Awakenings festival
June 22nd, 2009
This year’s Awakenings festival is sold out, as expected, as techno fans from across Europe and even as far as North America have bought their tickets for the 4 stage party this Saturday on June 27. Taking place just outside of Amsterdam, 
this year’s edition like last will feature 2 open air stages and 4 tented areas with artists including Dave Clarke, Speedy J, Sino! live (Technasia & Dosem) Heiko Laux & Steve Rachmad, Marco Carola, Bas Mooy, Mauro Picotto, Joris Voorn, Alex Under, Adam Beyer, Cari Lekebusch, Magda, Oscar Mulero, Secret Cinema,Carl Craig, Slam,Gayle San, Ben Sims & Surgeon(Frequency7), Rolando, Stacey Pullen, Misstress Barbara, Miss Djax, Pet Duo and many more set to perform. I’ve been looking forward to going again this year for some time now, it will be nice to see a lot of familiar faces this weekend and 6 stages of solid techno lineups! Many of the sets should be recorded as well. www.awakenings.nl
Free Your Mind festival in Arnhem is happening this weekend on Saturday, June 6. Artists scheduled to perform on the numerous stages include Steve Rachmad, Ben Sims, Derrick May, Secret Cinema, Felix Krocher, Wouter de Moor, Speedy J, Len Faki, Bart Skils, Joris Voorn, Kenny Larkin, Marcel Dettman & Ben Klock, Martin Buttrich, Remy, and many more. The full lineup is on the FYM website (
This year the 5th edition of the Rockit Open Air festival will be happening on July 25 in Utrecht. The event follows the other major Dutch festivals in July - Dance Valley and Extrema which are the previous two weekends. Many familiar names on this year’s lineup including Steve Rachmad, Joris Voorn, Oscar Mulero, Remy, Derrick May, Darko Esser, Extrawelt, Felix Kröcher, Henrik Schwarz, District One, Michel de Hey, Derrick Carter, Marcel Dettmann, Steve Bug, Alex Under and more. For more information visit the Rockit website: www.rockitopenair.nl
The initial lineup has been released for some time now and there are definitely some solid techno options at 
the Gloabl Gathering UK weekend festival, this year taking place on July 24 & July 25. Some of the numerous acts scheduled to perform so far over the course of the two days include: Carl Cox, Orbital, Prodigy, Joel Mull, Richie Hawtin, Magda, Gaiser, Loco Dice, Tiga, Sebastian Leger, Dubfire and many more! I am not typically that keen on the multi-day festival thing but I have heard great things about this legendary event over the years, so hopefully I will make it there someday! For the full lineup and more information visit the Global Gathering website: 
Milan isn’t known as much of a hotbead for techno compared to some other Italian cities, but on June 13 the first edition of the Maximal Festival will take place at a 6 room venue just outside the city. The lineup is quite impressive, with the different areas described by the promoters as: ”one exclusively for techno creators 
coming from Detroit, one for nowadays European minimal music, two stages dedicated to stronger vibrations thanks to the collaboration with the two mayor hard techno labels of the world, Kne’Deep and Bullshit Bookings, a room dedicated to the European sound and aBasstation (promoter of the first Italian festival of the kind: “Stay Up Sardinia festival”) while the last is going to host the main artists of the electro scene: German, Dutch and French.”. Artists set to perform include Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Scan 7, Dave Clarke, The Hacker, Funk D’void, Monika Kruse, Len Faki, Alex Under, Valentino Kanzyani, Pet Duo, Miss Djax, Frank Kvitta, DJ Bold, The Madox, Frank Kvitta vs. Boris S., Space Djz, D.a.v.e. The Drummer, Zina & Mandy, The Advent vs. Industrialyzer, Rino Cerrone vs. Markantonio, Bas Mooy and many more! I won’t be going unfortunately but hopefully the sets are recorded anyway. For more information visit: 
This year the fan-favourite Piknic Electronik weekly event in Montreal is entering its 9th season and has just released a very impressive lineup kicking off later this month until October. Many talented Canadian and international artists are set to perform at the Sunday events including: Mr Scruff, Thomas Fehlmann, The Mole, Ricardo Villalobos, Zip, Sonja Moonear, Bill Patrick, James Holden, Richie Hawtin, Barem, Joris Voorn, Justin Long, JT Donaldson, Alex Under, Damian Schwartz, Amon Tobin, Paul Kalkbrenner, Dusty Kid, including well-known Montrealers such as Mateo Murphy, Misstress Barbara, Creator, Pheek, Mini and many more. Each year the event seems to grow in popularity and has since spurred a similar winter event called Igloofest. For the full weekly lineup via video press conference visit: 
I haven’t posted a ‘blog’ entry this year yet but 2009 has been off to a fantastic start so far! Travel-wise I went to Stockholm for a few days in early January for a change of scenery and it was well worth the trip! Then in February I managed to catch some rays with my family in the Dominican Republic which was really nice, followed by my first trip back to Canada since moving to Europe. In a few weeks I will be in Lyon for a work conference but unfortunately it is the week before Nuit Sonores which would have been a happy coincidence. My father was just here visiting for the first time and I used the occasion to finally make it out to the Keukenhof gardens in Lisse. Millions of beautiful flowers covering a vast public garden, it was stunning!
Lazarus and Tobi Neumann. Other Queen’s night/day options in the Netherlands include an Electric Deluxe party in Rotterdam with Speedy J, Chris Liebing, Richie Hawtin, Marco Carola 
and Len Faki, then in Amsterdam there is also a party at Melkweg with Bart Skils, Marco Carola, Martin Buttrich and Sneak plus a Circo Loco party on Queen’s day featuring Raresh, Tania Vulcano, Warren Fellow and many more. U60311 in Frankfurt has a solid May Day Swedish lineup with Adam Beyer, Jesper Dahlbäck and Cari Lekebusch.