Tour de Buiten Westen: Go back to the disco with PaardenKracht

Tour de Buiten Westen: Go back to the disco with PaardenKracht

Apr 18, 2012 |  by  |  Music
About the author
Ridz, advertises, produces indie/electronic music, performs throughout the Netherlands but ultimately always ends up at an Amsterdam based ensemble... then he blogs about all these things.

Overdose.am doesn’t just report about art, music, fashion and food. We get involved too. Under the name Next Monday’s Hangover (named after our weekly night life guide) we host electronic music festivals. Here, we offer a platform for local music and art talents with whom we try to create a different world. Next up: Buiten Westen, NMH’s new summer festival with Pleinvrees and more great partners. In the coming weeks we will interview the creative parties that we will work with for the festival.

Part 2: PaardenKracht – stage host

PaardenKracht is Pauline and Kunna, and once originated as a clothing brand. They looked for an enjoyable way of selling their products to people, like making a game out of it. They made T-shirts, sweatpants, toy jewellery, scarves and encouraged their customers to check out their stuff at festivals like VOLTT and Source. Since 2008 and on they’ve taken their brand to the next level by organizing extravagant photo booths, and in 2012 they are adding disco parties to their portfolio.

P: “There had to be some sort of activity when you approach our stand. That’s why our photo booth concept was born. People would use our clothing for the pictures, but instead of generating traffic to our own websites to sell our clothes, we were creating new profile pictures for everybody. We still see people who keep a profile picture we took at Source two years ago.”

K: “One business model led to the other and we now get to build extravagant backdrops for photo booths at festivals and other events, but also for certain brands and even for the most recent Boekenbal, where we made a last meal setting and people started throwing food at each other.

The cool thing is to see people who still have a profile picture we took at Source two years ago!\

How did you come up with a name like PaardenKracht?
P: “Basically, it’s a combination of our own names: Pauline and Kunna.”
K: “It’s a sturdy and strong name, just like our own personalities.” (Pauline laughs)
P: “But it also has that ‘My Little Pony’ feel to it. Okay I admit, I used to be a pennygirl back in the day..”

So how did you end up throwing your own club night?
P: “It started out with these events called SEEN in Paradiso together with BNN, where we got to host our photo booths in the upper room or the basement. We got to opportunity to invite some friends of us over to spin a few records in those areas.”
K: “We noticed photo shoots can get really awkward when there’s no music or drinks involved. If it’s quiet people are to scared to participate and do stuff.”
P: “People felt most comfortable when we played disco music in the background.”
K: “We did a gabber shoot once, but people didn’t really enjoy it. Disco gets people enthusiastic. So that was the cue to take it to the next level. At AIR this Friday we will host our first Horse Meets Disco.

The girls feel the need to emphasize the message behind their party; they’re done with the Melbourne shuffle and the fist pump. Their party is all about having fun on the dance floor like you did back in the day at your local ‘disco’. They also feel the dance industry is too male-driven, there are not many women involved in party organizations.

K: “Also, it’s about time guys started hitting on girls again with a decent chat and a dance.”
P: “Back in the disco days, people interacted socially on the dance floor instead of on Facebook.”

They’re also organizing an exposition featuring some of their favourite images of the last four years and will set-up a new photo booth that has never been done before (they refuse to tell me more about that). Apparently, AIR won’t be recognizable anymore.

Memorabilia

When I ask them about their most memorable PK moment, they simultaneously respond with Source two years ago.

K: “We built a beautiful farm with all sorts of props, fences, grass, etc. which cost a lot of money and everything got destroyed later that day during the storm that hit the festival.”
P: “Source was also the first event that gave us the chance to build our own little empire.”
K: “We literally had to flea with a car and leave our stuff standing there that day, but in the end the destruction added more value to the great pictures we still left.”

The featured image for this article was taken at Source that year.

Plans for the summer

P: “We hope this Friday will succeed and then we will take it outdoor this summer at a festival like Buiten Westen where we are honoured to host a stage!

Tell me more about your stage at our festival Buiten Westen!
K: “At Buiten Westen we’ll have our own bumper car disco tent and we plan to set-up an authentic fun fair booth. We always try to renew our themes. We never reproduce one and try to stay original.”
P: “For this occasion we booked one of our personal contemporary disco heroes Jacques Renault, we both really love the guy. Actually Kunna is the real disco encyclopedia, she constantly comes up with these upcoming disco names so she should tell you more.”
K: “We also booked Dropout Orchestra for Buiten Westen, they have these classic bootleg disco remixes which are really cool. We’re really excited about Jacques Renault and Dropout Orchestra headlining at our stage.”
P: “And be there early to see Roostervrij featuring Kunna herself and her brother!”

Experience the world of PaardenKracht this Friday at AIR or in the summer at Buiten Westen.

Buiten Westen

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