Defqon.1

Defqon.1 Festival

Defqon.1 Festival

Annual music festival in the Netherlands

Not to be confused with DEF CON, an annual hacker convention.

Defqon.1 Weekend Festival is an annual music festival held in the Netherlands. In the past, it was also held in Chile and Australia. Founded in 2003 by festival organizer Q-dance, the festival plays mostly hardstyle and related genres such as hardcore, early and classic.

The primary stage at Defqon.1, the RED Stage, is the largest stage. (photo from 2023)

Quick Facts Genre, Dates ...

Events

The festival was previously held in mid-June on Almeerderstrand in Almere. Since 2011, it is hosted on the event site next to Walibi Holland in Biddinghuizen. Since 2009, the event has also been hosted in Sydney in mid-September, at the Sydney International Regatta Centre. Until 2011 (2014 for the Australian edition) the festival ran for 12 hours, from 11:00 am to 11:00 pm, and ended with a firework display. Since 2012, the festival was extended to three days. Since 2015, the Australian edition was extended to two days. Each edition also has an anthem, an official song that is played in conjunction with the festival. The festival is also livestreamed with video from the largest stages and audio for all the other stages through YouTube,[2] and the Q-Dance[3] website for people all around the world to tune into.

At the Dutch event the audience has grown to 65,000 visitors per day. In 2013, the Sydney event attracted 18,000 attendees.[4] The same event saw the death of a male, around 20 drug overdoses[4] and more than 80 arrested on drug charges.[5]

On 17 September 2018, the New South Wales Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, announced her intention that Defqon.1 would not take place again, due to two deaths that took place at the 2018 festival.[6] At this event seven hundred people sought medical assistance.[7] Shane Rattenbury, the Greens leader in the ACT, has invited Defqon.1 to take place in Canberra where pill testing could be carried out after a successful trial with Groovin the Moo.[8]

On 29 May 2019, Q-dance announced on its official Facebook profiles that Defqon.1 Australia, after a decade being held at the Sydney International Regatta Centre (Penrith),[9] would be indefinitely suspended, since they were "unable to secure a suitable replacement venue for the event to take place [...]"[10]

2020 did not see Defqon.1 held after the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte declared that all events in the Netherlands were cancelled until September 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Defqon.1 was held virtually in 2021, with sets from participating performers streamed from the Defqon.1 website.[11]

The festival was held in person again in 2022, with over 100.000 unique visitors.[12]

Festival history

More information Year, Location ...

See also

References

  1. [1]
    "Report: Defqon.1 2022 - Primal Energy". Festival Fans. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  2. [2]
    "Q-dance". YouTube. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  3. [3]
    "Q-dance". Q-Dance. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  4. [4]
    Emma Partridge (15 September 2013). "Man dies at Defqon.1 music festival". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 15 September 2013.
  5. [5]
    Amy Dale; Nathan Klein; Alicia Wood; Simon Black (16 September 2013). "Dance party drug death victim James Munro pictured before the fatal Defqon. 1 festival". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  6. [6]
    Kelly, Lidia (15 September 2018). "Two dead after suspected drug overdose at Sydney music festival". Reuters. Retrieved 13 November 2018. 'This is an unsafe event and I'll be doing everything I can to make sure it never happens again,' she added.
  7. [7]
    Megan Palin and Natalie Wolfe (17 September 2018). "Sydney music festival deaths: Two young people dead". news.com.au. News Pty. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  8. [8]
    Scott, Elise (8 October 2018). "Push for Defqon.1 to move to ACT, where pill testing is supported". ABC News. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
  9. [9]
    Rota, Genevieve (30 May 2019). "Defqon.1 festival 'postponed indefinitely'". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 14 June 2019.
  10. [10]
    Defqon.1, Australia 2019 (29 May 2019). "Warriors, it is with great sadness to inform you that Defqon.1 Festival will not return to Australia this year". Facebook. Retrieved 14 June 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  11. [11]
    "Defqon.1 at Home 2021". Q-dance. Q-dance. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
  12. [12]
    "Report: Defqon.1 2022 - Primal Energy". Festival Fans (in Dutch). 5 July 2022. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
  13. [13]
    naam (21 June 2012). "Festivalterrein Defqon.1 open - Dossier: Defqon.1" (in Dutch). Omroepflevoland.nl. Archived from the original on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
  14. [14]
    "Defqon.1 Holland | Tickets Sold Out". Q-dance. 15 April 2014. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
  15. [15]
    "Ruim 60.000 bezoekers bij Defqon.1". www.omroepflevoland.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  16. [16]
    "Defqon.1 2019 heeft alle verwachtingen overtroffen" (in Dutch). fok.nl. 3 July 2019. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  17. [17]
    "Q-dance Reveals Defqon.1 2023 Theme, Anthem Creators, and More". edmidentity.com. 21 October 2022. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
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