Horst isn’t like the other dance festivals

Festival season is finally upon us. One of the first to ring it in is Horst Arts & Music, a Belgian three-dayer which has, over the last decade, earned its stripes as one of Europe’s finest knees-ups. A lot of that has got to do with its staging. Taking place on a former military base in Vilvoorde, just outside Brussels, Horst has made a point of experimenting with architecture as a way of making the festival experience as mind-bending as possible.

The Swirl stage, for example, has a tiered, spiral-shaped dancefloor; Ring is made from massive repurposed steel beams; the Rain Room is an indoor stage that sees punters fenced in by what is essentially a giant shower curtain. Outside, Le Soleil Rouge’s light-reflecting red disk gives any sunset a run for its money, and Moon Ra, basically a miniature UFO, protects ravers from the outside world by immersing them in blistering techno sets. This year, there are rumours of an underground stage, which organisers hinted to in a cryptic Instagram post.

The line-up is stacked, with reliably great selectors such as DJ Stingray, Helena Hauff, Josey Rebelle, Eris Drew and Discwoman alum SHYBOI on the decks. It isn’t just about the music, though: there’s also Horst Expo, an art programme that will remain on-site throughout the summer. Let’s be honest, when a dance festival announces a ​“visual arts programme”, it sometimes means a half-arsed installation you’ll barely notice after a few drinks. But trust us, the Horst version is worth paying attention to. For the occasion, cult US artist Marilyn Minter will project a brand new video piece onto cooling towers that overlook the festival. Meanwhile, Brit artist Eddie Peake will stage a rendition of The Pervert, a subversive, sensual piece of performance art. Oo-er.

Simon Nowak, one of the festival’s organisers, co-founded Horst in 2014 with friends Joachem Daelman, Mathias Staelens and Toon Timmerman – who now operate under the banner Onkruid Studio. Back then, it wasn’t much more than an intimate party with 1,000 cap. Now, the festival sees 12,000 people walk through the gates each day of its three-day run, and for the second year in a row, it’s sold out. As it gears up for opening night, Simon peels back the curtain.

Why did you decide to start Horst?

It was about throwing a party on our own terms. From a music perspective, we really liked club culture, but club culture didn’t really seep through into the festivals at that time in Belgium. There were a lot of artists that you could only see playing in clubs, and we wanted to change that. At the time, festivals in Belgium would just take place in a big field, inside a tent where they’d just whack a DJ on stage and turn on a few lights. It was all very generic and not really creative. So we wanted to build something different.

What was the music scene like where you were growing up?

I’m from a small town called Limburg, but I moved to Brussels eight years ago. There wasn’t really a music scene there. It was very, very commercial, no proper nightclubs. So I often went to Brussels and Leuven, which were the two key cities for clubbing. Then travelling to Amsterdam, Berlin, London – you really start to see the different scenes and what you’re missing in your hometown. I was like, how do we bring this back home? We were inspired by lots of different places and tried to distil that into festival form.

How has Horst evolved over the last few years?

It’s continuously evolving. We’re very DIY and Horst is one of the few independent festivals of this size. If you look around, most festivals are part of a bigger company. At the core, we are still a team that wants to do things differently and we’re always trying to reinvent ourselves. At the beginning, even though it was so Belgium-focused, we really rapidly saw loads of interest come from abroad – people from London, Paris, Amsterdam were all coming to the festival. That’s only increased over the years, which is really cool.

Who comes the most?

Definitely British people. We don’t hire a company to help build Horst – we do everything with volunteers in the week leading up to it, and a lot of people travel from overseas to come and do that. Then they stay on for the party, which has been a great word of mouth way to get more people to come. Volunteers go home and tell their friends about the whole experience and the next year they come back, this time with five friends. It’s a snowball effect of discovery.

Tell us about the line-up for this year…

We always have a mix of homegrown talent, up-and-coming acts, and more heavyweight names. Like I said before, this reflects the inspiration we take from scenes in London, Berlin and Amsterdam. Then we also get smaller acts to play big slots rather than just having locals opening a stage. It’s about seeing which DJs work well in clubs and whether it would work to bring them to a festival. This affects how we design the stages – they’re basically miniature clubs. It’s like putting a puzzle together.

Curating the line-up is always based on good feeling – that is the most important thing. It’s instinctive. I’ve been doing this for 10 years, I know what people are expecting, but I also want to do something new each year and keep surprising them. There is one stage that’s always played really hard and fast trancey stuff. Some people wouldn’t even look at the line-up, they’d just stand there for three days and know they’d have fun. This year I’ve done a complete overhaul of that stage with a completely different genre. It’s a risk, but I’m convinced people will be pleasantly surprised. If you’re coming to Horst, surely you’re keen to discover something new, right?

What is the Horst vibe going to be this year?

There will be two key pillars. One is built on going back to house music, and the other is breakbeat, drum ​‘n’ bass, jungle. These genres used to be very male-dominated, but this year, with DJs like Mia Koden, AliA and Introspekt, there’s a lot of female energy that’s breathing fresh life into things.

What are you most proud to have achieved with the festival?

When people say they don’t even look at the line-up – they just buy the ticket anyway. They have confidence in us to deliver a good time and for Horst to help them escape the harsh realities of the world. I’m really proud of that.