A SLIGHTLY LIFE-CHANGING FESTIVAL

(in double hindsight)

In 2013, so five years before the first edition of Left of the Dial, we flew to Chicago to see one of The Replacements’ reunion shows. As you probably know by now, they’re the band after whose song we named the festival.

They hadn’t performed in over 20 years and were only going to play a couple of shows in the USA. Being the huge fans we are, we got on a plane.

They played Riot Fest, an outdoor festival not unlike any other festival we’ve been to, but the lineup was pretty amazing. We saw Blondie, Guided By Voices, Dinosaur Jr. and tons of other bands. 

However, the thing we loved most about Riot Fest was the way they spoke to their ticketholders. Their emails and website were refreshingly funny and honest. They created a world you just wanted to be part of long before arriving in Chicago.

After 2013, there was no real reason for us to go back to Riot Fest, but we kept our subscription to their newsletter and continued admiring the way they communicated. Time and time again, they proved there’s nothing wrong with doing things your own way. When we started Left of the Dial in 2018, we definitely drew inspiration from them.

Now, a couple of days ago, Riot Fest announced their 2026 lineup and, for the first time, four bands are playing who we consider ‘friends of the family’, meaning they all played Left of the Dial before.

It made us extremely happy in a weird, full-circle kind of way.

Which makes no sense, we know.

We could say it feels really special that friends of the family are playing the festival where we first heard Left of the Dial played live, but in all honesty, when we were watching The Replacements in 2013, we had no idea we were going to name our festival Left of the Dial. We weren’t even seriously thinking about organising a festival at all.

Besides, those friends of the family would have achieved everything they have without ever playing our festival and, moreover, they’ve played, and will play, hundreds of other festivals. Riot Fest will be just another show for them.

Still… it kind of feels like an achievement.

But enough of this embarrassing self-absorbed drivel...

We wish Gurriers, Deadletter, Remember Sports and Cardinals the best time ever in Chicago, and we hope that if they run into anyone involved in Riot Fest marketing, they’ll tell them that, in hindsight, they were slightly life-changing for a small festival in Rotterdam.

Big love,
The rioters of Left of the Dial

PS:
As it turned out, those ‘couple of reunion shows’ eventually became a European tour and, soon after Riot Fest, The Replacements announced a show in Amsterdam. So at the time, it felt a bit pointless that we had gone to the trouble of going to Chicago. But hindsight sometime changes and in today’s hindsight we know it was totally worth it.

 

DON’T BE A DRUNK UNCLE

(when has pointing out a poster to a drunk person ever been effective)

Let us start by saying that we’re really glad you’re reading this. Although, actually, we’re pretty sure you’re not the one we need to reach.

Please allow us to explain.

Generally speaking, the Left of the Dial ticketholders are the nicest people ever. People who truly look out for each other.

Like a family, almost.

Which is great, but most families also have what we’d like to call a Drunk Uncle. Someone who is usually a pretty decent guy, but turns into a bit of an asshole when drunk.

They start talking louder and their stories get way too long, they’re not as stable on their feet anymore, and endlessly repeating someone’s name in a funny voice suddenly becomes the epitome of humour.

However annoying, it’s still your uncle. And being annoying is no reason to kick him out of the family.

Just like being a tad annoying won’t get you kicked out of Left of the Dial.

Don’t get us wrong: there are clear lines that cannot be crossed. And if you do cross them, we’ll immediately confiscate your wristband and ask you to leave. Anyone with half a (sober) brain cell knows exactly what those lines are.

But being a bit loud, dancing over-enthusiastically, or showing the first signs of an alcohol-induced speech impediment is no reason to kick someone out.

That being said, a Drunk Uncle can still ruin a show for you, and we really wish there were an effective way to keep the Drunk Uncle-ness to a minimum, but it’s complicated.

You see, Drunk Uncles are hard to reach.

They’re not the ones reading this post. Nor our newsletters, website, or service emails in which we clearly state that we expect all our ticketholders to use common sense and behave themselves.

Drunk Uncles just buy tickets and show up.

Someone suggested putting up posters to remind everyone of our code of conduct, or house rules, or whatever you want to call them. But let’s be fair: when in the history of mankind has a poster stopped a drunk person from doing anything?

