A VENUE UPDATE

(sometimes enough is enough)

Probably the most newsworthy thing about this post:

With the confirmation of all 26 stages, we finally know the exact capacity of Left of the Dial 2026. At this very moment, we have 665 general admission tickets left. Once we reach the last 350 tickets, we'll move to the final price tier, which obviously means that right now there are only 315 tickets available at the current price.

The over-explanatory bit:

Let's start with the great news that, as of today, all 26 venues for Left of the Dial 2026 are confirmed. Which, in all honesty, feels like a huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders.

The last venue we've added barely needs an introduction. It has been part of the festival for several years as 160K. It just took a little longer to confirm this time because it recently changed owners, and with the new ownership came a new name: Barrio. We've seen quite a few legendary shows there over the years, so we're extremely happy to have them on board again.

We also had our eye on one more venue. Or rather, not a proper music venue at all, but an old cinema right in the middle of the city centre. The building had been sitting vacant for years, which feels quite outrageous for such a central location, if you ask us. We figured that if we could show its potential as a music venue during Left of the Dial, maybe it would set some wheels in motion.

For months we tried. We'll spare you the details, but let's just say we got close. For a long time, we were 99% sure it was going to happen. Unfortunately, a couple of days ago, the owners of the building suddenly decided we weren't welcome after all. Some corporate decision. Nothing we can do about it.

At first, we felt a little defeated. We always have a tendency to want more, go bigger and do things differently. But mostly, we really wanted to show you a side of Rotterdam you may not have seen before. Even if it meant fixing up a venue without running water.

But then we started thinking: we already have so many great venues. We even have one with a view of the Erasmus Bridge. We'll have three churches, proper music venues, nightclubs, a salsa school and whatnot. Maybe that's enough. We still have tons of other stuff to do, so for once, let's not complicate things and just be happy with what we've got.

Don't get us wrong, we still say: fuck corporate decisions. But we won't let them stand in the way of the greatest festival ever. Because yes, if it's up to us, this is still going to be the best edition of Left of the Dial so far.

We'll do everything we can to make that happen. All we need from you is to show up in October, give the artists your undivided attention, and keep the Drunk Uncle-ness to a minimum.

Big love,
The retired venue hunters of Left of the Dial 

WE ARE HUMAN AND WE NEED TO BE LOVED

(a year of non-stop happiness)

It wasn’t our best week. Nothing terrible happened, but things weren’t going to plan. Deliveries getting lost, laptops crashing, people cancelling really important meetings about venues… just the usual small things that are sometimes harder to handle than at other times. We’re only human after all.

But then we saw an interview with a Dutch comedian.

He said that if he plays a show in a theatre and 800 people have enjoyed themselves for an hour and a half, he has created 1,200 hours of fun. 

That got us thinking.

Including artists, crew, volunteers and ticketholders, roughly 6,000 people come to Left of the Dial. If they all have at least one great hour a day during the festival, we’ve created well over a year of full-time happiness.

That got us all motivated again. Forget about laptops and meetings. Next week we’ll be back, working harder than ever to stretch that one great hour a day into two great hours. Maybe even three.

Big love,
The optimists of Left of the Dial 

ROTTERDAM HAS TOO MANY TALENTED ARTISTS

(not in general of course, only when it comes to the Left of the Dial Wednesday)

At the Left of the Dial office, things usually go like this: we come up with something small that would be fun to add to the festival. We all agree that this small thing is manageable, both logistically and financially, and get to work. Then, a few weeks later, somehow this small thing has turned into something much bigger, and we're all working three times as hard to make it happen.

That's basically how the Extra Extras came about, and it's also why we ended up publishing a 300-page magazine.

More or less the same thing happened while planning the Left of the Dial Wednesday.

A while ago, we explained at length why we added the Wednesday to the festival, but in short: we just wanted to showcase some of the amazing artists we have in Rotterdam. For free, so they would be guaranteed a substantial crowd. We figured we'd put two bands in Rotown and two next door at Bar3, and that would be it.

The free tickets were going fast, so we decided to add another venue to create some extra capacity. At the same time, we were trying to select the Rotterdam artists we wanted to invite, and that turned out to be the biggest challenge. There are so many Rotterdam-based artists who absolutely deserve your attention that picking only six bands was extremely difficult.

So we did the one thing we promised ourselves we wouldn't do: we expanded the Wednesday once again. We swapped Bar3 for a bigger room and added another venue. And while we were at it, we also decided to have three acts at each venue.

This means:

The Left of the Dial Wednesday will now take place in Rotown, Uniek, Stalles (fka Centraal) and the glorious Arminius. On Friday, we'll announce the lineup, consisting of 12 artists. Still nowhere near enough to properly represent the Rotterdam music scene, but we have to start somewhere.

If you're still looking for tickets for the Wednesday, here's the important bit:

The Left of the Dial Wednesday was sold out, but now that we have four venues, another 100 tickets will become available after next week.

The tickets are still free, but there are two requirements: 

-          You need to have a Left of the Dial 2026 ticket

-          You need to sign up for the waitlist, which you can find on our website

 In next week's newsletter, we'll explain all further details, so please keep an eye on your inbox. And your spam folder, where our newsletters tend to end up sometimes.

And before our DMs explode with even more talented bands from Rotterdam: sorry, the Wednesday lineup is complete. Maybe you'll get another shot next year, but that really depends on the success of this year's Wednesday.

 Because after all, it's still just an experiment. And if the 21st of October turns out to be the worst Wednesday night in the history of festivals worldwide, we'll probably do something entirely different next year.

