Q-BASE - Weekly Update #1 (English)

Control Towers - Open Air (Harder Styles)

The control towers located at the Open Air area at Airport Weeze will serve as the central direction of performances from the best Hardstyle artists from the Netherlands and Italy. These artists represent the most popular labels. The Fusion-affiliated Noisecontrollers and DV8 as well as Brennan Heart, another Scantraxx brainchild, give us their take on the upcoming Q-BASE event.

Noisecontrollers
'To be honest, we have never been to Q-BASE, but have heard so many good things about it. For us at any rate, it is a really special gig. Q-BASE was actually the first major event where our material was played, and by no one less than DJ Zany. That was in 2006, and a year later, we had already added thirteen different productions to this list. This is why we see Q-BASE 2009 as a great opportunity to see how far we’ve come production-wise.
If we had to picture what the festival is like, we would be thinking along the lines of a Decibel Outdoor or the Defqon.1 Festival, but then both during the day as well as at night. For an artist, performing during the day under a hot burning sun is great of course, but performing at night also has a mysterious quality to it. We will be performing in the Open Air area where we will do our best to make sure the visitors go as crazy as they can. The fact that the party will be held at a former military base guarantees that the atmosphere will be really unique once darkness has fallen. We’re really looking forward to it!’

DV8
'The very first edition of Q-BASE was where I made my debut as a host at a Q-dance party. Being fairly ‘green’ at the time, I had The Netherlands 1 area at my command, which was a pretty heavy experience for me back then. Since then, I have performed there every year, and apart from that, the German festival is the only Q-dance festival of which I have attended all of the editions as an artist. This is what makes Q-BASE all the more special for me. A lot has happened since my first hosting gig in 2004, and I have had a lot of really great experiences. But okay, I did work hard to get there. People sometimes forget that an MC really has to do his best to earn the position. This is why I think every MC who wants to be one of the greats must also work hard in the production end of the business. When it comes to producing decent records, some of my colleagues still have a long way to go. I’m now preparing for my sixth Q-BASE Festival. Since I’ll be allowed to do my thing this year again on the Open Air stage, I’m extra juiced about it. Fourteen hours may seem long, but with such a huge crowd of people partying right in front of you, the time really flies. What’s really cool is starting the night out together, and then closing the event together again, many hours later, as the sun is coming up. I think that this best summarises the Q-BASE feeling. Besides, there you are, standing on a stage, in close contact with the audience, so it can’t really go wrong, can it? See you guys on 12 September!’ We’re gonna rock the house!’

Brennan Heart
'Since the very first edition, Q-BASE has been the best closer of the festival season. The location and the atmosphere in Weeze are so unique. The tough image that the location has even when a party’s not being held is already pretty bizarre, let alone when you have a party here! When you walk around the venue in the evening and you hear the music blasting from the bunkers, you suddenly remember why you do it all. This year I’ll be spinning during the daytime at the ‘Open Air’. For me, this is the first time that I’ll be performing in this section. I can still remember that part of the runway really well from the stage where I performed last year. After a few hours, people probably don’t realise how wide that actually is! I just released my ‘Musical Impressions’ album, and I’m going to do a major tour all over the world in August and September. Even though Q-BASE is held in Germany, it still definitely feels like coming home for me. If I may compare what my album stands for with a certain festival, then I would have to say that Q-BASE and the album are pretty similar to each other. Both actually offer a broad range of music and provide a lot of really different impressions as a result. Over the last two years, Hardstyle has grown tremendously, and Q-BASE is a great reflection of what is going on in the harder styles. All I can say is that you absolutely cannot miss a party like this if you want to close off your festival season with any dignity!’