This year, I’ve had the pleasure of attending what is simply the biggest, and arguably the best event in the harder styles of dance music. Renowned promoter Q-dance has once again hosted what is for many an unmissable yearly reuinion, making Defqon.1 2025 yet another one for the books.
If you are reading these words, you probably know me and my love for this event. Shortly after starting to listen to the harder styles, around 15 years ago, Defqon.1 has become my ultimate bucket list item. After years of wishing, waiting, and dreaming, Defqon.1 became a reality for me in 2019. Flash forward to 2025, and I’m fresh off of completing my 5th consecutive edition of this magnificent event. Never in his wildest dreams would teenager me thought he’d achieve making it to Defqon.1. That teen promised himself he’d attend the event at least once before dying, no matter what. And now I’m here, with several editions under my belt.
Anyways, enough of sentimental ramblings. Let’s get going… How was Defqon.1 for me this year?
Thursday
It’s the first festival day, and time for The Gathering. The day started with slight rain, causing some havoc in the camping grounds, and teasing us that we might just have the typical Defqon.1 weather right on the first day… This eventually didn’t materalise, and gave way to a fairly cool, cloudy day, giving ravers the perfect festival weather.
Upon arriving at the Walibi, I was pleased to see no lines and a Premium fast-lane explictly marked as such, joined together with premium camping options fast lanes, something that’s been hit and miss on previous editions.
Entering was a breeze, with a fairly lax security, controlling only people at random intervals.
It was good to see doors from the Wasted Lands to the actual festival floor opening earlier, which allowed me some time to get my locker and drop my things in there.
From there it was straight to the BLUE stage… I honestly think this year was one of the most stunning BLUE stages ever, with the center-piece being a round sphere (a nod to the round, but hollow top of the RED stage this year), a screen behind for some visuals, and the usual trademark Q-dance “blades”around it. The Gathering kicked off with the anthem, and the anthem marker as usual, however the show is already ongoing before DJ walks up to the booth – as things warm up, another artist is behind the scenes, sitting at the front of house, manipulating the ambient soundtrack you hear live before the show starts. It was a pleasure hanging out at the Premium deck and being able to watch JDX do his thing, making the pre-show atmosphere live, and even playing and teasing the anthem’s melody on his keyboard.
The crowd bursted with wild energy as Vertile stepped up to the stage to deliver a superb set, and the anthem rang through the BLUE’s speakers. But as this happened, I noticed something off – the superb L-Acoustics system was too bass heavy, which was later corrected by the team manning the stage, eventually presenting the superb sound quality we are used to. Another remarkable thing that Q-dance achieved on the BLUE stage was being able to set it up without any pillars, allowing for unobstructed view to the front from any point of the tent, something that wasn’t always possible before. This, while still being able to hang big and heavy moveable parts from the ceiling, containing LED screens and firework machines that are certainly not light. The show was amazing as usual, but I quickly noticed the fireworks on the tent’s ceiling made quite a few holes on the tent itself… Q-dance has certainly lost a lot of money right there and then to pay for the damages!
I wanted to both check out the BLACK stage itself, and a bit of Angerfist, which I did. Nothing prepared me for this year’s BLACK stage, which in my opinion was aesthetically superior to BLUE, featuring a gigantic dragon, with it’s head poking the dancefloor, in an almost provocative way, with it’s mouth wide open, making it seemingly ready to burst it’s flames through the whole tent! A marvelous sight to behold, along with the smaller details, such as the ghostly faces on the wings of this dragon, and the decoration that was suspended, which was essentially a representation of the dragon’s flames spreading through to the back of the stage. I believe this might even be the best BLACK stage Q-dance has ever designed.
In between stages, and as the day progressed, I started noticing that the venue was insanely crowded for a Thursday. I wasn’t the only one getting this impression, and for the past couple of editions I’ve noticed Thursdays seem more and more crowded. Initially, this wasn’t too bad, but actually became a bit of a problem this year, and I can say that at some point during this day it was almost impossible to go through thick crowds on the BLUE stage. At some point I had to quit doing so, and just try to plow through to the back of the dancefloor so I could reach the Premium deck, but that was surprisingly hard to achieve as well! Luckily this year Q-dance decided to provide extremely good accesses for disabled people in wheelchairs – next to the BLUE tent there was an extra, wide entrance, enabling these people to reach the decks. Given the insane crowds that were already present at the venue this day, and that blocked the usual access stairs, security allowed every Premium ticket holder to use accesses for disabled people, which facilitated movement a lot.
