Week 34 of 2026: lowlands

I went to a festival! I've added a new section called "listened" to deal with that, but I must warn: I wasn't really there for the music, I mostly just enjoyed camping with my friends. My highlight was seeing my brother dj'ing in at the India stage on Thursday evening – he's half of Indie Gloria. It was great to have this must-see in at the beginning of the festival, so the rest of the time I just followed friends and my own mood. Oh and I went completely sober: I rawdogged Lowlands.

Listened

Like I said: on Thursday we arrived at Lowlands and went to see my brother play at the India stage. After that we saw a little bit of the next dj (Menno?), but returned to the tent pretty soon to play some Hitster.

On Friday, I saw Amyl and the Sniffers, a bit of Adéla and a bit of Antoon, before wandering back to the tent because I was overwhelmed. I did see Fulu Miziki (very interesting) and then went for the Basshall in Heineken (we were there early, so we managed to dance behind the dj booth for a while, but I did not make it to Kybba).

On Saturday, we went out early (but not early enough for the yoga). We saw José Gonzalez, Kelis and Ravyn Lenae. I was a bit wandering again and saw one song of Keo and then was at the Bravo in time for the (already?) legendary concert of IJsland, but as the tent was already full 15 minutes before it started, I got scared by the crowd and went out. I listened to it while sitting in the sun outside, while talking deep talks with a co-camper who had the same fear of crowds. This made us in time for Major Lazer, and although that crowd was even bigger, the Alpha stage and surroundings could actually hold it better. I was still very impressed by the amount of people. After that I saw a bit of Geese and bit of Nia Archives. Our group was heavily debating between going to Sombr or The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but we ended up in the Lima for Fauna, which was just very strange. After that the group took a sip of Royal Blood before trying to get into the Adonis, but I was too hooked so I split off with two others to watch it in full. I think this is my other highlight because it was the moment I was most engaged into the music: I guess rock is just the easiest to digest for me. After that it was chaos and I saw a bit of Smib and some dance in the Bravo and then Smib again and halfway S!rine I gave up and went to bed.

On Sunday we did the Noord Nederlands Orkest, as one should (it was very busy again, but maybe not as busy as Major Lazer). Although I had promised myself not to walk from Alpha to Bravo and back all day, we went and watched Sophie Straat for a while, then went to Hermanos Gutierrez. I was pretty hyped for El Pony Pisador after that, so I made sure I was on time, and it was good, but not as nice as it could be because it was too crowded (for my taste) to dance, but I still had a good time. We had a tent-moment after that and went to Lorde in the evening (we were too late and missed the beginning), followed by a bit of undecided wandering between Iconic, Vlooiencircus and the dance of Bravo again. We ended up in Skream & Benga and that's where I ended my Lowlands for yet another "early" bedtime.

Read

• continued The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin (The Broken Earth 2)

I'm almost finished, and it was too good not to take this book to the festival. Unfortunately, it was also too good to read it in the tired moments in between the concerts, so I did not finish yet, even though I had the third and final volume in the tent with me too.

Played

I played Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast on Tuesday, but I was very tired – even before the festival – so it didn't feel like the best one. Luckily it's a GM-less system, so I could generally just take a step back and let the other players do their thing.

Ran

I told Runna that I was taking a holiday, and declared it as "not intending to run at all", which took away almost all runs from the schedule. On Wednesday I ran an easy 8.9k and on Thursday morning I added a 5.4km anti-stress run while waiting for my friends to pick me up.