Defqon.1 Festival


Defqon.1 Weekend Festival is an annual music festival held in the Netherlands, Chile and Australia. It was founded in 2003 by festival organizer Q-dance. The festival plays mostly hardstyle and related genres such as hardcore techno, hard house and hard trance.

Events

The festival was previously held in mid-June on Almeerderstrand in Almere. Since 2011 it is hosted on the event site next to Walibi Holland in Biddinghuizen. Since 2009 the event has also been hosted in Sydney in mid-September, at the Sydney International Regatta Centre. Until 2011 the festival ran for 12 hours, from 11:00 am to 11:00 pm, and ended with a firework display. Since 2012, the festival was extended to three days. Since 2015, the Australian edition was extended to two days. Each edition also has an anthem, an official song that is played in conjunction with the festival. The festival is also livestreamed with video from the largest stages and audio for all the other stages through YouTube, and the Q-Dance website for people all around the world to tune into.
At the Dutch event the audience has grown to 65,000 per day with tickets sometimes selling out in less than an hour. In 2013, the Sydney event attracted 18,000 attendees. The same event saw the death of a male, around 20 drug overdoses and more than 80 arrested on drug charges.
On 17 September 2018, the New South Wales Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, announced her intention that Defqon.1 would never again take place in the state, due to two deaths that took place at the 2018 festival. At this event seven hundred people sought medical assistance. Shane Rattenbury, the Greens leader in the ACT, has invited Defqon.1 to take place in Canberra where pill testing could be carried out after a successful trial with Groovin the Moo.
On 29 May 2019, Q-dance announced on its official Facebook profiles that Defqon.1 Australia, after a decade being held at the Sydney International Regatta Centre, would be indefinitely suspended, since they were "unable to secure a suitable replacement venue for the event to take place "
2020 will not see Defqon.1 happening after the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte declared that all events in the Netherlands will be cancelled until September 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The same theme will be reused in the 2021 edition.

Festival history

YearLocationAnthem & ThemeNumber of visitors*Number of performersDate
2003Almere, Flevoland, The Netherlands4814 June
2004Almere, Flevoland, The Netherlands7919 June
2005Almere, Flevoland, The NetherlandsEmergency Call 8518 June
2006Almere, Flevoland, The NetherlandsThe Colour of the Harder Styles 10317 June
2007Almere, Flevoland, The NetherlandsGet Wasted 12416 June
2008Almere, Flevoland, The NetherlandsBiological Insanity 11914 June
2009Almere, Flevoland, The NetherlandsScrap Attack 30,00010413 June
2009Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, AustraliaMaximum Force 5219 September
2010Almere, Flevoland, The NetherlandsNo Time To Waste 40,00011512 June
2010Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, AustraliaSave Your Scrap for Victory 7218 September
2011Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The NetherlandsUnite 12725 June
2011Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, AustraliaPsychedelic Wasteland 7217 September
2012Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The NetherlandsWorld of Madness 55,00021–23 June
2012Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, AustraliaTrue Rebel Freedom 15 September
2013Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The NetherlandsWeekend Warriors 55,00031221–23 June
2013Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, AustraliaScrap The System 18,00014 September
2014Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The NetherlandsSurvival of the Fittest 55,00020727–29 June
2014Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, AustraliaUnleash the Beast 20 September
2015Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The NetherlandsNo Guts, No Glory 60,000250+19–21 June
2015Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, AustraliaNo Guts, No Glory 21,0009718–19 September
2015Centro de Eventos Munich, Santiago de Chile, Santiago Providence, ChileUnleash The Beast 30,0003312 December
2016Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The NetherlandsDragonblood 100,00024-26
June
2016Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, AustraliaDragonblood 25,00017 September
2016Centro de Eventos Munich, Santiago de Chile, Santiago Providence, ChileDragonblood 20,00010 December
2017Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The NetherlandsVictory Forever 150,00023-25 June
2017Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, AustraliaEye of the Storm 30,00016 September
2018Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The NetherlandsMaximum Force 185.00022622-24 June
2018Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, AustraliaDedicated To The Core 30,00015 September
2019Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The NetherlandsOne Tribe 78,000 Unique visitors23528-30 June
2020Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The NetherlandsPrimal Energy --cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Dutch Government stated that all festivals are banned until 1 September. Instead, an @Home edition will take place.
2021Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The Netherlands