From a carnival club to a festival for which visitors from Australia travel to Oisterwijk. It sounds like a childhood dream, but for Remko Hermans and his friends it is reality. What started at carnival association De Kloontjes grew into Intents Festival: one of the largest hardstyle festivals in the Netherlands.
Founder Remko Hermans (45) says that the idea arose from a simple starting point. “There just wasn’t much to do in the village. So we thought: we’ll organize it ourselves.”
The group of about twenty friends started small, with local parties and experiments with music and technology. “At the first party we had 300 visitors, the second time 650. Then we noticed that there was real interest.”
“We painted decor by hand because we didn’t have the budget for banners.”
The first official edition of Intents Festival followed in 2004. In those early years, almost everything was done by the then 20-year-old founders themselves, together with volunteers from the region and people from the carnival association.
“We painted decor by hand because we had no budget for banners. We also built tents, stages and sound ourselves,” says Hermans. “We even did the security ourselves, with people who were authorized to do so. In fact, almost everything was still done in-house.”
It is striking that the festival is still supported by a large number of volunteers. Nowadays there are about a thousand, mainly from the Oisterwijk and Tilburg region. According to Remko, that is no coincidence. “We have built this up from the start through our own network. If they like it, they bring friends or now their children to come and help.”
The organization soon noticed that the event was growing rapidly. An important turning point came in 2007, when Intents Festival was completely sold out for the first time. “Then we thought: okay, this could really become something bigger,” says Hermans. From that moment on, the festival grew to include multiple areas, larger stages and a more professional design. “But we didn’t dare to dream this big.”
In 2011 there was the next step: the transition to a large outdoor main stage and a clear focus on the harder styles. This gave the festival its own face within the Dutch festival landscape.
The years 2014 and 2015 marked another turning point. Through innovative stage concepts, large-scale shows and after movies viewed millions of times, Intents received international attention. “It suddenly went around the world,” says Remko. “Then we started getting visitors from abroad who came here specifically because they had seen it online.”
“It’s actually a kind of amusement park for hard dance enthusiasts.”
Despite its international appearance, Intents remains strongly rooted in Brabant. According to Hermans, the atmosphere is typically Brabant: friendly, social and with room for good music. “It all comes together here.”
What also distinguishes Intents from other festivals is its strong thematic approach. Every year a completely new theme is implemented in the stages, shows and decoration. “It is extremely colorful and cheerful. Actually a kind of amusement park for hard dance enthusiasts.”
“You see that people really live for it for a year.”
In any case, Hermans is far from done with it and still enjoys his project immensely every edition. “You see that people really live for it for a year.”
He is also looking ahead: he wants to further innovate the festival in the coming years, including with initiatives for a younger audience, such as the ‘NXT Gen’ edition on Friday for minors. “It’s really nice to involve them in the party and give them some insight into what the festival is all about.”
This year, Intents Festival will take place on June 5, 6 and 7 in Oisterwijk.