It’s great to be back on the beaches of Zandvoort for the 14th edition of Luminosity Beach Festival after a 5-year hiatus. Moving a little closer down the beach to Beachclub Bernies. Day 1 saw 3 of the 4 stages open: The massive Mainstage, Beachclub Bernie’s, and Copacabana (near the beach and toilets). There was plenty of room to move around, and traversing to each of the stages took no more than a few moments to get a taste of everyone’s favourite artists.
The weather was overcast with temps around 20C (70F for us Americans) and the energy of the Trance Family was in full force! Though COVID saw the festival take a 2-year break and return in 2022, the feeling from the Trance family is that this year was the one everyone has strived to make and reconnect with each other in the flesh. That was particularly exacerbated thru the fuel of artists taking to mediums like Twitch to not only share their love of music but stay connected to their fans – myself being no exception having started streaming at the onset of quarantine and ever since meeting so many people online that now was able to see each other in person.
Those here last year (like our good friend Laurens who is celebrating his 12th time attending reported that the layout was the same, with lockers right inside the gate, a stage by the beach club, and a main stage down by the water. Complete with walkways akin to what would be found at your typical festival to traverse the sandy hill, there were plenty of significant viewing areas, sitting spots and hammocks, and room to dance.
To avoid schedule conflicts, being constantly on the move to hear the different artists as well as catching up with friends meant a solid 15000 steps clocked experiencing the amazing vibes from uplifting to tech, with emotions running high for sets like Factor B and XiJaro & Pitch, to the harder fives from the likes of David Forbes and Liam Wilson, newcomers like BIXX, Kenny Palmer, and Robbie Seed to the legends like David Forbes, John O’Callagan and Giuseppe Ottaviani. The biggest surprise of the day was Andrea Ribecca teaming up with his old partner Giuseppe for a surprise NU NRG back-to-back.