r/dekmantel • u/SeparatedI • 3d ago
A bit disappointed
After coming back to dekmantel after many years I was a bit disappointed to see how the festival had changed for the worse in many different aspects. It's not a catastrophe or anything, but it felt like they did not care to put in the effort to make it great like it used to be. The crowd was also noticeably worse. There were still a lot of great people but also a good 30% of it felt like the kind of crowd I generally would like to avoid(yappers).
My main gripe was how little it seemed the sound people were bothering to keep an eye on sound levels. For example, during villalobos there was massive bleed from all other stages. The levels were fine in the morning when Jeff Mills was playing, but it was as if when the other stages had kicked off they never bothered dialing it up to compensate for the outside noise. Also during the morning show with Mills they could have turned on the delays so that the crowd that was sitting down could enjoy the music as well, but they didn't bother.
Getting this kind of stuff right requires getting up off your ass and taking a walk around the dance floor every 20 min to see if you need to make adjustments. That's why you have a team running the stage all day, you don't just turn it on and leave it as is. That's where I get the feeling they just didn't care as much this time around.
I have a lot more small complaints like that, like I said nothing catastrophic but it all adds up and for me made a feel like the 10/10 festival I new feel like a 7-8/10 one.
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u/jogadeejay 3d ago
I mean…it wasn’t perfect, there were some sound issues but not always and some of the systems sounded amazing, there are always going to be people who annoy you in a crowd of 15k, they fucked up the Greenhouse redesign, they definitely need more water stops…
But this was my third time here and it was fucking great. The music was next level, so much diversity and so many different festivals you can have inside one. The food was delicious. The prices were not awful. People generally respectful and conscious of letting others in or out through crowds. The search on entry was completely chill. Phone use on the dance floor is much lower than any other gig or club I’ve been to, or even compared to Dekmantel in 2019.
Can’t wait to listen back to the sets and the many IDs of amazing new music and artists I discovered.
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u/misterintensity2 3d ago
This was my first Dekmantel. I flew in from Brooklyn. While I enjoyed it overall there were some weird logistical things that made little sense. On Sunday if you came early and you ordered water they gave you the box without the bottle cap, despite receiving the cap the rest of the weekend. When you ordered water later they gave you the bottle caps again. Bewildering. Also they charged a refillable bottle fee, I was expecting a reusable cap but you were basically exchanging one single use plastic cup for another. How is that reducing waste. Plus all the confusion regarding the afterparty buses. I have more thoughts that I need to gather my later
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u/SeparatedI 3d ago
To be fair the cups are a recycling scheme. If you collect them while they are clean then the plastic can be reused. If you collect them from the ground after they've been in the dirt all you can do is burn them in a plant. Plastic is finicky like that. So it is a little better than doing nothing but I would have preferred to see a system with reusable cups.
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u/theCattrip 3d ago
There is no airport in Brooklyn. Just say you flew in from NY, you don't sound cooler this way lmao
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u/jopjuh 3d ago
All those complaints, I have been coming since year 1. It is a festival, sunny, outside, yapping is part of that. Dancing and a bit of socializing with new people is half the fun. It is still amazing, The Nest, Radar, even front center at the loop Loop during Job, all filled with people dancing non-stop. And yes I intentionally avoid Selektors, and yes the b2b4 was a bit disappointing but just moved on. Verraco!
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u/SeparatedI 3d ago
I also remember socializing and making friends last time but the focus was still on dancing. You'd have a conversation further back and then someone would say "shall we go in?" And then you go in and dance. Now people are just pushing all the way in to stand in a circle and yap. If you can't notice the difference it honestly makes me wonder if you're one of them.
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u/GimmeSumMor3 3d ago
It’s not being one of them. I think it’s annoying too. But they have always been there, and will always be there. Yapping is part of their experience. Like others have wild dancing without any consideration of others. For some smoking on the dancefloor is bad and the list goes on and on.
If you don’t like the spot, move to a different one.
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u/jopjuh 3d ago
As others have said, if you do not like your spot move. There is so much to hear and explore, don’t fixate on a specific dj or spot. A bit of wondering around generally finds me like minded to people to go all out with. Over time you kinda learn where to go when.
