A CHANGE IS GONNA COME

(whether we like it or not) 

Rotterdam is always changing. For some reason, we’re very fond of constructing new buildings. And we’re pretty good at it, if we may say so ourselves; our city has some amazing architecture.

At even the smallest signs of decay, Rotterdam will take action and start renovating. In many ways, that’s a great thing. Especially after the bombing in the Second World War, it proved to be quite a useful quality.

But sometimes that drive to create bigger and better buildings gets in the way of something that’s most important to us: music.

Sometime next year, there are plans to tear down half a block of buildings to make room for some fancy skyscrapers. This would include the venues Roodkapje, Perron and Salsability.

The good news is that Roodkapje has found a new spot. The bad news is that their new location is too far away from the Butt Plug Gnome to be part of Left of the Dial. We’re not sure if, or where Perron and Salsability will be relocated.

As it goes with these things, it’s uncertain when the demolition of the block will start. At the moment, it looks like there’s an 80% chance we won’t be able to use those venues again.

This means we have to find some new venues, just to be sure. It’s a bit of a pain, but we’ll figure something out. Left of the Dial might be a bit different, but we’ll do everything we can to make sure it still feels the same.

The real problem is, of course, that there’s yet again less room for music.

Apparently, all those city developers filling the city with new buildings don’t have favourite bands. Or maybe they sometimes do go to concerts, but they simply care far more about money. And office spaces or luxurious flats are usually more profitable than music venues.

Anyway, we didn’t mean to bring you down, but we felt it was as good a time as any to mentally prepare you for the possible loss of some of your favourite Left of the Dial venues.

But hey, there are still a few days left in 2025, and you should really try to make the most of them. We certainly will. And you never know, maybe 2026 will bring us a whole new generation of city developers who care as much about music as we do.

Or maybe, billionaires will finally do something useful with their money and support all grassroots venues worldwide. 

Yeah, we know, that’s very unlikely.

So dear friends, let’s stick together, because it will probably be up to us again to make the world a better place.

Big love, 
The Auld Lang Synes of Left of the Dial
  

COMPLAINING ABOUT META ONCE AGAIN

(time to subscribe to more newsletters)

Yesterday, we read about Meta removing dozens of accounts belonging to abortion access providers and queer groups. This unbelievable form of censorship makes us feel sick, but it also underlines another problem:

We have all become far too reliant on Meta as a communication tool.

Especially if you use Meta to reach fans or supporters of your work, your art, or your expertise: if, for whatever bogus reason, Meta decides to remove your account, those contacts are gone, and there’s no other way to reach them.

At first, here at Left of the Dial, we weren’t particularly worried about our account being removed. We thought only really controversial accounts would run that risk. You know, the ones that show graphic violence or spread vicious hatred.

But if they’re shutting down friendly queer groups, pretty much anyone could be next.

Last year, we explained that we’re not spending any money on Meta ads any more, and we still don’t. Now, we wish we could leave Meta altogether, but we’re not brave enough. We’ve still got tickets to sell, and we’re not sure how to reach potential festivalgoers otherwise.

We know lots of other festivals, artists, and music venues struggle with the same thing, so please…

Subscribe to more newsletters. 

Actually reading them would be even better, of course, but it’s a really good start just to sign up, so your possible new favourite artist, festival, or venue knows how to reach you in case Meta randomly removes accounts again.

It also means that we, The Senders of Newsletters, need to step up our game and make them more fun, more informative, and just more worth reading in general.

Anyway, that’s what we think.

If you want to check whether our newsletters really are fun and informative, please go to the Left of the Dial website. Somewhere at the bottom of the page you’ll find a button to subscribe. Or just DM us your email address and we’ll do it for you.

And if you already receive our newsletter, please consider signing up for others by artists or organisations you like. 

You can always unsubscribe, just don’t let Meta decide for you.

Big love,
The moral mailmen of Left of the Dial

READY FOR 2026!

 (almost that is...)

We like to plan ahead, but at the same time, we know we’re not the most consistent bunch and we change our plans regularly, so this could easily change, but here’s roughly what you can expect from us in 2026:

LINEUP ANNOUNCEMENT
Around 20 February we’ll be revealing The Feb 40. It’s basically the first line-up announcement, just with a nicer name. We want to give you a bit more time to get to know all the acts for the upcoming edition of Left of the Dial, so we’ll be announcing new names every two months. We’ve no idea whether that will actually make digesting all that new music any easier, but it seemed worth a try. And if it doesn’t work for whatever reason, next year we’ll simply go back to monthly announcements, easy as that! 

THE EXTRA EXTRAS
For the previous edition, we announced the Extra Extras in January. That turned out to be not the smartest idea, because at least half of them hadn’t actually been confirmed yet. So this year we’re taking a bit more time, for example, to find a bus with enough power to have bands play a full set…
And Bands on a Boat will definitely return, but perhaps with a small tweak. Then there are a few more things we want to think through, and we’ve given ourselves until May to do that. For people who only come to Left of the Dial for the music, none of this matters in the slightest, but for all Extra Extras enthusiasts: we’ll tell you more in May!