Speaking of improvements catering for disabled people, also important to notice that this year WC’s were completely equipped to cater for people in wheelchairs in both the BLUE and the BLACK Premium decks. The decks on both stages were also seemingly a bit larger than last year, which is a very welcome upgrade.
At this point, it’s no surprise I urgently needed some hydration… So off to get a water pouch. I went to do so, only to realise they weren’t being sold anywhere… I was at a loss for words with this massive failure from Q-dance, and was forced to carry a water bottle on my pocket for the whole weekend, which is doable, but far from ideal… I wonder what happened at the Q-dance HQ for them to take the decision to just not sell water pouches, after doing so for several editions in a row… Will have to take one of the older ones for next year, I guess!
After some hydrating, it was time for dinner too, and the new NFC bracelet system was an absolute blessing here. No more carrying tokens around, and payments are instant. Gone are the days of fiddling with lost tokens on the bottom of pockets, and at a flick of a wrist, payments are done… Important to mention the online bracelet top up system, that was quick and easy to use, as well as the physical top up machines, that replaced token machines on more or less the same places they were last year. Having an online top up system also means less physical machines are needed, compared to token machines, which means Premium decks can easily do without them – and benefit from the extra space not having these machines there allows.
Speaking of dinner, I believe food court distribution was one of the best the organisation was able to achieve, and in addition to that, lots more food variety was present in the festival this year. My personal highlight was the re-introduction of pasta stations, which is, for me, essencial festival food!
Thursdays are very short, and the day ended with some small confusion on the venue’s screens – the one near the day visitor exit said “no exit” at the end of the day, but these were fortunately open and I was able to use them to leave the venue for the day. This is understandable, in the sense that there are technically no day visitors on Thursdays, but there are still people who leave the premises to spend the night in external accomodations, and screens showing that there’s no exit through there may be a bit misleading for newcomers.
Friday
We move on to Friday, the first full festival day, and usually my favorite one. Security was a bit more strict that day, and was like that from then on. I had to go through a fairly quick body search, but through a fairly lenghty metal detector scan, which together with my shuttle departing towards the Walibi slightly later than the scheduled time, made me enter the venue a bit on top of the hour. To make matters worse, since I had a Weekend bracelet, and not a day visitor one, I was refused entry through the day visitor entrance, which had never happened before, and was a nuisance!
Onwards to the UV, to check a bit of Sephyx, and then over to one of the highlights of this year – the ORANGE stage! CRO & Steenwolk were absolutely killing it with some classic Trance vibes! It was also fun to see The Purge himself on the dancefloor at this stage, trading places with his manager… Artist on the dancefloor and manager behind the wheels of steel is certainly something you don’t see often! This stage was an absolutely impressive addition to the lineup, one that I’ve been yearning for for a while already.
Sadly I couldn’t stay for long at the ORANGE, but it was for a good reason – Alpha Twins were performing at the MAGENTA and did what was one of my favorite sets of the whole weekend!
One of the highlights of Friday is being able to finally see the RED. As usual, the genuises from Q-dance’s creative department delivered, and the RED was an absolutely visual spectacle. This year’s stage was essentially a follow up of last year’s renowned stage with the 5 Gods of the harder styles… This year, the stage was the God of all Gods, (or should I say, The Qreator…) and while it wasn’t as impressive as last year’s stage with it’s 5 towers, it was far more detailed, with the 8 pillars on the dancefloor each carrying additional decoration, in the form of a “guardian”, each holding a torch (with one of those torches simply failing to work for the whole weekend).
