Dekmantel’s festival line-up unveils their ambition

Jun 27, 2016 | by Maurice Dharampal | Event, Music

About the author

I’ve been a music hoarder all my life and it was I who coined the phrase: ‘Every genre has something to offer’ (patent pending). My main infatuations are House, Disco, Jazz, Funk, Hip Hop and every subgenre in between. As long as the tunes spark up a euphoric feeling. Writing about Music expresses my passion for the art.

Dekmantel readies for the fourth installment of their festival, which starts off August 4. Since last year’s innovative line up, with the likes of Madlib and the Roy Ayers Ubiquity, the dutch organization crossed its borders of representing House and Techno, and expanded to allure a wider audience, while still maintaining their keen eye on the underground. This has resulted in three successful editions in previous years. Over these past four years the daytime festival also evolved and now includes club nights over at the Melkweg.

Opening shows

To kick off the festivities, Dekmantel has invited Azymuth to perform at the Tolhuistuin a day before the festival itself. Hailing from Brazil, Azymuth incorporates the country’s samba and blends it with jazz-funk. You can still get tickets here, (which I absolutely recommend buying, because they’re one of my favorite bands.)

On top of that afrobeat legend Tony Allen will perform shortly after. Allen played an important role in the formation of Fela Kuti’s renowned band Africa ’70. These opening concerts alone are already outstanding, and show Dekmantel is trying to peer with the bar they set themselves last year. The opening program also includes a visual sound art film at EYE and other performances from the likes of James Holden and at the Bimhuis and Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, which you can check out here.

Uncloaking Dekmantel’s line-up

In regards to the day and night time program, Dekmantel made it really hard for everyone to pick and mention a few of the artists. You could actually argue that Dekmantel is (once again) bringing an all-star line-up together, welcoming both contemporary’s most wanted from the underground and those timeless artists you’ve always wanted to see. To make sure that no one gets left out, the line-up of both day and night events can be found below.

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I do want to highlight my personal favorite, which is the Saturday night at the Melkweg. With artists from the likes of Carlos Souffront, Sadar Bahar, Optimo, Esa and legendary house head Tony Humphries, it’s bound to be a funked up night filled with dance(floor) bangers and deep grooves.

It kind of goes without saying that Dekmantel will do what Dekmantel does best; provide us with a wonderful weekend full of international get-togethers, resulting in a diverse crowd and high quality musical performances. Dekmantel’s vision is both fixed on the increased scale of the festival due to its rising popularity, as on the small and the precise, working it meticulously down to the last detail. This is reflected in both the line-up as the stage setting and the additional activities across the city. While some tickets, like the three-day festival and night events tickets are sold out, there are still some available on their website, so grab ‘em while you can. I’ll be walking around the festival shooting flicks for Overdose and they’ll be up the week after.