Lief Festival

Lief Festival is a house and techno festival in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The first edition ran on Saturday 9 September 2006 at Recreatieterrein Strijkviertel 32. XSENSE, also written X-Sense, put it on. It is not Love Festival. It is not Loveland and it is not Lowlands. The name is Dutch: lief means intimate, not an English word. The site is a lake with woods, about ten minutes by bike from the centre, toward Oudenrijn.

That first Saturday ran from noon to midnight. There were three stages and a cap of about two thousand people. Presale tickets cost twenty euros. The scale was a full day on a leisure ground, not a weekend of tents. You arrive by bike. You leave the bike by the water. You walk between trees and shoreline. House and tech-house fit that measure: close to the lake, no stadium compound.

The 2006 bill, listed on DJGuide, explains the music. Kevin Saunderson carried the Detroit weight. Laidback Luke, Marysol, Sidney Samson, Tony Cha Cha, Nuno dos Santos, D-Rashid, Melvin Reese and Rob Soulfire filled a day of house and tech-house. It was not a trance poster or a pop poster. It was a Saturday of Dutch floors with an American pioneer at the top. People at Strijkviertel heard kicks and bass by the water, not a rock stage.

In 2007 Hubert van de Vecht, of X-sense, said it plainly: lief is intimate and it is Dutch. That year the meeting moved from two to four stages and from about two thousand to about four thousand people. It nearly sold out. The intimacy in the name sat against the growth. The lake was still there. The woods were still there. The number of floors and the length of the queue changed. XSENSE did not only run Lief. It also pushed Supersunday and Riverdance. The house stamp was electronic dance on daytime sites, not a single title.

The 2007 after moved to Club Poema, in the city. The lake ground closes at midnight. The club night starts after that. Anyone who did the full Saturday could go from woods to a room. Anyone who only wanted the lake left by bike at twelve. That cut is practical: Strijkviertel is not a 24-hour campsite. It is a recreation ground with a closing hour. Utrecht gets the water quiet again and the club takes whoever still wants a floor.

The trip marks the character. Ten minutes by bike from the centre is not a rural festival journey. It is a city ride with trees at the end. Oudenrijn sits on the edge of town. You hear the lake, not a platform. You see woods, not a fair hall. Dutch September heat can be mild. Dutch September rain is not. The leisure ground soaks. House shoes are not built for mud, but the site is not stadium tarmac either. People who live in Utrecht can go and come back twice on the same Saturday. People who travel in leave a hire bike by the water and time the day by the midnight close, not by a tent. The lake stays in view between stages. That is the measure of the site.

Lief should not be read as Love. Love Festival and Loveland are other brands, other sites, other crowds. Lowlands is another scale: a big weekend, another site and another crowd. Lief fits a short sentence: a Saturday of house by a Utrecht lake, with a Dutch name. The mix-up comes from people who turn lief into love. Van de Vecht cut that in 2007. That explanation should not be reopened as if the name were English.

The 2006 day must have felt tight. Two thousand people, three stages, twelve hours. You could hear Saunderson and cross to a more local floor without losing half an hour in a corridor. In 2007, with twice the capacity and more stages, the same lake asked for more queue and more choice. Nearly sold out means the leisure ground filled. It does not mean Utrecht became a fifty-thousand site. The woods still measure the festival. Between stages you still see water. That view does not grow when the crowd doubles. It just gets more people in front of it.

Lief Festival reads as XSENSE’s Saturday at Strijkviertel: house and techno by the lake, a bike from the centre, an intimate Dutch name. Kevin Saunderson and Laidback Luke explain the first bill. Van de Vecht explains the name. Club Poema explains the after. Love, Loveland and Lowlands explain what it is not. The Oudenrijn lake explains the rest.