That's a bridge to cross later. For now, let's just celebrate Rotterdam.

All hail to the Butt Plug Gnome!

Big love,
The vegan kapsalon-eaters of Left of the Dial 

A MESSAGE FOR THE PERSON WHO ASKED ABOUT THE 2027 DATES

(this is going to be confusing)

Left of the Dial 2027 (so not this year!) will take place on 14/15/16 October. And we're 99% sure also on Wednesday, 13 October 2027. 

We know, it’s still over 120 days until Left of the Dial 2026, and even a lot longer until the 2027 edition, so who cares? 

Well, one person does. The only problem is that we can’t remember who it was.

Some time ago, someone asked us about the 2027 dates because their job had a strict policy requiring people to request time off a ridiculously long time in advance. As it turns out, we gave that person the wrong dates. We checked all our DMs and emails to set the record straight, but found nothing. Maybe we accidentally deleted their message, maybe it was someone we met at a show somewhere. 

Either way, we wanted to say to that specific person that we’re sorry we gave the wrong dates, and that we hope your boss is a bit flexible and that you can still make it to Left of the Dial in 2027.

In case you’re wondering why we picked those specific dates, we’ll gladly explain, but be warned, it’s not the most interesting story. 

Somewhere in February, we posted about how Left of the Dial always takes place on the same weekend as Amsterdam Dance Event. 

We explained that we pick the ADE weekend for a very simple and practical reason: some of the venues we use for Left of the Dial usually put on electronic music, but since everybody who’s into that kind of music is in Amsterdam that specific weekend, they normally wouldn’t be open, giving us the opportunity to turn them into Left of the Dial stages for the weekend.

We never know when ADE will take place, but they’ve been pretty consistent in picking the third weekend of October, so when this person asked, we were still convinced that’s when Left of the Dial 2027 would take place.

Until this week. 

Since venues are a bit scarce in Rotterdam, we always try to confirm the bigger ones well in advance, but now we heard that one of them wasn’t available on the third weekend of October. That made us think.

We’ve always chosen that weekend so we can use certain venues, but a few of them have closed, and others have told us that bar sales are so good during Left of the Dial (thank you, beer drinkers!) that we’re welcome any date. 

Basically, there’s no real reason anymore to stick to that specific weekend. 

We felt really bad that we gave someone the wrong dates, but in the end, it really came down to picking the days when the most venues were available. That turned out to be 14/15/16 October 2027. (And like we said, most likely October 13 too, but we’ll save that for another time.)

You didn’t ask, but now you know!

Big love,
The date changers of Left of the Dial

PS1: Just to be sure: Left of the Dial 2026 still takes place on 22/23/24 October. And also on Wednesday October 21. You need an extra ticket for the Wednesday though and they’ve sold out weeks ago. Sorry.  

PS2: Unless ADE also decides to change their dates, their festival and Left of the Dial 2027 will take place in different weekends. Which is probably great news for the 3 people who have complained about always being torn up between the two.  

STAGE FRIGHT

(how anxiety got in the way of our golden rule)

We know that we’re far from perfect and we do mess up a lot of things, but one of the rules we feel is kind of sacred is that every show starts on time.

At Left of the Dial, a huge number of bands play and most ticketholders have spent months planning which bands they’re going to see. Therefore, the least we can do is try everything in our power to ensure that every artist sticks to the schedule.

Our stage managers are pretty amazing, so most of the time things run smoothly. Every now and then, an overly eager artist jumps on stage too early, and it has happened once or twice that a set ran a little late due to technical problems.

Since 2018, over 700 bands have played Left of the Dial, and there has been only one band that started late due to something we did not see coming: stage fright.

The band in question arrived at the venue right on time and everybody seemed happy and relaxed. Except for the singer. He was panicking because the venue was empty. He thought that it was because everybody hated his band.

Our stage manager explained that at a festival, people roam from venue to venue and always leave as soon as a band is done playing, but that up until now, the room had always been packed as soon as the next band started.

This didn’t reassure him at all. He was convinced that they were actually going to be the first band of the festival to play to a completely empty room.

The band set up their gear and the singer wandered off. By the time the band was supposed to go on, he was nowhere to be seen. The stage manager and the band members searched the venue for a good ten minutes before they found the singer.

He had locked himself in a toilet and said he had no intention of ever opening the door again.

Luckily, this particular stage manager is a father of three and used to dealing with every level of anxiety. He persuaded the singer to come out just to take a quick peek at the room. If he didn’t like what he saw, he could go straight back to the toilet, the stage manager promised.

The singer opened the door and walked to the stage. When he saw the room was packed, he started smiling. Without hesitation, he jumped on stage as if nothing had ever happened.

A good 20 minutes late, though.

Now we didn’t tell this story to shame the band and we’re certainly not going to name them. We also hope you’re not going to try and guess who they were, because that’s not the point.

What we are trying to say is that we’re all doing the best we can, but at the end of the day it’s the artists who have to get up on stage and play their songs for you in the hope that you’ll like them.

That’s scary as hell.

 So support them as much as you can. The easiest way is to be quiet when they play softly, dance when they play loud and cheer after every song.

Just be that wonderful crowd you’ve always been and show newcomers how it’s done at Left of the Dial.

 Big love,
The Punctualists of Left of the Dial

PS: To all future Left of the Dial artists, we’d like to say: get in early, don’t wander off, and, if needed, get your stage fright under control, because whatever happens, you’ll still have to start your set on time!