Daily Newspaper of the North, August 26, 2002, p. 12

Cosiness drives out adventure at Lowlands

The tenth episode of the Lowlands festival in Biddinghuizen had to rely on the familiar formula. You had to search for adventure for a long time on the muddy festival grounds, so that a children’s choir could turn out to be one of the surprises.

By Rob Broere

BIDDINGHUIZEN • It doesn’t really matter what you put on a pop festival these days. The masses will come anyway and the modern musical omnivore will go crazy just as much for Korn and Flip Kowlier as for Brainpower or Ronnie Tober. That doesn’t mean that a pop spectacle that continues to profile itself as adventurous and innovative doesn’t have to live up to that in its programming. The previous editions of Lowlands already offered many established names and repeats, but at the tenth edition the new, special bands could literally be counted on the fingers of one hand. The newcomers that really matter at the moment, such as The Strokes, The Vines and Jazzanova, were at the English festivals in Leeds, Glastonbury and Glasgow and at the - completely rained out - Belgian Pukkelpop. The sixty thousand visitors of the festival in Biddinghuizen had to make do with Stereo MC’s, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Arid and Underworld, to name a few obvious ones. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, previously seen at Pinkpop, was the only representative of the new rock-’n-roll movement.

As mentioned, real musical surprises were few and far between. On Friday, the psychedelic Britrock of The Cooper Temple Clause provided the necessary excitement and the hips could loosen to the refreshing tango dance crossover of Gotan Project. On Saturday, it was the Arabic-tinted world beats of Ekova, the lounge and reggae of The Bees and the wonderful mix of ballads, chansons and hip hop of Gonzales that stood out. The children’s choir Scala, which sang a capella numbers by Muse and Björk, also provided a special experience.

Sunday started strong with dynamic guitar pop from Saybia and cinematic, jazzy postrock from Jagga Jazzist. Music for connoisseurs. Quite different from the hard nu metal of Korn, the poppy grunge rock of Nickelback and Incubus and the mass hysteria of Junkie XL. It was all played tight and expertly, but added little to what we already knew.

If the festival has so little to offer musically, what do people come for, you wonder? Certainly not for the theatre and dance performances, the literary readings and the stand-up comedy that you have to queue for an hour.

No, ask an average Lowlands visitor why he came, and he will say ‘the conviviality.’ For the beer, the rich nightlife enhanced by countless DJs, looking at each other, and for sitting in the straw with thousands of people watching the film Ali G Indahouse.

For the delicious food, too. Because the catering gets better every year, that must be said. For the conviviality, that is. For that, people happily stand crammed together on the campsite for three days, wade through the mud and let themselves be cheated out of - too much - money.

Whether Lowlands had become a family outing, Chris Korda recently wondered in an interview. The American DJ and pastor of the Church Of Euthanasia was banned from the festival because of his extreme ideology. He is not far off the mark. Not only are more and more children being seen - the first fruits of the Lowlands marriages? - but after ten years there seems to be little room for innovation and excitement. For the lover of exciting pop music there is little left to get at Lowlands. Isn’t it time for a new, small and adventurous festival?

• MUD FESTIVAL The heavy rain showers of Saturday left their mark on the terrain in Biddinghuizen where the Lowlands festival took place on Sunday. The area turned into one big stinking mud pool. The parking lot also looked battered. The organization hired farmers with tractors to pull stuck cars free. At the ‘sister festival’ of Lowlands, the Belgian Pukkelpop, the situation was much worse on Saturday and the camping site was evacuated.

The preceding is a translation. The original language is here.