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

WE’RE A ROTTERDAM-BASED FESTIVAL AND WE’RE GONNA SHOW IT

Just when we were about to announce that we’re adding an extra day to Left of the Dial, specifically for Rotterdam artists, Iggy Pop mentioned his love for our city in his BBC6 radio show. Sometimes things come together in an unexpected way.

The extra festival day is on Wednesday 21 October. Only Rotown and Bar3 will be open and the lineup will consist entirely of Rotterdam-based bands. The evening is free for everyone who already has a Left of the Dial ticket. (However, because capacity is limited, you’ll still need to reserve an additional ticket, free of charge)

The main reason we’re adding an extra night is that we felt bad about a decision we made a long time ago. Although, it made sense at the time.

At Left of the Dial, we try to introduce audiences to artists they might not normally get the chance to see live. At first, most of our ticketholders came from Rotterdam and the surrounding area, so we tried to give them loads of foreign bands to get to know. After all, they could catch most local bands in venues nearby throughout the year. So, it seemed like a perfectly good reason to keep those local artists to a minimum. 

Nowadays, more and more ticketholders come from abroad, including a wide variety of music professionals who can open doors to more shows, record deals, and all the other things that help build a career in music. All those people rarely get the chance to see Rotterdam artists, so to put it a bit dramatic: we’re basically denying our own local community the chances we offer bands from further away. We may not be too fond of chauvinism, but this is kind of the other end of the spectrum.

Now, we could simply have started putting more Rotterdam artists on the lineup, but we felt that, to make up for lost time, we should give our local stars some extra spotlight this year. But that’s not the only reason we decided to add the Wednesday specifically.

Like we said, the festival attracts quite a few music professionals, and many of them prefer to check out bands on a Wednesday rather than on a Saturday. Simply because their jobs already have them travelling and attending shows constantly, and every now and then it’s nice to spend a weekend at home. So that’s another good motivation to start a day earlier.

But all said and done, it’s an experiment. We have no idea yet whether adding a local focused Wednesday is something you’ll be excited about. Maybe Rotown will be at capacity in no time, or maybe the only people there will be the Left of the Dial team. Both are very possible. But there’s only one way to find out, so we figured we’re just going to give it a try this year.

(If you already have your Left of the Dial 2026 ticket, you’ll receive instructions on how to claim your free additional ticket soon.)

Big love,
The local supporters of Left of the Dial