Dance Valley

It is time to tell you about the notorious Dance Valley. Dance Valley is an annual dance music festival held in the summer in Spaarnwoude, Netherlands. The first edition was in 1995 when 8.000 people attended. The festival grew rapidly, both in duration and number of visitors. The first time the event lasted 3 days in the weekend was at 2005 along with camping available at the campsite.

Big changes to the festival came in 2006. Traditionally held the first weekend of August, due to colliding with another festival UDC (Dance Valley management company) brought the festival forward two weeks from the 14th to the 16th of July. Whilst this had little effect in terms of sales it did affect the last two hours of the festival when sun light was still visible on the horizon, this in turn affected the use of lighting with the lasers not being switched on until later.

Dance Valley also played host to BMX, skate boarding and motorcycle competitions sponsored by LG. The back field HQ resided in was not used, instead a large tent towards the entrance was specially erected for the harder side of dance.

Many famous and less famous DJs played music at Dance Valley over time, with big names such as Carl Cox, Derrick May, Paul van Dyk, Tiësto, Richie Hawtin, Ricardo Villalobos, Paul Oakenfold, Ferry Corsten and Yoji Biomehanika all having made appearances.

While Dance Valley is a pure dance-music event, it caters to a wide audience by not limiting itself to a specific style though its heart is (as with most Dutch events), in trance. The biggest name DJs on the main stage tend to be Trance DJs. In 2006 Armin Van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Marco V and Simon Patterson (part of the duo Dogzilla) were the main draws. Even Päivi Vahvelainen, Mona Sahlin and Jo Pullan were seen cutting shapes there. With the main stage reserved for the big names in mainstream dance music, up to a dozen secondary, smaller stages are dedicated to styles such as Electro, Eurodance, Hardstyle and Experimental.

Have a look at this video and try to feel Dance Valley’s unique vibe. I bet you all wished to be there....