The Dutch city of Arnhem hosts the annual Free Your Mind festival, the kick off of the festival season of the lowlands. This year I decided to pay a visit to the festival's third edition to see just how this summer was getting started. Situated just a stone's throw from the city centre of Arnhem, beside the water, surrounded by trees, the festival area offered electronic essences on five different outdoor stages and tents.

The Rockit main stage was situated right at the entrance of the area, outdoors. This was home of the festival's more techno oriented offering with artists such as Steve Rachmad, Bart Skils, Marco Bailey and Michel de Hey performing. Next to it was The Republic of MTV tent, hosting for example Johannes Heil and Anthony Rother Live, whilst a bit further on the other side THM, True House Music, hosted its own tent with Roog, Erick E and Ricky Rivaro among others. Even further was the Sellout Sessions tent and right by the water front, underneath a bridge crossing the water, actually a bit separated from the other tents and stages, was the Mono outdoor stage. Sellout Sessions brought acts such as 16 Bit Lolitas, Don Diablo and Stanton Warriors on stage, whilst Mono presented Matthias Tanzmann and Karotte.

"Already at a first glance it seemed the festival had attracted quite some visitors, festival goers of all possible styles were roaming around the area, eating, drinking, dancing, and above all enjoying the festival life."

Amidst the tents and stages were the usual festival offerings of beverages and some unhealthy festival food including 'delicacies' such as fries and hamburgers, naturally. Considering that only a few days back, the weather had been more than chilly in the whole of Holland, the festival weekend presented a welcome change, as the weather was comfortably warm, not hot but not freezing either, the sky was a bit cloudy but at least I did not catch any rain falling, and even the sun revealed itself.

The festival fun had been going on for a while when I reached Arnhem. With quite some clouds in the sky I had been a bit worried about the weather, but as I came to the festival area it seemed nice and warm. Already at a first glance it seemed the festival had attracted quite some visitors, festival goers of all possible styles were roaming around the area, eating, drinking, dancing, and above all enjoying the festival life.

"Juan of the Sanchez brothers was shaking the crowd at the tent, which seemed to be overheating, with his blend of deep techno with snippets of minimal."

The Rockit stage was being heavily rocked upon my arrival, but as I saw that Mr. electro Anthony Rother was going to soon play the MTV tent, I headed there. Juan of the Sanchez brothers was shaking the crowd at the tent, which seemed to be overheating, with his blend of deep techno with snippets of minimal. The crowd was definitely having a blast, and I joined them finding my front row place right in front of the right side speakers. Having worked up a slight sweat with Juan's set, I already spotted Anthony getting ready to hit the stage for his live act.

The sound was great, with the bass trembling all over, and the crowd was totally into the Live electro madness. Love will change your life, the world needs you…the crowd was singing along accompanied by the familiar synth melodies and body slamming beats. The atmosphere kept rising, and even in a rock concert like manner someone jumped into the crowd, and everyone went along carrying him over their heads. Mr. Rother seemed very touched by the crowd's enthusiastic response, and was thanking the audience bowing his head before leaving the stage. I don't really know what it was in particular about that moment, but the feeling was just perfect.

"The atmosphere kept rising, and even in a rock concert like manner someone jumped into the crowd, and everyone went along carrying him over their heads. Mr. Rother seemed very touched..."

Then the Dutch house men Benny Rodriguez and Darko Esser took over the stage keeping the funky sounds going on. The crowd went on with the partying, but I felt if was time to chill out a bit, get some fresh air and beverages. I took a quick stroll around the area full of party people, and as the sun was peaking through the clouds, everything was right. A look into the Sellout Sessions tent showed that the crowd was just as up and going there as in the MTV tent before. Still hot from the electro experience, I decided to stay outside while it was still nice and warm. On the Rockit stage Voltt's own Bart Skils was working his magic, and making sure even if the sun did momentarily disappear into the clouds, the crowd would not be too cold. Bart's sounds were quite minimalist at times, but ranged into more pounding tech too. I just closed my eyes and let the beats move my tired and aching muscles. Skils seemed to be in a good festival mood rocking it on the stage and the crowd went totally along. After a while of Bart Skils, I headed for the Mono area to see how the crowd and the music were there.

Mono as in minimalist, yeah that was the sound that already reached me before I made it to the water front under the John Frost bridge. The German Matthias Tanzmann's sounds were swaying the festival goers at the small outdoor stage. The atmosphere here was a bit more peaceful than elsewhere, minimalist sounds, more minimal movement maybe. Right in front of the stage there was quite some shaking going on, but many people were sitting around a bit further, just listening, drinking, perhaps resting a bit already as the festival had been going strong for hours at that time. The breeze on the shore made this a bit of a chillier place to be, not only music wise.

"...Voltt's own Bart Skils was working his magic, and making sure even if the sun did momentarily disappear into the clouds, the crowd would not be too cold."

Time for Mr. Tanzmann's fellow German, rising name Karotte to take over. After a bit of a stumbling start, the man got into speed, but perhaps together with the chilly breeze, and a slight fatigue hitting in, the sounds were just too subtle to get me moving, enjoyable sure, but perhaps more for simply listening, or that is what it made me do at that time. So, I headed back for the food stands. Nurtured by a burger and some lovely caffeine filled cola I ventured into the MTV tent once again.

The sweaty hot atmosphere had not disappeared as Berlin's Andre Galuzzi was making the crowd wild. I thought it would have already been time for Paul Kalkbrenner's Live, but while waiting, Galuzzi was just great to hear too. Somehow this tent seemed to have a craziness to it, as right in front of the stage people were jumping, climbing the fences and shouting in party frenzy. Not a surprise at all that as Bpitch Control's Kalkbrenner came on, the atmosphere only rose, even leading to someone fainting right behind me some time into Kalkbrenner's Live performance. Melodic, simple and yet so driving. Kalkbrenner did not by no means disappoint the festival audience. Having planned to stay until the end of Kalkbrenner's set, the heat made me change my mind again. As I walked out, there seemed to be some technical glitch or something on the Rockit stage as it was silent for a moment. Not long though after I left the tent, Marco Bailey was back on track. As the evening started to darken, his techno sounds were just the thing to keep the people warm.

"Not a surprise at all that as Bpitch Control's Kalkbrenner came on, the atmosphere only rose, even leading to someone fainting right behind me some time into Kalkbrenner's Live performance. "

Enjoying the cooling Arnhem evening, I felt it was nearly time to head home. The festival was nearly drawing to a close, and still the people were partying on with their last bits of energy left. Just a bit to eat and drink, more clothes on and the crowd was ready for the last performances of the festival fun.

Looking back on the festival as a whole, I must say I found it most enjoyable. People seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves, going party crazy but not really causing trouble or behaving badly as far as I could see. The sound was rather balanced and good mainly at all the performances I heard, perhaps not perfect but very nice. Especially the many live performances were a treat, but the DJ sets worked just as well. Distances within the festival area were short, so it did not take ages to get from one stage to another. The food and drinks were just as they should be, drinks were even cooler than I had expected at a festival, while the burgers were nice and greasy. Not too much standing in line, no hassle.

All in all, a very nice start for the festival season in the lowlands in a most enjoyable setting beside the steadily streaming water.