OH MY! Festival

OH MY! Festival was a weekend of hip hop, R&B and afrobeats in the Netherlands. The organization signs as Team OH MY! Festival. BNNVARA, in Tessel Clifford's note of 21 March 2024, calls Ufuk Baydar the CEO. Festivalinfo, on 30 June 2023, says five editions had already been held and that the one set for Saturday 15 July 2023, at Almere Beach, did not happen. Omroep Flevoland writes Almeerderstrand for the same place and recalls earlier editions in Amsterdam and in Rotterdam. The site, read on 28 September 2026, still opens on a 2023 update and keeps pages for 2018, 2019 and 2022. Those three pages do not add up to the five editions the organization counts. The start year stays unset.

The night that is told is 2019, in Amsterdam. Akachi Priscilla publishes it on 2 July 2019. A Viberate page puts 29 and 30 June. She writes that until then it had been a single day and that this time it became two, because of demand. Many people came from London. She compares the ticket rush with Afronation. At the gate the golden circle wristbands ran out and security asked people to come back later. At the bar neither cash nor card worked: you had to buy tokens. She later counts three tokens for a single and two for a bottle of water, and says the value could change from bar to bar. They also sold balloons. There was a lot of dead time. Artist slots were short and the gap was filled with DJs. Moving between the two stages was hard, and whoever stayed in one place stayed. At the back the screens were small and the sound did not carry. The better view, she writes, was the golden circle, which she had.

She calls Meek Mill the stretch that held the day. He came out in black, with a chain that carried the mug shot from when he was 18, and he entered on Intro, from his album Championships, in smoke. He sang Ima Boss and Uptown Vibes. He repeated Shout London, we in the U.K., although the grounds were in Amsterdam. Roddy Rich, as she spells it, was billed on the main stage at 17:30 and arrived at 20:00. A Viberate page spells Roddy Ricch. Both spellings stay together. Kojo Funds moved from the second stage to another slot only to fill a gap. Torey Lanez, as she spells it, and Wizkid were on the bill and did not appear. Lil Baby was also in that London expectation. She says the other stretches felt thin, that several Londoners gave it a 5 or a 6 out of 10, and that only people who came for Meek marked it higher. One attendee left it at 2 out of 10.

On 30 June 2023, Festivalinfo carries the Instagram text. After five editions with names from hip hop, R&B and afrobeats, the team says production costs rose and that there were last-minute safety and crowd adjustments. They had started to build 2023 and, after several setbacks, concluded they could not offer the weekend the public and the artists expected. Bought tickets were going to get an email. They leave open the question of whether there would be another date and say they would update the plans when the moment came. That sentence is theirs. Omroep Flevoland names, on the bill that did not sound, Cho, Boef, Josylvio, Mula B and Lijpe, and from abroad DaBaby, Lil Tjay and Bryson Tiller. The stages page, written as if 2023 were going to happen, announces four zones at Almere Beach: Mainstage for hip hop, R&B, rap and afrobeats; Smallgod & Friends for afro and amapiano, and the page calls Smallgod the nightlife mayor of Africa; Mayhem with FOUR Soundsystem, for R&B, UK rap, urban and Latin; and Favela Stage, with brass, reggaeton, salsa and baile funk. None of that was walked.

Eight months later, Clifford recounts that thousands of people had bought the sixth edition and that, two weeks before, it was cut. In August 2023 BOOS, Tim Hofman's programme, wrote to the organization. They asked for time to sort the accounts. On 21 March 2024 the emails of people waiting for a refund were still reaching BOOS. Julia says she paid 90 euros and that they already counted the money as lost. Omroep Flevoland speaks of tickets of 100 euros. Both figures stay together. The organization tells Hofman that a bankruptcy was possible, and that the municipality of Almere had blocked the 2024 permit. A letter from the municipality, shown on the programme, says no application was filed. Both versions stay together. The number of people affected was not given.

What stays with a title, and already sounded, is Intro, Ima Boss and Uptown Vibes, in Meek Mill's stretch in Amsterdam in 2019. The 2023 Almere bill stayed an announcement. The site, read in 2026, does not open a later date.