Zomerfruit Festival

So soon after my first Dutch festival experience I was presented with a second, unmissable opportunity; Haarlem's own Zomerfruit festival. Summer fruits festival, hosted at a small beach in Spaarnwoude (near Ikea!), was a local festival, promising largely Dutch musicians and DJs, however it was considerably larger than my first Dutch festival. Although this festival had the same number of stages as the last, they were larger - and excitingly promised music much more similar to my usual taste. Sadly the number one band I was most excited to see, Jack and the Weatherman, played before were able to arrive (as we still needed to complete our 6 hours for that day), but being local to Haarlem I hope to get the chance to see them play live before I have to leave.

Naturally we cycled there as a Hello I'm local gang, and put all our bikes together before heading to put our coats in a locker (pleasantly surprised at the absence of the forecast rain!), buy drinks tokens (cheaper than at Full Moon!), grab a bunch of beers, and scout out the stages.

VIP

munten

Expecting to discover some sort of explanation for the choice of the fruit theme, I never really received any answers, the stages seemed to be named arbitrarily after fruits for no real reason, but I did enjoy the pun-tastically cheesy "vitamine Bae" (the letter B being pronounced as bae in Dutch) complete with dancing strawberries on stage. This was the first band we were met with after finishing off our first beers, and it was a nice (if a little different) way to get warmed up into dancing like the crazy people we are.

Kuenta i Tambu at the PassievruchtPaleis

my favourites

Zomerfruit had a whole host of various food vans, market stalls, a stand to have your hair braided, a bouncy castle, a bean bag area, and several photo areas (pretty sure I saw one with a giant stuffed orangutan), but to be honest I was enjoying myself dancing with my friends so much that I barely gave any stands a second glance let alone getting any pictures. And, in the interest of total honesty, this doesn't bother me in the slightest - I was having so much fun, live in the moment and think about blogs later! 

a few stalls

beach area

vitamine Bae

roomie + one of my all time favourite dancers

peach stage

After dancing at the main Passionfruit stage, peach stage, and vitamine bae, we decided that our favourite area was that by the smiley face stage (not entirely sure of the proper name), featuring Girls love DJs (and other funky DJs from around the world) playing from a huge yellow smiley face with disco balls for eyes, at a stage set right on the beach.

smiley face 

throwing shapes

the team at the beach

The 4 second video surmising the entire day: me dancing poorly, Indiana Jones looking confused, and my roommate dancing seductively with his bread baby. Perhaps my favourite 4 seconds of video footage to ever be taken.

dancing soulmate

dancing video screenshots 

sofa on the beach 

Getting seriously carried away with dancing (and eating) meant that we actually missed the first 15 minutes of the headlining act of the evening; Opgezwolle. Although I'd never previously heard of this Dutch rap duo, in preparation for the event we had been listening to their most famous tracks in the hostel all week, and I'd become pretty excited to hear them live and experience the crazy jumping crowd reputed to form at all their concerts. They did not disappoint, and played a great show, and there was indeed lots of dancing and a crazy jumping crowd at the barrier to the stage.

Opgezwolle at Passionfruit stage

At the end of their set, I was once again met with what is apparently the common place in one-day Dutch festivals, the lights turned on and everyone left. This time, at just after 10pm - it was still light outside! Being accustomed to nights in London which do not end until the lights come on at 6am, and you are not home until 7.30, this is still not something I am used to and so it was strange to (literally) get on our bikes and head back to the hostel. Luckily there we were able to continue the festivities with some cozy drunk card games before I got to have my first experience of a traditional traditional Dutch pub across the street, and an interesting experience that was.

sad looking deserted peach stage at 10pm

At some time between midnight at 1am, I finally made it to bed, completely shattered (lots of thigh pain on the horizon from the dancing), but feeling very happy after an incredible day, with incredible dancing, and incredible people. I am so pleased to have taken the opportunity to attend this festival, and am so pleased to be in Haarlem. From the beautiful city, tot volgend keer!