 PRICE INCREASE
We’ve said it before: you’re all rather unpredictable when it comes to buying tickets, which makes it impossible to say exactly when the next price increase will be. At the moment, to our great surprise, about 70% of the €75 tickets have already been sold. If sales continue at this pace, the next price increase will come just before or just after the first lineup announcement. But then again, it could just as easily be the case that everyone is currently too busy with the holidays and only giving Christmas jumpers as presents, in which case the €75 tickets will remain available a bit longer. We’ll warn you when the moment is getting close. In any case, there’s absolutely no need to panic right now!

At the moment we’re also still processing all the applications from artists who want to play Left of the Dial (and there are LOADS of them), and meanwhile we’re thinking about the pro tickets, the music conference, The Official Unofficial, and how to improve the website. As soon as we have news on any of that, we’ll be back in touch. But for now, we mainly want to wish you a few lovely final weeks of 2025!

Big love,
the scheduling department of Left of the Dial

THE GRAND OPENING

 (spoiler alert)

The past few days, we’ve been trying to decide whether to tell you exactly what’s going to happen at The Grand Opening or to keep it all a secret. And the Dutch expression “to make someone happy with a dead sparrow” often came to mind.

We feel we’ve got something extremely cool planned, but we don’t want to disappoint anyone and we totally understand that sometimes things are more important to us than to the rest of the world.

So, if you really like surprises and want to join The Grand Opening regardless of what we’re planning, please be at the City Stage (Stadspodium) on Thursday at 18:30h sharp. Make sure to pick up your wristband first and walk over to Grotekerkplein, where you’ll also find the statue of Erasmus.

And stop reading now.

If you want to know whether it’s worth your time and effort to join The Grand Opening, please read on…

As you know, Left of the Dial is named after a song by The Replacements. The song isn’t exactly well known, but it fits the festival perfectly. That’s why we felt it was our duty to get more versions of Left of the Dial out into the world. Our friends from Deadletter, for example, kindly covered the song at our request. Last year, we even had an old-fashioned Dutch barrel organ AND a church organ play Left of the Dial at the Grand Opening.

This year, we wanted to do something even bigger. Or rather, more public. So, we went to the one place we could think of that plays relatively loud music outdoors:

The Laurens Church.

The Laurens Church was built between 1449 and 1525. It survived the bombing of Rotterdam during the Second World War, although it was badly damaged. By the late 1960s, it had been renovated, and a carillon with 49 bells was installed.

And that carillon with 49 bells is going to play Left of the Dial on Thursday.

We totally understand if that seems a bit lame to you, but to us it’s kind of mind-blowing. We’re not the biggest festival in the world, and it may sound stupid, but having this iconic Rotterdam church play our song feels like a triumph.

After hearing the carillon play Left of the Dial, we’ll lead the way to either Arminius (to see Mên An Tol), or Waterfront (to see Honk). Naturally, we’ll have some snacks and small presents ready to make it all feel even more Grand Opening-y.

In our minds, it’s already the Grandest of Openings, and it would mean a lot to us to see you all there.
But if it’s just us standing there crying happy tears, that’s totally fine too and we’ll just catch you at one of the other 317 official shows during the festival. 

Big love,
The carillonneurs of Left of the Dial

HOW 1 GRAND OPENING TURNED INTO 3 MINI OPENINGS

(but still pretty grand) 

Just like last year, we want to have a Grand Opening. Nothing too fancy, just something fun to officially kick off the festival in Left of the Dial style. In fact, we even announced it on the Extra Extras page of our website months ago.

But once we’d finished putting together the timetable, we realised the festival would actually be starting with three different bands in three different venues. For various logistical reasons we won’t bore you with, there was simply no way around it.

And as all three bands are equally amazing, it didn’t feel fair to pick just one for the Grand Opening.

What to do?

As always, the solution was quite simple: A Triple Grand Opening! (but a bit smaller)

We’ll share the exact details later, but the idea is to host three Mini Openings while trying to cater to two different types of ticketholder.

TYPE 1
If you’re the kind of person who mainly wants the reward of being the very first through the door, pick up your wristband early and head to either Waterfront, Annabel, or Arminius well before opening time. The first people in line at each of those venues will receive a small token of our appreciation.

TYPE 2
For those of you who are more about the whole communal feeling of opening the festival together, we’ll hold a short gathering somewhere near the ticket desk. After a brief opening ceremony (blink and you’ll miss it!), we’ll set off in a festive walk in three groups towards either Arminius, Annabel, or Waterfront. 

Sounds pretty lame? Yes, indeed!

But we’re going to make it fun somehow. And we’re also going to explain it a lot clearer in a next post closer to the festival, but we felt it was best to already give you a heads-up.

Big love,
The Pied Pipers of Left of the Dial