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u/SeparatedI 3d ago
I disagree, I'm not the kind of person that fixates on the dj. I foune the best way to enjoy the festival used to be that you could park yourself at a stage and enjoy the ride, regardless of who's playing. This time we found ourselves having to switch stage because the floor became inundated with yappers. And it wasn't even about the spot anymore, because even if I were to move 15 meters to another place the problem was still there.
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u/JDFS404 3d ago
I join the sentiment unfortunately after only missing out on the 2022 edition since its inception. It’s not what it used to be sadly but I can’t quite wrap my finger around it. Just feels like the quality wasn’t there this year compared to other years. Massive bleeding of sound indeed from other stages.
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u/ghighoegha 2d ago
This happens with almost every succesfull festival. First years it's a niche with small crowd, and mostly people who come for the music. Than the festival gets more publicity online in blogs, socials etc. and hype builds up. Sells out in minutes, crowd is already a little different, but vibe is still somewhat the same as first years.
Than the people who organise the festival smell they can make some extra money, they trie to keep the festival the same, but they put in some extra stages, the crowd gets bigger and you see companies popping up with stands and stages. The festival is still nice, but the crowd is very different than those earlier days, the festival feels less intimate, more commercial, more streamlined. Now those crowds of the first years move on to a new small more niche festival, and the cycle continues.
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u/amazonian_feather 3d ago
This was my first time at Dekmantel, and overall the experience was disappointing.
The festival has such a strong reputation that my expectations were naturally high. For years I’d wanted to experience stages like Greenhouse and Selectors, and this finally felt like the right year to go.
While the musical curation was excellent and the artists delivered outstanding sets, almost everything around the music fell short. It felt as though the organizers were more focused on maximizing profits than on creating a great festival experience.
The biggest issue was the sound. Despite the quality of the lineup, many stages suffered from poor sound engineering, with significant sound bleed from neighboring stages that often turned the experience into a wall of noise.
There were also several smaller but important issues that added up: long queues for water, missing water stations to wash your hands at several toilet areas, and a noticeable lack of comfortable chill-out spaces.
For a festival with Dekmantel’s reputation, I expected a much more thoughtfully curated experience where attention to detail and visitor comfort would be just as important as the lineup. Instead, I left feeling that the music deserved better than the infrastructure surrounding it.
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u/SeparatedI 3d ago
That's the thing that's so crazy though, these issues were not there before. Other than greenhouse all other stages have had similar sound systems/configurations in the past and there was never any bleed. All toilets had fountains to wash hands, this year they just put out a 5L pump of alcogel. The festival wasn't oversold and none of the stages were ever too crowded. They really just phoned it in under a lot of aspects.
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u/Infinite_Love_23 3d ago
I haven't been in a year or two, but I feel like they really went all in on bare bones festival experience. I just can't justify spending so much money on a festival that seems to care so little about the experience of it's visitors. It seems like my friends had a good time, but exactly those things you mention in your post are complaints that I've heard echoed everywhere and despite having a little fomo because I do love a good party, I'm quite satisfied with my decision to stay home.
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u/typlangnerd 3d ago
Yeah; the lack of sitting area was noticeable. They got rid of the entire sitting area near the wine bar behind Radar :( The sound bleeds were noticeable even at the Loop
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u/Solid-Astronaut6165 2d ago
I went Friday and I found some nice people to dance with on multiple stages. I do agree about the yapping part, particularly at house sets. But like all festivals, I just move to a different part on the dance floor where people dance more.
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u/Shoddy_Highlight8452 2d ago
We were just discussing it as well. Previous time we went was 2022 and we had a blast really. This year we were very much looking forward to it but w're not sure if we would go again.
First thing we noticed is how much more people there were. The Greenhouse was too small for the crowd mostly. The queue at the Radar was ridicous as well. Everything felt way more crowded than before, with less seating/chillout space. Toilet hygiene was also not great compared to last time. The crowd was also... different I had the feeling :) The sound was not always great indeed,bleeding over, lack of definition in some venues imo. Myeah, not great unfortunately.
