It’s that time of the year again. All trance and techno fans have made their way to The Netherlands to get their share of brilliant music. While all the Techno fans made their way to Amsterdam for Awakenings, the trance fans caught their cabs and headed to Bloemendaal to Luminosity Beach Festival. And the rest of us at our homes? We are absolutely resenting our decisions of staying back home as we catch up with the video streams of both the festivals and vow to attend it the coming year.
While watching the stream of Luminosity, I observed a lot of people with t-shirts wording trance slogans, t-shirts of their favorite artists, people with flags from the various countries they have come from, wristbands, banners and so much more! There is so much bonding prior to the festival. People have meet-ups and attend the festival as a large community.
Over the years, Luminosity has been touted as a Mecca for all trance fans. The festival is one that every avid trance fan has on their bucket list. But what is it about Luminosity that makes it stand out and gives it the reputation that it enjoys today? We try our best to decipher it!
Firstly, the lineups. The lineup of Luminosity is one of the most all-inclusive amongst all trance festivals. From some of the biggest of names to even newcomers, the festival has something for everyone. It hosts some of the respected names in the industry along with giving a fair chance to many budding artists. It also acts as a brilliant platform for fans to discover new artists and music. It has houses a fair share of artists from every subgenre in the trance too. The best part of it is, the names that play at Luminosity aren’t the common artists you can catch playing at festivals around the world. Over time, Luminosity has developed a reputation of being absolutely true to the genre and doesn’t tolerate anything that even remotely delves towards the more commercial side of trance. Artists prep their sets for Luminosity almost months in advance and make sure that the set is filled with some mind blowing exclusives. And since the crowd is likeminded about the music, it gives the artist a wonderful opportunity to road test new tracks and get the perfect reaction to it.
The crowd that attends the festival is a knowledgeable crowd that knows their genre and their artists very well. People fly in from all over the world to be a part of this festival. Groups are made on Facebook, Timetables are shared, wristbands of artists are distributed and meetups take place.
Luminosity was started on a very small scale and it completes 11 years of being in the festival market today. It is now identified as a niche festival with top quality music. You don’t see the festival being massively advertised or sponsored by major brands, yet, it has managed to create a name for itself and attracts a vast crowd. The credit for this probably goes to the founder of the festival, Bo Van Eck.
Driven by passion for the genre and wanting to give back to the community, he started the festival in 2007 with a very small but quality lineup. After all, if you are good at what you do and do it with passion, you are bound to get recognized and the same happened with Bo. What started as a small festival has now grown to become the biggest and most visited trance festival in the world.
The beauty of the festival lays in the fact that despite all the fame that it has garnered, they have always stayed true to the genre and have never compromised on their quality. They could have chosen to take the commercial route and bring the more commercial trance names to play in order to attract a larger crowd and spike up the ticket rate. They could have possibly expanded to multiple countries and even extended the duration of the festival and increase the number of names on the lineup. But they have been very clear to only put the best of names in the trance and have not diluted their target market. One knows that if an artist is playing at Luminosity, he or she will be an artist who is good with their music.
Also, they respect the fact that trance classics will always be evergreen and they will be played, but they give equal importance to artists with new music and ensure that they too get an opportunity to showcase their new material. So, attendees not only get to hear some of their favorite classics but also get the equal chance to discover new music. It’s extremely difficult to get people to change their loyalties and move out of their comfort zone and develop a liking for new music, yet, Luminosity has managed to give the crowds enough exposure and gets them to experiment a lot more.
Luminosity Beach Festival is now synonymous to quality trance and will always continue to be respected for its spectacular lineups and management. To answer the question our title asks, is it the best trance festival in the world? Well, at least amongst the ones that currently take place, luminosity boasts of the best of sets, location and lineup and hence currently is the best trance festival in the world. If any festival manages to surpass it 10 years down the line? Only time will tell. Till then, get planning and make it a point to attend Luminosity at least once in your life. It’s an experience like none other and it’s one you shouldn’t miss!
Have any memories from Luminosity Beach Festival 2018? Don’t forget to share them with us!
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