and Hard Bass went above and beyond to put on a spectacular final show. Everything from indoor fireworks, to pyro and mind blowing laser shows were in abundance at this event. Each team represented a different colour, and the lighting and visuals complemented their sounds and style perfectly. Due to the size of the stadium and the multilevel viewing areas, the various show elements could be enjoyed from literally any angle!
THE MUSIC
With so many incredible artists teamed up into different groups, it’s impossible to pick a favourite performance. Each team brought their own individual sound and feel to the extravagant stage, provoking entirely different responses from the crowd. Overall, Team Green came out on top for me. The perfect combination of old and new school artists took ravers on a unique musical journey. Hardstyle pioneer Noisecontrollers teamed up with young prodigy Atmozfears and fellow Dutch producer B-Front for an hour of the hottest hardstyle tracks. Everything from classic hardstyle anthems to brand new cross-genre remixes were featured throughout this incredible set.
Closing out Team Green was the official I AM HARDSTYLE takeover with Brennan Heart, Code Black and Toneshifterz. The trio treated the crowd to plenty of well known bangers, which had the entire stadium singing along. Brennan Heart also debuted the 2019 I Am Hardstyle anthem ‘Show Your True Colours’. To top it off, Team Green undoubtably had the best light show; with flickering beams of green filling every inch of space in the GelreDome.
Overall, the final edition of Hard Bass was one for the books. The flawless combination of a world-class lineup filled with exclusive performances and a state of the art light show, perfectly concluded this chapter in hardstyle history and I can’t wait to see what b2s has in store for the future!