Someone suggested not serving alcohol at all. That’s not really fair to the people who can handle their liquor and besides… Drunk Uncle-ness isn’t always caused by alcohol. Some people are simply unaware of what others find annoying and are, in fact, Sober Drunk Uncles.

 In conclusion:

-  Not every Drunk Uncle is drunk, and usually they mean absolutely no harm
-  So have some sympathy for the Drunk Uncle, they’re only human too
- On the other hand, don’t be afraid to kindly ask a Drunk Uncle to tone it down
- If one of your friends turns into a Drunk Uncle, send them home
-  But if a random Drunk Uncle turns into a full-blown asshole, call our crew and we’ll take care of it

And finally: Drunk Uncle-ness can creep up on you, so don’t forget to take a good look in the mirror every now and then. Check that you’re not being a Drunk Uncle yourself and ruining someone else’s night.

Big love,
The tipsy aunts of Left of the Dial 

PS:
Just to be sure: Drunk Uncle is just a metaphor and not gender-specific, of course. It could also be a drunk sister, cousin, or whatever. And like we said, they don’t even have to be intoxicated. Drunk Uncle just has a nice rhythm to it. It doesn’t really rhyme internally, but it has a bit of sound symmetry. Whatever… please don’t be a Drunk Uncle!

THE TAYLOR SWIFT OF MUSIC FESTIVALS

(unimportant message about the Extra Extras)

The most important thing for Left of the Dial is obvious. We want people to discover as much new music as possible and we always put the artists first. 

That being said, we also understand that for the average person it might be a bit much to process about 150 bands in a single weekend. Some people probably need a little diversion every now and then. Some leisure activities, if you will. 

That’s why we have the Extra Extras. Small things to brighten up your day (or night). Often still including bands, but in such an unusual setting that you completely forget that we’re trying to force some of our new favourite bands down your throat. So far, it has always seemed to work pretty well.

But if we’re completely honest, there’s another, slightly more egotistical reason for the Extra Extras: 

There really is no better way to spend a work day than sitting around the office trying to come up with (usually nonsensical) ways to demonstrate our love for music, Rotterdam, and pop culture in general.

Sometimes in a really big way, like Bands on a Boat, sometimes smaller. 

The thing is, we like to think that we’re the Taylor Swift of music festivals. Maybe not as commercially successful, but just like the singer, we like to hide little surprises everywhere. If you look closely enough you might even find some Easter eggs. 

Some of those surprises are hidden in the Extra Extras that we announced yesterday. Other things are either so tiny, or so hard to describe that we won’t announce them at all. You just have to come to Left of the Dial to experience them.  

So, the Extra Extras are in large part for our own amusement, but we still very much hope you’ll enjoy them too. Most of them need more clarification than the typical band would, so over the next few days, we’ll highlight some of the Extras.  

And just to be sure: A lot of the Extra Extras are included in your Left of the Dial ticket and completely free of charge. You only have to purchase an additional ticket if we can’t make the event in question happen without the extra ticket income. 

Never for money, always for love. 

Big love,
The Tay Tays of Left of the Dial 

PS:
We briefly toyed with the idea of releasing 40 different versions of the Left of the Dial general admission wristband which our die-hard fans would all want to collect, so we could make some extra cash. But we’re not that much the Taylor Swift of festivals…

WE LOVE GREAT IDEAS

(and we would steal them if it only made sense)

Last weekend, thousands of people participated in the Rotterdam Marathon. It basically takes over the entire city centre and the spectators are partying like they’re celebrating King’s Day.

The one thing we love most about the event is that all the runners receive a race number to pin on their shirt that also includes their first name.

A bit like this: 

Maybe this is common practice for marathons all over the world (we don’t really know much about sporting events) but whoever came up with the idea is a genius.

For over six hours, the people of Rotterdam are cheering on random runners, shouting out their first names:

‘Only two more kilometres, Margaret!’
‘You’ve got this, Bob!’

It really is the sweetest, most heart-warming thing ever.

We also hear from friends who are amateur athletes that this kind of encouragement makes all the difference when you’re on the verge of exhaustion.

