Tilburg’s Draaimolen Festival is up for its second edition on the last Saturday of the summer. Last year’s sold-out debut already saw the likes of Jeff Mills, Joris Voorn, Noir, Recondite and Ben Sims coming through, but now the organization promised its fanbase to set up a festival with an eye on established international artists from the house scene as well. They have succeeded in doing so, with a line-up containing almost exclusively the most sought-after headliners, Maceo Plex, Tale Of Us, KiNK, Pachanga Boys, David August and DJ Tennis.

The team behind Draaimolen – which is known for a lot of other parties through the year like ‘Holy Picnick’, ‘Holy Pink’ and various indoor ‘Draaimolen’ editions – started out somehow disillusioned with this year’s festival, as the municipality of Tilburg had told them their preferred location ‘de Spoorzone’ or ‘Muzentuin’ were off limits for dance events this year due to local residents claiming noise disturbance resulting from earlier events held there. Luckily the organization had set its eyes on a worthy replacement, in the form of Charlotte Oord, where they will have the scoop of hosting the very first event.

“We’re not trying to imitate Amsterdam or Berlin, we’re proud of our own city”

Milo van Buijtene, Draaimolen’s founder and general manager couldn’t be happier: “Charlotte Oord turns out to be a unique location in Tilburg and it fits our profile perfectly.” Charlotte Oord is known for its dense forestation which could give a festival a mysterious or adventurous air; something Draaimolen will probably be putting to full use on September 19.

Draaimolen’s mission was to create a proper festival that could compete with festival in and around the vicinity of Amsterdam. Although the project started out as a hobby, it has become something much bigger instead after the success of their previous edition. Draaimolen 2015’s Facebook event has already gathered up to 3.3k attendees – not bad when you lay those numbers next to comparable events that have been around for a much longer period. According to van Buijtene this is partly due to the notion of pride that residents feel for the city of Tilburg: “We’re not trying to imitate Amsterdam or Berlin, we’re proud of our own city and the people living here, and the artists are picking up on this as well.”

Of course Draaimolen will surely be attracting people from the outside as well with a line-up of this size, all together in one place.

Mainstage: Maceo Plex | Tale Of Us | David August | Pachanga Boys | KiNK | DJ Tennis | Tsepo | Pieter Jansen |

Machine Stage: | Surgeon LIVE | Luke Slater (OFFICIAL) | Ben Sims | Kirk Degiorgio | Sigha |

September 19 | Draaimolen Festival | Tickets | Charlotte Oord, Tilburg |

 Picture by: Maite De Lorenzo Bollen