If you couldn’t get tickets for the Reading or Leeds Festivals, then you might be pleased to hear that there are still tickets available for Lowlands 2009 in the Netherlands. Another plus for the Lowlands is that all the stages are under cover, ie: in tents, which is great if rolling around in the mud is not quite your thing. Given the fact that the summer around northern Europe has been pretty much rain, rain, rain, a festie in tents sounds perfect.
At the Lowlands you haven’t just got alternative music, pop, rock, dance, and hip hop, but also stand-up comedy, theatre, street theatre, and movies. The festival goes under the full and rather strange name of A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise, and has been described as being the Dutch version of Glastonbury, attracting some 60,000 aficionados every year to see over 200 acts on more than ten stages.
Lowlands started in Utrecht, but now takes place at Biddinghuizen, next to the Walabi World amusement park. This year Lowlands is happening over 21-23 August with a stunning line up, including Sheffield’s own Arctic Monkeys, Leeds lads the Kaiser Chiefs, and Leicester alt rock band Kasabian. There’ll be electropop with Little Boots, English indie band The Maccabees, alt rockers Maxïmo Park, and some high energy sounds with The Prodigy. There will be Dizzee Rascal, Razorlight, Enter Shikari, Vampire Weekend, and also Reverend and the Makers, who are playing at a fair number of the UK’s summer festivals this year, and have thus far been very well received. There’s some American garage sounds with Eagles of Death Metal, and that spiky guitar stuff with Bloc Party. The stunning and inimitable Grace Jones will also be there. But there is even more than this – just take a look at the program.
Tickets for Lowlands 2009 are 150 euros, and that includes camping and a shuttle bus from the railway station. If you’re not so keen on camping given the wet summer we’ve been having at this end of Europe, then you could always go up the luxury end of the market and rent a PodPad, which in case you didn’t know is a cute little wooden hut which is actually a bit more like a tent than a hut, but certainly keeps you dry.
And of course Lowlands is not just about music – there’s theatre, movies, and comedy in both English and Dutch. There will also be visual arts, and even literature events. The whole thing promises to be a real feast of enjoyment, and if you need to wet your whistle at any time of the day or night there is even a 24 hour pub. The festival is sponsored by Grolsch, so you may well find a bottle or two of their excellent brew around the place.
The tents housing the performances are pretty spacious, with the largest one covering an area the size of a football pitch, so no worries about all being crammed in.
So if you head for Lowlands 2009 you can’t go wrong, and the fact that it’s taking place in one of the coolest countries on the planet just makes it even better.
