Left of the Dial tries to be more than just a festival with a bunch of bands playing. Of course, music always comes first, but we want our ticketholders to experience something more. That’s why we have the Extra Extras for instance. An even better example of how we try to do things differently is the way we planned to set up the festival during the pandemic:
In 2020, with just a few days to go to the festival the government issued new regulations and we had no choice but to cancel the festival. We were absolutely gutted, because despite everything happening in the world, it was going to be the greatest festival. Due to all the restrictions, it was going to take place in 7 halls of one venue, and everybody had to be seated during shows. That was simply stated in the protocol. But that protocol didn´t specify what kind of chairs we had to use. And so, we had a room with wheelchairs, a room with exercise bikes and even a room with only rocking horses. We also had a room with a ‘one person wall of death’, and lots of more stuff to make people feel that they we’re finally at a real festival again.
It was going to be spectacular. And we essentially owe that to one specific person.
This person was one of the organisers of basically the first big European music festival, much like Woodstock. It took place in 1970, in our very own Rotterdam. Bands like Pink Floyd, T-Rex and The Byrds were playing to a crowd of 100,000 hippies. They had volunteers wearing shirts with ‘we help you’ printed on them to take care of everyone who lost their friends, took too many drugs, or had other problems.
Later on, this person organised another (indoor) festival in De Doelen, which is also one of the Left of the Dial venues. This was a blueprint for all festivals to come which wanted their punters to experience more than simply some shows. There were girls in bikini standing in giant plexiglass fishtanks filled with lemonade and each and every one entering De Doelen got photographed which resulted in collection with 6543 portraits. A rope was tied around the building and at one point set on fire, which made it appear as if De Doelen was burning down. Ask anyone who was there, it was a spectacular festival.
The person responsible for all this retired from festival organising a long time ago, but his work remains the reason why we’re always trying to come up with weird things to liven up the festival.
So as a small gesture of our gratitude, our volunteers will be wearing ‘we help you security jackets’ as a reference to the first festival he organised. Now, we know a few printed jackets aren’t all that special, but it’s our way of acknowledging that we’re doing nothing new, we’re really merely standing on the shoulders of giants.
Can’t wait to see you in October.
Lots of love,
The history respecting team of Left of the Dial