After gazing at the RED stage long enough, I turned my back to it to head towards the Premium deck, and something struck as odd immediately… The deck was fairly different from what it was in the previous 4 editions I attended. As I closed the gap towards it, I started noticing the balcony was way lower than it usually is. That bothered me considerably, and the matter of the fact was that the view from the balcony was notably downgraded. I assume the decision to lower the premium balconies was done in order to be able to accomodate the new floor on top of it, which had tables that one could book for an insane amount of money. While I understand that it is important to have this specific premium service not only to better serve customers, but also to search for additional revenue sources, and that attendees are paying big money to be able to have this new balcony for them, it pains me to see regular Premium customers were effectively downgraded just because this new service exists… There was no need to do such a disservice to some customers in detriment of others, especially because some of those booking tables on this floor might not even have a Premium ticket at all – they were free to book by any attendees. This downgrade will likely make many reconsider getting Premium next year, given one of it’s biggest advantages is mostly just not there anymore, and the fact that these types of tickets are getting insanely expensive nowadays…
With that being said, and speaking of Premium decks more generally, as the day went by I’ve come to realize these decks were less crowded than the past two years, which was extremely positive. Whether that’s due to better access control stemming from the new bracelet system, or from actually selling less Premium tickets remains to be seen.
My fridays are always a tight squeeze. I always want to spend as much time as I can at the MAGENTA (those who know me, know ‘raw’ classics are part of my story with this genre), but I was yearning to spend as much time as I could at the ORANGE… so I had a quick lunch and headed back there to check DJ Thera’s Tranceparency set, who smashed it out of the park with his new concept! After that it was a sprint back to the MAGENTA for Deetox, who as usual delivered an astonishing set, albeit not as diverse as the one in 2022, I’d argue. At this point I wanted to sprint back to the ORANGE for Geck-o’s album showcase, but being Friday, I decided to play it safe and rest for a while… I still had Bioweapon at the UV, and Digital Punk and Frequencerz at the MAGENTA in a row to attend! So I just strolled around the venue while eating some snacks, and eventually ended up at the PINK for a bit of Arcando and T & Sugah, both of whom were completely smashing the place! I’ve always thought the Bass and Hard Dance scenes connect well together, and the success of this stage just goes to show that!
After that, it was time for the MAGENTA, and the Frequencerz’s set was a once in a lifetime experience – it was their last set at Defqon, and everyone was just giving everything they had in the packed stage. Both Niels and Pepijn were very emotional, but Niels completely broke down half-way through the set, almost in tears, with the mic in front of his mouth, but unable to pronounce any words – a moment that’ll be forged in my mind for eternity.
Next, it was time for decisions… Some rest before 2 more insane sets, or go for DaY-Mar at the GOLD, Scot Project at the ORANGE, or Murdock at the PINK? As you can see, there was no shortage of overlaps for me this year, especially on friday… I decided to take some rest, and prepare for DJ Thera’s set, and Spoontech Classics, with the first one definitely being one of the major highlights of my weekend. Thera went really deep in his record collection and showcased a bit of everything, from all eras of Hardstyle. An interesting performance for an artist that has an absolutely wonderful career and amazing productions through the years.
One of the other impressive things I’ve noticed is that Q-dance managed to push the whole MAGENTA stage towards the back of it’s respective tent, similarly to what they did in 2022, but managed to do so without having the stage suffer from heavy soundbleed from the UV/BLUE, while still seemingly maintaing the tent’s size and position, which is honestly a remarkable feat (for those who are unaware, and to give some context, MAGENTA’s tent has been in the same place since 2022, and it suffered from heavy soundbleed that year. To correct that on the following two editions, Q-dance pushed the actual stage forward inside the tent, and had a fairly big empty space in between it and the back of the tent. This year they magically managed to not need that space to correct soundbleed issues, and effectively slightly increase useable dancefloor space on the tent)
At the end of the day, it was time to leave, and it was fairly easy to do so via the day visitors exit. Q-dance could’ve used the crew exit for attendee exits at the end of the day, which would shave a few minutes off getting out of the venue, in a year where shuttle busses were scheduled fairly early (more on that towards the end…). They did, however, do a bus exit right before the corridor towards the infamous bridge, which was very good.
Saturday
After a good night’s sleep, it was time to hop on towards the third day of the event, and things got a bit trickier with the entrances. Similarly to previous years, Q-dance changed entrances around, with the camping one being completely blocked, and no Premium fast lanes available. I went into the line at the bus entrance, only to come in and find out they were uncovering the camping entrance, right as they were opening the bus entrance, which was being made available to day visitors. Entrances were also made fairly late, and by the time I was done with security (which was fairly strict in this day as well) I was already slightly late (around 15-20mins) for the first sets of the morning
The day started with a tricky choice from the get go – Nightcraft or Serzo?