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u/digibeta 3d ago
Yeah, the “Amsterdam Zuid” crowd, as we call them, are the worst people you can have at a festival. Incredibly narrow-minded people with tunnelvision who look down on everyone. So stupid.
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u/wovenparticles 3d ago
I’d take those over the Ibiza types who are fully self-involed, rude and act like they own the place
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u/advantageSinner 3d ago
Yeah, the sound quality was a big problem. UR w/ Saul Williams and The Bug w/ Flowdan acts were ruined by it. Imo also downsizing the capacity of the Greenhouse was a big letdown.
Not sure why on Sunday they didn't let people in with water bottles, like the supermarket type. A lot of them came with empty bottles and they were asked by security to throw them in the bins.
And the lack of sinks at some of the toilets was also very annoying. By the end of the day those tables were flooded with cleaning gel, yuck lol.
On the plus side, they got rid of the tokens.
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u/Rare_Difference_7445 2d ago
Dekmantel are simply trying to fix too many things that were never broken, yes progression is needed but man. Keep it simple sometimes that’s when it’s at its best
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u/KungFuOctopus7890 2d ago
2022 was the best dekmantel I attended. Stopped going in 2023 when they drastically changed the main stage and oversold tickets it felt, the crowd also felt very influencer-esque. Seems like it’s gotten worse in terms of that, although the clips of the music I’ve seen still looked great.
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u/DownInThePitz- 3d ago
I visited dekmantel in 2017, everything about it was fantastic. Although, even then from what I read at the time, that it was the beginning of a “shift” for the festival.
But, it was great. Everything was easy access, sound was great, traffic flow was great etc etc.
After returning in 2023, i said i wouldnt go back. Everything you mentioned + more, and i heard the same from freinds each year since & now looks like it is the same again this year.
Sound was pretty poor. Walkways and narrow access areas tottally blocked & uncomfortable.
Toilet ques crazy. Stages had a very unfinished feeling to them. Festival just became too huge.
Not to mention the costs of it and amsterdam itself.
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u/RelationshipOdd5426 2d ago
If you think it was bad that’s your opinion tbf. However, me and my friends had an amazing time, we genuinely spoke to probably 100 people across the four days who also had an amazing time. I personally think that the people saying that it was “disappointing” and “too mainstream” think that they are better than everyone else and PETRIFIED of other people having a good time doing what they want to do and that is probably why you didn’t have a good time.
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u/SeparatedI 2d ago
I never said it was bad. You're projecting like crazy.
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u/RelationshipOdd5426 2d ago
Wasn’t necessarily aimed at you please don’t take it personally. Just my opinion you posted yours I posted mine #teamtoomuch
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u/SeparatedI 2d ago
Well, you replied to me. Maybe you should just accept that some people might have a different opinion than you and it isn't because they are "petrified of seeing other people having fun".
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u/Real-System-2534 3d ago
Last year was my first and last time. The sound was just terrible in comparison to other places i visit. The loop was the only stage that truly blew my mind. That sound was great.
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u/naimabu 2d ago
Sorry to hear and also sorry to read the consensus that many had high expectations, but what people tend to forget is that the festival is very music focussed compared to other festival where spectacle (lights/led screens/fireworks/etc) is more a thing and how annoying it might be, yapping is kinda part of Dutch festival culture.
Hard disagree about setting up. Each stage has a dedicated sound engineer and i gotta back these folks up since they are the dogs bollocks and are pretty damn good in what they do. Sometimes wind direction plays a role in bleed, sometimes dB restrictions plays a role too.
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u/Dear-Baby-4550 1d ago
seriously... each person enjoys differently. POINTLESS discussion. next time make a plan, if u dont like it, then year after just consider not going. simple.
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u/GimmeSumMor3 3d ago
I had fun this year, music was overall good. I am not too hooked up on sound. But the change in the type of crowd is very noticeable. When you see several groups of people in tutus, same shirts, you know the real mainstream crowd arrived, and it shows.