The hip-hop festival Woo Hah! nearly burst at the seams at its fourth edition last year. For its fifth edition, it diverted to the Beekse Bergen in Hilvarenbeek. We walked around there for a day.
'Make that circle bigger, make it bigger! Grooooter!' This is where Dutch chart topper Ronnie Flex speaks. If you don't know him from his gigantic hits, then you will know him from one of the thousands of children's rooms where his image sticks to the wall. With a collaboration with Zeeland band BLØF, he is making a serious bid for the Vrienden van Amstel stage, but at hip-hop festival Woo Hah! he gets to show his dirtiest, most radio-unfriendly side.
It is midnight and with fiery eyes he forces the kids to stretch the circle in front of his stage one more time. When the beat kicks in, they throw themselves at each other, turning into a tangle of limbs. Lyrics are shouted from hoarse throats all the way to the back of the room. Five minutes later, he pulls the audience apart again. Then again. A pulsating effect emanates from it.
Scale up
Hip-hop festival Woo Hah! is known for its eager, young audience and the energy around midnight is overwhelming. The festival was bursting at the seams after four editions, so it moved from the Spoorzone in Tilburg to the Beekse Bergen recreation area in Hilvarenbeek for the three-day anniversary edition. Over thirty thousand visitors fit into the new venue.
Hip-hop has become the world's biggest subculture - if you can even speak of it anymore - and the fact that a festival like Woo Hah! still sells out after such an increase in scale is the ultimate confirmation of that. "The scale we're reaching now is something we didn't actually envisage until 2020," says festival director Ruud Lemmen. "Audience demand is greater than expected."
People's move
Now Woo Hah!, which is the result of a collaboration between venue 013 and concert organiser MOJO, is also focusing on the big, American hip-hop canons. And those just happen to bring a modest crowd to Hilvarenbeek in anno 2018. "We receive around ten thousand international visitors," says Lemmen. "From more than thirty countries. The Dutch audience comes mainly from the Randstad and Tilburg region. They are young, diverse, articulate and very fanatical. If twenty acts are playing, they want to see them all."
With photographer Paul van Dorsten, I stroll around the festival campsite in the afternoon. The atmosphere is hungover, we see lulling people as we peek through the tent openings. Girls are getting ready, beats blow across the grounds from bluetooth boxes. The persistent drought has put a layer of dust over the tent tarps. At the camping lake, a boy in a fishing chair gives the stub of his joint to a friend.
'He deserves rest'
We chat with Nina (20) and Kingsley (21), both from Amsterdam. It's their first festival. "We sleep in separate tents because this guy snores too hard," Nina laughs teasingly. Kingsley: "It's the first time I pit in a tent, my neck is a bit stiff". He tells how he struggled to lug four plastic bags, including enough precooked eggs for four days, across the grounds on Friday night. "I think I'll give him a sports bag for the next festival," says Nina. The two come mainly for US rapper J. Cole, who closes the main stage on Sunday night. Nina is writing a thesis on hip-hop as a means of discussing social issues. The lyrics of Cole, one of the more engaged artists on the line-up, are a rewarding topic.
The audience is indeed young and diverse. The average age will be somewhere around 20, with outliers up and down. In terms of clothing, it shoots in all directions, from sleazy-alternative to sporty and eccentric. We see short-shaven, brightly coloured hairstyles, ski glasses, navel shirts over army trousers, tawdry sports socks, neck bags from well-known sports brands.
We take a reconnaissance tour of the festival grounds and pass a sort of altar set up for the recently shot dead, quite controversial rapper XXXTentacion. Life-size, his face appears behind a cabinet with a memorial book. There are markers around it. A German girl in her twenties writes in the book. "I loved his music," she says. "He deserves rest, despite his deeds."
Tame and sleepy
The rapper's spirit hangs over the festival anyway. As a tribute, his track 'Look At Me' is woven into quite a few DJs' sets and performances. Chaos guaranteed, time after time. Still, the day takes a long time to get going. This is mainly due to the scorching heat. People retreat under trees, lounging in hammocks.
Consequently, the queues for the water points are a lot longer than those at the bar. The substantial festival tents feel mostly empty and on the plain in front of the main stage, US artist Ty Dolla $ign's autotune soul only reaches the small circle of diehard fans right in front of him. A skate park has been set up in a corner of the venue where people watch a breakdance demo intently. The atmosphere is relaxed, but also somewhat tame and sleepy. The big enticer is the lake, which is almost bullyingly adjacent to the main stage. We are allowed in up to our knees.
Moshpits and mouth caps
As the sun goes down, energy levels rise and this is especially evident with the trio Migos, the first real hit of the day. It seems like people are streaming to the main stage from really every corner of the venue, and now it appears that Woo Hah! really needs the large sandy area to get rid of everyone. From a small hill you have a magnificent view. I'm short of fingers to count the swirling moshpits, recognise them by the thick, rising clouds of dust. Shirts come off, are tied in front of mouths. Some even wear mouth caps against the fine sand. A few guests climb an oak tree. Texts are shouted along, word for word. The time to be pretty and fresh is definitely over.
On the field, we speak to Jolien (20), Mieke (28) and Nique (29). "This is the fattest festival in the Netherlands," says Nique. "Many hip-hop festivals are kept small, this is really pioneering. And I think it's cool anyway that this is possible in Tilburg. Woo Hah! dares to go bigger. I don't go to a Lowlands or something like that either."
"I'm actually gothic," laughs Mieke. "But when I was at Lowlands last year, I went to see all the hip-hop acts. That's why a friend took me here. People really have to make an effort to travel, you notice that in the atmosphere." The audience is indeed super knowledgeable, even the verbiage of the most recent tracks they know by heart.
Impressive
It is dark and wild parties are springing up all over the grounds. A girl in hot pants climbs onto the small forest stage. She shakes her buttocks hunched over. A friend sews up her spectators. In front of the main field the pits race, in the tents sweat gushes.
I walk over to the altar of XXXTentacion for a while and leaf through the memorial book, which is now full to the cover. Thx for discussing depression, two girls have written in it. A boy joins me, around his head a dusty bandana. "Impressive huh?" I glare at his friend as he quickly pens something in the book. The boy with bandana hesitates. "I don't want to just write R.I.P in it. That's too..." He is silent for a moment. "Well, I'll come back later." He disappears into the darkness.
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