SOMEHOW THINGS ARE ALWAYS EASIER IN OUR MINDS

We wanted to do things a bit differently this year, so we figured, let’s kick off our lineup announcements with the extra stuff you can do during Left of the Dial; The Extra Extras.

Of course, our musical lineup will always be the most important thing in the world, but a lot of people put a lot of effort into coming up with ways to entertain you on those scarce moments you’re not at a concert, and their efforts deserve some special attention too.

Always optimistic, we told everyone that the Extra Extras announcement would be on January 20th, so there would be no turning back. Okay, the festival was still months away so it might not be the most urgent issue for most, but we thought how hard can it be to gather a bunch of cool activities and put them on a website?

As it turns out, not as easy as we thought.

We wanted to do film screenings again (and we will!), but it’s way too early to select the perfect documentaries yet. Our former intern definitely wants to put together another art exhibition, but they informed us that ‘the creativity wasn’t currently flowing like it should’. And apparently it’s really hard to convince venues with wooden floors to host a roller disco.

Another thing we wanted to announce was The Closing Ceremony. We always have a Grand Opening, and we thought it would be cool to also end the festival with an official ritual. So far we’ve learned that we can’t burn stuff next to the Buttplug Gnome and a lightshow of 2,000 drones is ridiculously expensive, but we’re still working on some other options.

To cut a long story short: we said we were going to announce the Extra Extras on Monday and we still will, but probably only half of them. More will follow later.

We hope you still give just as much love to these Extra Extras as you give to our regular announcements, because however incomplete, we still tried our hardest. And even though they might not seem like much now, they will make Left of the Dial more fun, we promise!

Extra love,

The ever attempting Left of the Dial crew

VERA GRONINGEN

 It will be quite a few days before we’ve got news to share about Left of the Dial 2025, so we figured why not take the opportunity to tell you a little bit about one of our favourite Dutch venues: Vera Groningen.

It’s in Groningen, which is an almost 3-hour drive from Rotterdam, so we don’t go there nearly as often as we’d like to, but trust us, if you’re in a band, Vera should be on top of your want-to-play-list.

Vera is run by the friendliest people ever who all genuinely care about artists, which is reason enough to fall in love with the venue, but there’s one more thing that always makes us a tiny bit jealous when we spend an evening at Vera: their wall of fame.

They have this annual poll amongst their ticketholders to determine the best show of the year. Since 1981, every poll-winning band gets their name painted on the wall of fame and we can only say that it’s a VERY impressive list. Their ticketholders have an amazing taste in music, because so many incredible bands are on it, it’s really mind-blowing.

The most mind-blowing part is that last year, our dear friends Tramhaus were added to the wall of fame.

You can sell a million records, or play a hundred sold-out arena shows, to us the biggest achievement will always be getting your name of the wall of Vera.

If you’re ever in Groningen, go to Vera. They continuously put on the best bands, and they serve cold beer for a reasonable price. It’s nearly impossible to NOT have a great night in Vera.

Especially next Wednesday…

Vera kindly invited the Left of the Dial DJ team (that’s us) to spin some of our favourite records, alongside our aforementioned buddies of Tramhaus, the dazzling Vera Siemons, and the DJs of the coolest outdoor festival ever: Misty Fields. Pretty cool, right?

Hope to see you on Wednesday!

Big love to you and to Vera,

The parttime DJs of Left of the Dial

PS: If you hate dancing, just wait for us downstairs in the basement bar. We’ll come hang out with you after as soon as we’ve put on our last record!