And of course that got us thinking…

The Left of the Dial family is a supportive bunch and our festival is kind of like a marathon.

Wouldn’t it be cool if we gave everybody the option to order their personalised race number?

For a minute or two, we thought that this was the best idea ever. How could this not strengthen the bonds of our already tight-knit community? We had visions of ticket holders rooting for fellow revellers who they’ve never met before:

‘Only two more bands, Margaret!’
‘Let me hold your glasses while you mosh, Bob!’

Then we weren’t so sure anymore. 

Was there ever a time that we actually enjoyed people randomly yelling out our names? We rarely need encouragement to go see the next band, and anonymously blending into the crowd is one of our favourite things about festivals. If that’s how we feel, it’s likely that other people also prefer a certain level of incognito-ness.

So, for now we’re going to put this idea on the back burner. Next week, we’re adding at least another 30 new artists to the Left of the Dial lineup, so we’ve got our hands full anyway. But in the unlikely event that we change our minds and suddenly offer Left of the Dial race numbers with your own name on them, you now know where the idea came from.

Big love,
The Concept Stealers of Left of the Dial   

HAVE WE TOLD YOU LATELY THAT WE LOVE YOU?

(sometimes all it takes is some stickers and a subreddit) 

This was supposed to be a post about how we’re going to start a Left of the Dial subreddit, but somehow it turned into a story about how much we love and appreciate you. That’s the way things go sometimes. Still, a small warning: if you’re not into that kind of mushy stuff, better stop reading now.

We’d like to tell ourselves that we’re tough and seasoned festival organisers who can handle just about anything. But sometimes the world just gets us down. Like last week. Nothing extremely bad happened, but lots of people were being unfriendly and it was just one mishap after another. It drove us into this tiny existential crisis. All we could do was sit around contemplating why on earth we were organising a festival and more importantly, for whom. Slightly pathetic, we know, but hey, we’re only human.

Then two things happened more or less simultaneously.

The printer mistakenly delivered our order of stickers twice. We figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask if anyone wanted some, but being in a dismal state of mind, we didn’t really expect any replies.

Boy, were we wrong.

Within minutes the messages came flooding in. Not only did dozens of you love the idea of receiving stickers, you asked for them in the most respectful and enthusiastic way. Trust us, that level of excitement combined with kind politeness is like a natural antidepressant.

One non-Dutch person even included a picture of their living room with a framed Left of the Dial poster on the wall. They admitted they stole the poster from one of our venues and took it all the way home to get it framed. That’s a lot of effort for a simple festival poster, which made it even better.

Around the same time, we were thinking about opening a Reddit account, or maybe a Left of the Dial subreddit, we weren’t sure. None of us are experienced Reddit users, so we had no idea, but we know that a lot of musicians use the platform, so we felt it was something we should learn more about.

In all honesty, we were mostly reluctant, because Reddit users can be quite harsh to newcomers and given our frail mental state we were absolutely not ready to be made fun of.

Trying to decipher the unspoken rules of Reddit, we scrolled through endless posts about music and festivals. Much to our surprise, someone posted an article about Left of the Dial months ago and 6 people responded in the sweetest, most appreciative, well-written and clever way possible. We had no idea who these people were, but they seemed to really understand the festival on a deeper level.

And that definitely answered the question why and for whom we’re organising Left of the Dial.

For you.

It would probably make more sense to tell this on the Sunday morning after Left of the Dial. But usually, that’s the moment we’re beyond tired and we can only think of some cliché like “thanks people, this was one for the books!”

So let us take a moment right now to tell you how much we appreciate your contribution to Left of the Dial, whatever it is. Whether you’re an early ticket buyer, a volunteer, a performing artist, an attentive listener, a late night dancer, a very vocal cheerleader, a quiet supporter, or one of our allies in any other way, we love you and you are the reason Left of the Dial is such an amazing festival.

You’re also the reason we feel confident enough to give Reddit a try now. If it turns out to be a depressing experience, we now know exactly what to do to lift our spirits. We’ll just order more stickers. Apparently, good things come from ordering stickers. 

Big love,
The psychoanalysts of Left of the Dial