The Defqon.1 festival, organized by Q-dance, is widely regarded the world's leading outdoor event in the field of dance music's harder genres. Over the course of seven years, Defqon.1 has grown out to become one of Europe's biggest outdoor bashes, attracting a stunning 40,000 visitors to its anchored location at Almere Strand.

And it's far from an all Dutch affair only. The festival's solid reputation for covering the entire spectrum in earth quaking electronic dance music, its jaw-dropping lineup and outstanding overall organization seems to attract more and more clubbers from abroad, with this year's edition seeing the presence of Norwegian, Irish, French, German, and Belgian visitors among many other nationalities.

Whereas some may think that Defqon.1 merely focuses on hardstyle and hardcore (aka gabber), the festival actually encompasses much more genres than just those two. Spread across nine areas, this year's edition again brought the hardest in oldschool, hardtrance, hardstyle, hardcore, hard techno and jumpstyle with the theme being 'Scrap attack'. On the extremely warm Saturday 13 June 2009, we entered a mysterious world populated by mechanic animals constructed of scrap metal with their masters being the world's most ruthless DJs…

After getting to the site very easily thanks to the train transportation being very well taken care of, we entered the festival around 13.00. The first thing that came to our attention was the event's impressive decoration. The main stage's DJ booth was shaped in the form of two dragon-like figures, built up entirely from scrap material, whereas the entire site featured numerous smaller decorative impressions of oddly shaped monsters. After acquiring enough drink tokens to make it through the first few hours because of the heat, we went to explore the site which covered a major part of the Almere Strand area. The lay-out was as it should be: plenty of bars and toilet areas with hardly any queues, an extensive food corner in the middle of the terrain with a wide choice in fruit, snacks, and beverages, and numerous strategically positioned ice cream stands. The soundsystems were to be said impressive, although the volume at the outdoor Orange area might have been a bit too loud.

As for the DJs, Q-dance invited only the best of the best from both national as international grounds. The first act we went to see were Franky Jones and Yves Deruyter, two seasoned jocks hammering it hard back 2 back at the Grey area with an impressive oldschool set full of references to early house. They immediately got the crowd all warmed up for the rest of the day, although the majority of the audience seemed to save their energy as the temperature outside was rising to tropical values. Meanwhile, Evan Forrest rocked the foundations of the Green area with his merciless hard techno beats, after which we went to see D-Bock & S-Te-Fan at the main stage. The extensive square that was the main stage was already filled with thousands of visitors, with the soundsystem being adjusted in such a way that it could loud and clearly reach the ranks in the back. The temperature didn't hold the audience from rocking it insanely to these boys, but with such choice of records and DJ skills, this can hardly be called a surprise…

The live PA of long time festival fave's Donkey Rollers got the entire site going, but we decided to spend some time at the water side to cool down with a cold drink and a delicious sandwich, carefully chosen from the wide variety of tasty food the festival offered. And then, after having witnessed the water skiers, parasailers, metallic monster structures and bungee jumpers (!) from a safe distance, all hell broke loose. Where? In the Black tent, domain of the demonic beatsmiths of hardcore music. The hellraisers? Noize Suppressor. The energy and power this man produced was beyond just loud. He absolutely delivered the goods, not sparing a living soul in the process. A bit stunned from the insanity of his performance, we returned to the Green site where Amok destroyed the place with his trademarked techno, after which we went back to the main stage to witness the last two hours of the festival and its laser show, which we heard was of epic proportions…

And it was. I've been to numerous festivals in my lifetime but I've rarely witnessed a closure of such brilliance as the one at Defqon.1 2009. For over half an hour, during which prodigy Headhunterz performed his beat-driven hardstyle mania, green laser beams and fireworks shot through the twilight, turning the entire square and surrounding place into one big pandemonium of party people united to transpose an atmosphere that was to be called absolutely unique. It was the closure of the Defqon.1 2009 Festival, a festival that single-handedly brought together 'wildstylers' from all over Europe to celebrate their love for hard dance music.

Praise where praise is due: Defqon.1 2009 Festival has been a truly unique and memorable event that has, again, proven why it is one of the most popular outdoor events of the summer. The lineup was as diverse as qualitative, the atmosphere simply great, and the lay-out and overall organization close to perfect. There were hardly any queues at neither the toilets nor bars, the food was affordable and varied, the festival decoration and design superb and the many extras (such as the bungee jumping, ice cream stands, parasailing, and much more) even added extra merit to the happening.

Overall speaking, Defqon.1 Festival has been a fantastic experience that has proven to have international potential. Not only because it unites so many different European visitors each year, but also because the festival is coming to Australia next September. Aussies, you're not gonna believe what you are about to experience…