Since I had already seen Nightcraft twice (both in my home country!), I ended up going for Serzo, who did an absolutely smashing set! Fair play to him for having played D-Charged tracks (including a huge new collab between them) and also tracks from his Red Race coach, Ran-D! The meetup was pretty good, and worth the wait (I take it he was being interviewed for a Red Race follow up right after his set, so he took just over 20 minutes to show up after that).
By this point I only had time to check out half of Deetox’s set, this time at the BLUE, where she showcased her no BS, straight to the point style of sets, completely hooking the crowd into it.
After that, straight to the RED for Phuture Noize & Devin Wild. While the set was good, I prefer to see both artists individually, which I did in previous years, and enjoyed more than this set. After that, I couldn’t miss Zany at the MAGENTA, and had the pleasure of meeting him for the first time after. This man lives and breathes classics, and he’s certainly one of the main people responsible for not letting this genre’s history fade into obscurity. This set was one of those that made me go back in time, to when I was a teenager listening to the early Fusion releases… As the man himself told me when I told him the exact same thing I’m writing here: “Good old days, right?”. Exactly!
Then it was off to The Pitcher at the UV, but by this time I already had to ‘refuel’… The set was good, but I’d honestly prefer to see him at the MAGENTA for a set celebrating 25 years of the project, so I left early for a snack.
After this, it was Power Hour time… Since I’m not very interested in it, I usually take this opportunity to hop on to the merch stand to pick up what I had already ordered, as there’s never any queues at this time. I was shocked and dismayed Q-dance was unable to fulfill the only item I had ordered – this year’s t-shirt. Now I have it for all of the editions I was present at, except for this one… Apparently there was a glitch on their online merch system and they’ve either oversold the t-shirt or the stock count was unreliable… Either way, a very polite lady from the Q-dance staff explained me they were having several issues with their systems this year and couldn’t fulfill tons of orders. They offered me a refund, some Power Hour sunglasses and a limited edition commemorative coin to make it up for their mistake. These aren’t really items I value much, but it was nice they were able to give me something for the troubles. Once again, the staff was super helpful, and sadly there was nothing they could do.
Since my incursion up to the merch stand’s was an absolute flop, I went to the Premium deck at the BLUE to check out a bit of So Juice, Anderex & DEEZL. This set wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really being my thing either, so I left, while memories of Anderex’s unmatched 2022 PURPLE set popped into my head…
After than that, off to the GREEN… Just to prove my theory that all this GREEN this year is way too much. At this time, the stage was only 10-15% full, and every time I went through it, it barely had any people… It’s also interesting to see that every time I came by it, there was never any Techno being played. I’ve already voiced my concerns regarding this new ‘neorave’ scene, so I won’t do so now, but I do hope Q-dance stops jumping into this hype bandwagon. It does way more harm than good, and an empty stage is not a pretty sight.
My afternoon resumed shortly after with an epic set by Red Race runner up Amayze! Fair play to him for playing B-Front’s tracks, and for doing an almost flawless set! His stage presence is captivating and I wish him the best of luck… I wanted to see Erabreak, who got up on stage right after, but I couldn’t miss Ophidian & Furyan at the Silver. I went straight to that stage and was able to get a hold of Conrad just over 30 minutes before he hopped on to perform, and had a really good talk with him about the new and the old Blackbox album, and was even able to show him a bit of my vinyl collection!
It appears that their set wasn’t planned at all, but honestly it couldn’t have been better than it was – it probably even benefited of the impromptu nature of it! Another highlight of my weekend! Amazingly mixed, superb tracklist, and Ophidian even sneakily slipped in a new ID…
Right after, it was time to run back to the PURPLE to catch the last bit of the Savage Academy Squad… I’ll be honest, I simply wanted to go there because of Revizion. This man deserves a spot just for himself already, and can arguably already perform at the INDIGO! His productions are top tier, combining the best of ‘melodic’ and ‘raw’, and his kicks just shook the whole ground of the PURPLE stage!
At this point, I went back to the UV, and was still able to check out the end of Ecstatic’s set. Good vibes all over! Off to the MAGENTA afterwards for another highlight of my weekend – Luna, followed by Donkey Rollers!
