After 8 years, Focus Events decided to move Dance Boulevard from the Boulevard to a whole new location. ‘De Wouwse Tol’ is the place where it’s all gonna happen this year. A big step because Dance Boulevard has always been at the Boulevard. However, we have confidence in the organization. We attended Dance Boulevard 2016 to experience it for ourselves. So, read our party report below.

After we found the ‘new’ place by car, which was quite easy, we went straight to the lockers and coins. There were no queues at all. On first sight, the festival looked smaller than last year. However, when we walked around for a bit, we could see the difference. The areas were bigger, but the space in between the areas looked similar to the distance it had at the Boulevard. We immediately saw that the freestyle stage had a really outstanding. We missed the skating and the little hill. But instead of that there was a huge ferris-wheel. On the timetable, we got one handed out at the entrance, we saw Jones was playing a set at the Hardstyle Zone. Jones was playing a Hardstyle classics set. As we arrived we heard Gostosa – Sutra blasting trough the speakers. A great track to start a day filled with great music. After a few tracks we went to House of Colors. Mesto was playing there. We heard a few tracks of him before and it sounds like a real talent. The area was not packed yet. He played bangers like Dastic – Go home and R3hab & Quintino – Freak. Halfway his set we ran to Deepack‘s set.  Deepack is known for their energy and craziness. They played a very diverse set. From Shockerz – Set me free to Degos & Re-Done – Sing for the moment.

After a few hours of dancing you also need some food and since there were about 5 food trucks there is a lot to choose from. We decided to go for a quick snack: a brownie. Yeah, they had delicious brownies!

During our quick snack we heard the set of Artistic Raw getting started and we decided to take a look. He played a very danceable set including a remix from Tommy Trash – Body movin, Pep & Rash – Rumors and CID – No. The areas were getting pretty packed at this time. After his we ran back to the Hardstyle Zone to witness the set of B-Front. Known for his always impressive sets. We heard the well-known Inner Creativity and the amazing collab with Phuture Noize – The Paradox.

After B-Front we went to Ruthless, who was the host of the Freestyle area this year. He played a very impressive set. Quick changes of tracks and all well-known ones. The whole area was singing ‘Gaan met die banaan’ and ‘Forever young’.

After dancing to sets like this our legs also need a little bit of rest. So we relaxed at the food area and tried something from the ‘China town’ and some fries. After our legs felt a little less sore we went to Out of Cookies, who dropped his one tune Fugazy which pleased the crowd.

After all that resting we wanted to get rid of all our energy so we went to the set of Warface.   This obviously turned out to be a great decision. We jumped and danced at ‘Killswitch’, his collab with D-sturb and screamed ‘That’s a warface!‘ during his track ‘Show me your warface’.

Ralvero obviously was one of the artists that we had to see.  He hosted the Ralvero’s Rage area once again.He played and awesome set and we danced our hearts out with the rest of the audience. He played remixes from a lot of well-known tracks like The Chainsmokers – Roses, Bassjackers feat Luciana – Fireflies so we sang along loudly.

We decided to go to Jason Payne and Degos & Re-done to close the day We gave it all at Delete – Genocide and Degos & Re-done – Sing for the moment. It felt awesome to see all the dedicated fans at the front dancing, stomping and screaming. Unfortunately there were no fireworks this year.

Conclusion

Dance Boulevard is getting bigger and the decision to move to a bigger terrain is understandable and a great development. Despite that, we missed the vibe of the old location as we’re used to from Dance Boulevard a bit. Also, the areas were closer to each other. So you could sometimes here the music from other areas. We had a great time music-wise and the sound-system at The Hardstyle Zone was great like every year. We hope that Dance Boulevard will grow even bigger and are curious about what they will come up with next year!

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Reporter: Jeanine Knippers