This year’s top-ranking festival dedicated to hard dance music, Defqon.1 was founded in 2003 by specialists in that world, Q-dance. Taking place in Biddinghuizen in the Netherlands over the last weekend of June, it brings together the biggest names from hardstyle, rawstyle, hardcore techno, Frenchcore and more. With a line-up poster so packed fans practically needed a magnifying glass to hunt down their favourites, last year’s event — which operated under the theme “power of the tribe” — presented the pinnacle for those wanting their bones rattled by high-BPM kick drums. A very limited taster of the artists booked includes Angerfist, D-Block & S-te-Fan, Brennan Heart, Showtek, Sub Zero Project, Marc Arcadipane, Wildstylez, Deadly Guns, and Hellfish & Thrasher. Defqon.1 has previously had outposts in Chile (2015-16) and Australia, where it ran in Sydney for a decade before shutting up shop. With last year’s visitor count at a reported 300,000, the OG Dutch edition is still getting stronger year on year however, and will return this summer under the banner “where legends rise” with appropriately legendary names like Ran-D, The Outside Agency & Deathmachine, Miss K8, Coone, Atmozfears, Warface and Ophidian. BEN HINDLE