Luna is my “comfort set”. I’ve seen him about 4 times now and his sets are always amazing. He really knows how to captivate the audience with a mix of hits and lesser known tracks. Time flew by in his set and it was another one where I felt like I was 16 again, back when I was discovering the harder styles… Donkey Rollers was an absolute time machine too, with them closing with Immeasurably, one of my favorite tracks ever.
At this point, it was time to rest and get a decent spot for The Endshow. The Premium deck at the RED was less crowded than last year, and I was able to find a very good spot by sneaking in together with a Portuguese couple that had a front row spot (they had been sitting there for hours to get a good view!)
A few things got tricky on this day when it was time to leave too. First, the day visitors exit was completely blocked when I got to it… Nobody was moving so I simply turned around and left through the camping exit, via Wasted Lands. If I was faster or not, I’m unsure, but at least I was moving. I’ve had to do this in years prior, but I’ve never really seen a day visitors exit actually blocked
Sunday
On the fourth and last festival day, I’ve had an extremely unpleasant surprise upon arrival. As I made my way to the Premium entrance, my bracelet was simply refused when I scanned it. I tried going through the normal bus entrance, but the same thing happened. I was confused as to what was happening, along with the staff at both of these entrances, as I had checked out correctly the day before. I had to go to the bracelet information stand, which checked me out again just to make sure, and the same issue prevailed. I went back again, they checked me out again, and still the same error… For the third time, the Q-dance staff spent some time trying to figure out what the hell was happening with my bracelet, and no one could explain… The staff was extremely helpful, but unable to troubleshoot my bracelet issues, so eventually they just gave up, and offered me an entirely new bracelet… Which suffered from the exact same issue. At this point I was pissed off and had already lost 30 minutes trying to sort this out so I tried all entrances – Premium and Bus entrances were no go, but I was able to check in via the Camping entrance. From then on, I was pleased to see everything worked correctly, and I was able to check in to Premium decks and even retained the same balance I had on the old bracelet. This issue was, nevertheless, a major nuisance in what was otherwise an amazing day, despite the considerably hotter weather and clear skies
Sunday was time for an amazing novelty at Defqon.1 – the return of the WHITE stage with a Qult hosting! Back when I was a kid I used to dream of being at the WHITE, just enjoying the forwarding thinking and outside of the box approach of Qult artists towards Hard Dance music, and this was the time to relive that feeling. So I went straight there for Bold Action’s set, a name that simply disappeared after the Qult concept was sunset by Q-dance. It was great to see him back!
At this point of the morning it was already scorching hot and half of the set was spent in the shades on the side of the stage, where I was fortunate enough to have a long conversation with someone who was enjoying Bold Action’s set in the dancefloor too – Geck-o! We talked about Qult, its demise, former artists that were connected with this movement, his new ‘Get on The Train’ album, and had a general discussion about the state of Defqon.1 and Q-dance. After that he was off to get ready for his set and I stayed a bit longer for S1ngular. It was then time for a break – I went to meet some friends and have a snack, quickly going back to the WHITE for Geck-o’s Qult Classics set. This was one for the books – going back around 10 years for the best crossover sounds Qult had to offer back then, reliving all the hits, and lesser known tracks that were part of the history of this amazing movement. The stage was actually quite busy, at around 70 or 80% capacity, which was really good to see. The set was executed brilliantly, as expected from Rik, and even included a small pause at the end for an impromptu water balloon fight! This is one of those very ‘Defqon.1 things’ that you only see there. After all, Defqon.1 is, and will always be, the world of madness…
As soon as the set ended, I ran to the BLUE as I couldn’t miss Phuture Noize, especially since part of his set was a retrospective of his most recent work, from the Pursuit of Thunder era onwards. There was a very special moment in this set, as Marco played his ‘There’s a lot going on’ bootleg he prepared for Defqon.1 back in 2017. While it’s “just” a bootleg, it’s a very special and meaningful track for me, and got me a bit teary… It’s a very overlooked track from Marco’s discography, and I am happy he didn’t forget about it, because I haven’t either!
