23 May 2025

QUADRUPLE GIN AND TONICS

(a cautionary tale for alcohol drinking Brits)

Every year, we’re surprised by the large number of double gin and tonics, or double rum and cokes that are ordered in our backstage bar.

Don’t get us wrong, Left of the Dial artists work hard and they deserve to drink whatever they want, but still… why would you risk alcohol poisoning when you’re playing a festival?

A couple of days ago, we had somewhat of a small epiphany when we suddenly remembered that when you order a mixed drink in England, you’re always asked whether you want ‘a single or a double’.

And that if you order a single, you only get a thimbleful of alcohol, but that a double looks pretty much like the standard Dutch size.

So we finally realised that we've been giving unsuspecting bands quadruple mixed drinks for years, which explains a lot about the state some band members are in when they leave the backstage bar.

What can we say, you live, you learn and this year we’ll instruct our bar staff to always check if someone wants a British, or a Dutch double.

Big love,

The accidental enablers of Left of the Dial

10 May 2025

PAY BANDS, NOT BANKERS

(our small resistance to money grabbing institutions) 

Nothing essential for your Left of the Dial experience, but someone pointed out that any form of anarchy, however small, is always worth sharing, so here we go: 

One thing that has always really bothered us is banking fees. If we want to pay an invoice from a foreign country, such as the UK for example, it costs about €20.

We understand that one has to pay for a service, but it’s not as if someone from the bank gets on a boat to London to deliver an envelope with our money. It’s all basically nothing more than communicating computers, so why is there such a ridiculously high fee?

It probably has something to do with the salaries of senior bank managers. They make hundreds of thousands, or even millions, a year.

That’s another thing that bothers us. We firmly believe that the world would be a much better place if money was distributed more evenly.

That’s why we've made it a point to try to spend less on banks.

As a festival and as a venue, we book hundreds of foreign bands every year, and almost all of them need to be paid via bank transfer. The agencies that represent these bands have the habit of splitting the fees into two equal amounts: a few weeks before the show you pay a 'deposit', and immediately after the show you transfer the remaining amount.

With a regular club show, that remaining amount sometimes changes because, for example, more tickets have been sold than initially estimated. But much more often it’s simply a fixed fee and you end up transferring the same amount twice.

Which means you have to pay a transfer fee twice.

We’ve started explaining to artists that they should just send one invoice for the total fee. We’re a trusting bunch, and we’re happy to transfer the full amount as soon as they send the invoice, even if it’s months before the show. And if we book multiple artists through one agency, we’ll try to pay everything in a single transfer.

For a bank employee with a top salary, it’s less than peanuts, but we managed to save about €4,000 in bank costs last year.

And that money was spent entirely on our festival.

We know, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't amount to much — but you have to start somewhere if you want to make the world a better place.

Big love,

The Robin Hoods of Left of the Dial