I was planning on staying for the whole set but I couldn’t resist going back to the WHITE to witness a living legend, and the founding father of Subground himself – Acti. Not only for that reason, but also because it will probably be hard to see Manuele anytime soon at Defqon.1 again. After his set, I told him we miss him over at the MAGENTA and he said that “that’s not gonna happen anytime soon”, which is sad, but understandable and expected…
With that wrapped up, I was still in time to check a bit of Max Enforcer at the MAGENTA, who was ripping the place apart (as expected) and even included some fun mashups in his set! As usual, the vibe on this stage was on point…
After all that running around, it was time for some rest and food. This didn’t last long, with me going back to the WHITE for BRK3. The first half of their set was fun, but on the 2nd half they decided to start playing tracks from the new Bioweapon album… Which was good, but I had already heard them during their act as Bioweapon, so I left for Mad Dog at the GREEN. The set was somewhat bland when I arrived, at least compared to his last downtempo set at the Silver, but quickly picked up, and there wasn’t that much downtempo at all, which didn’t bother me, or seemingly anyone else on a stage that wasn’t full, but had quite a fair share of people.
Exproz & Kruelty was next, showcasing a kick and screech masterclass at the BLUE. I’m fairly tired of modern ‘raw’ acts, which aren’t really bringing anything new to the table, and often have repetitive sets, but these guys are on a totally different ballpark, and know very well what they’re doing. I left about just over halfway through to find a decent place for The Closing Ceremony… And nothing really prepared me for what I was about to see. It was probably the most wonderful closing I’ve seen in all my 5 editions of this festival, and I was teary-eyed for almost the entirety of the show! I didn’t think I’d live to hear those classics on Defqon.1’s mainstage again… Absolutely one for the books!
After that, it was time to leave the Walibi once more. One last glance at the UV stage at a distance and then it was time to say goodbye…
After that, the journey truly begins… To me, my journey isn’t going from Portugal to Defqon.1 and back. It is going back to Portugal until I go to Defqon.1 again. Because Defqon.1 is home.
Like last year, I did not check out at the exit gate. Because you never check out from home. You leave a part of your soul there, and reunite your body with it once you’re back… And when you do, you are one with the Holy Grounds.
——————————————————
This was my experience at Defqon.1 2025. I truly hope to be back in 2026. Beyond all the feedback I’ve added above as I described my experience on the Holy Grounds, there’s a few other general remarks I’d like to add (and that I’ve passed on to Q-dance on their yearly survey).
One of the things I’ve noticed is that there were seemingly less trash cans at the venue, however I did not see a noticeable increase in trash laying on the ground, which is always fairly inexistent for an event of this size
Shuttle busses from hotels were somewhat confusing this year. In my case, the departure time was set to 23:30 (which is way too early), but in all days the busses departed at midnight (which is fairly acceptable). Some drivers told us the actual departure time, others simply said they didn’t knew anything, while others told us the scheduled departure time, and Eleven Travel (Q-dance’s shuttle partner) told me busses departed at 23:45. While I understand what the organization was trying to achieve here, I’d very much rather know the exact departure time, just like in previous years. It can be a bit hard going through the whole crowd to catch a shuttle bus after The Endshow, for example. I also always like to have a bit of time just to absorb the post show energy and gaze at the stage, and take some pictures with friends, so having shuttle busses depart a bit later is very helpful. And once again, for the third year in a row, Q-dance was unable to secure shuttles following the afterparties, which is an absolute shame – I usually always stayed at least one day for the after’s, and I’d have to arrange private transportation from now on if I were to do that again.
And this is all the feedback I have… Defqon.1 has been improving year by year, and I’m sure that at some point Q-dance will fix all issues that still plague what is otherwise a very well organized event.
——————————————————
Acknowledgements
I’d like to take a small portion of this blog article to thank everyone that’s accompanied me on this journey. Through the years I’ve come to meet like minded people that are true weekend warriors with whom I’ve had the pleasure of sharing the dancefloor with. You are all wonderful people and elevate my experience every time I’m with you all on an event. You know who you are!
Also a huge shoutout to the girl waving the Portuguese flag just as I was taking a picture of the stage mid way through Phuture Noize & Devin Wild at the RED – the stars did align for this picture to happen!
——————————————————
After all that yapping, it’s time for me to shut up… Were you at Defqon.1 too? Let me know your thoughts about the event through my social media!