Imagine a place where children, teenagers and adults are all dancing and jumping around in groups while singing songs towards each other followed by laying on picnic blankets or air lounges to catch up with one another under the beverage of some tasteful food & cold drinks while the kids find each other to play games. For Beach Festival Nieuwpoort this wasn’t just an imagination but the reality of their second day of the festival on July 20th. A festival located with a view over to the marina in Nieuwpoort Belgium started their day with the typical rainy Belgian weather but that didn’t stop a few thousand people from showing up ready to give all their love and support to the performing artists. After a few years with just one stage Beach festival Nieuwpoort introduced a new smaller stage named the seaside stage to this year’s edition where they gave (smaller) upcoming artists like Maxine, Luna and Jet van der Steen an opportunity to share their music with the visitors.
The mainstage was opened by Emma Bale, a Belgian artist whose music is a mix between indie, synth-pop and soul. She performed a mix of her own songs as well as covers like Kodaline’s ‘All I Want’ while more visitors entered the festival site.
At 3:15pm the rain and clouds slowly started to make room for a little bit of sun as it was time for Dutch artist Snelle, artist name of Lars Bors, to hit the stage with his band named ‘de lieve jongens band’ (eng. ‘the sweet boys band’). As some of his most popular songs like ‘Smoorverliefd’, ‘In De Schuur’ and ‘De Overkant’ passed by Snelle found the perfect balance between joking around with his band by for example covering the eyes of his guitar player causing a lot of joy by the children in the crowd, to interacting with the crowd themselves by asking them to sing along and sometimes even battle between both sides of the site to see which side can be the loudest. The further in the setlist the more energetic the crowd became, and the more children and signs started to show up above the crowd spreading more love and joy towards Snelle. When the moment was there to close the set Snelle brought a typical Dutch tradition into the party during ‘De Laatste’ (eng. ‘The Last’) by asking the crowd to create at least 35 mini “polonaises” also known as a conga line causing the site to transform in a crowd full of mini conga lines to great joy of Snelle and the audience.
As the clouds started to disappear and more visitors entered the site, more groups started to form and picnic blankets started to come out. Where there was a loving, energetic and happy vibe during Snelle’s set you could feel a relaxing and happy vibe land in between the sets as the adults enjoyed the sun and their drinks while the kids came up with all sorts of games to play.
Berre Vandenbussche, artist name Berre, an upcoming Flemish sing-songwriter who made his first appearance on The Voice kids Belgium in 2014 was up next and even when the voice kids is a big platform it wasn’t his breakthrough. It wasn’t until 2020 that Berre got his breakthrough by making covers in his garage during Covid.
Covers like Birdy’s ‘Wings’ and Freya Ridings’ ‘Lost Without You’, which currently has over 10 million views, started to go viral leading to his own music and a spot for the second time on the mainstage, this time right before Natasha Bedingfield. From the moment Berre stepped on the stage the crowd was on, especially at the barricade where fans poured their heart and souls into singing the lyrics of ‘Not Going Anywhere’ where fans collectively screamed “1,2,3 Where are you going?” to be perfectly followed by Berre singing “I’m not going anywhere” while looking at his fans with a huge smile but probably one of his favorite moments of his performance that day was how well the crowd knew the words to his song ‘Say My Name’ which he told the crowd that it was amazing to hear them sing a long to it after two years. With a performance of a great mix between his slower songs and his upbeat songs the crowd was loving every word he said.
Until now the lineup was especially liked by the younger generation at the festival but at 5:45pm it was time for the adults to get up as well and enjoy some trip down memory lane with Natasha Bedingfield. From the first song on she delivered a high energy performance by performing some of her classics like ‘Pocketful of Sunshine’ with the sun perfectly interacting to her lyrics by shining bright after an hour of a cloudy sky. Even when the youngest generation at the festival didn’t know some of the classics she made sure they would have the best time just like their parents by adding several covers like Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’, Billie Eilish’s ‘Birds of a Feather’ and Coldplay’s ‘Politik’ where she let the crowd know that she is talking to the world to open their eyes but she didn’t keep it by these words and covers. When ‘Zombie’ by the Cranberries was written there was so much going on in the world, just like now she explains to the crowd as she follows by encouraging the crowd and especially the creative people to stay creative, “to never give up, use your voice, keep choosing kindness and keep choosing love” something the crowd agreed on by cheering and making heart signs with their hands followed by singing every word along.
After the song finished she made sure to let the crowd know that she felt their energy and has the perfect song for this energy as she started another one of her classics ‘These Words’ and just when you thought the crowd showed their maximum of energy during ‘Zombie’ the crowd became even louder while starting dance parties and showing several hand heart signs followed by another cover of the classic ‘Purple Rain’ by Prince where the older generation poured their hearts and souls in. With the crowd being full of energy the moment was there “The song I know you’ve been waiting for’ she said as the intro of ‘Unwritten’ started and the crowd united into one giant loving bubble of people dancing, jumping and connecting with each other feeling every emotion they had connected to the song. And as if the weather was a paid actor “feel the rain on your skin” slowly started to happen as the first drops fell down which not much later turned into heavy rain and some thunder which didn’t stop the crowd from getting ready for the next artist.
Some things you couldn’t miss during this day was a huge group of young adults that filled the first few rows at the barricades since the beginning of the day as well as little kids patiently saving their home-made signs for this one moment: Pommelien Thijs. After a delay of about 10 minutes due to the weather conditions Pommelien and her band entered the stage and once again as if the weather was a paid actor the sun came through and completely matched their energy and happiness. Released songs like ‘Erop Of Eronder’, ‘Meisjes Van Honing’, ‘Kleine Tornado’, ‘Tegenwoordige tijd’ and ‘Het beste moet nog komen’, a song she wrote for a campaign to raise awareness about the possible deadly consequences of using your phone while driving causing you to never find out that the best things in life still need to happen, were performed. Especially ‘Het beste moet nog komen’ with the pure vocals of Pommelien and her guitarist Charline d’Hoore, also known in Belgium as the lead singer of the band Archie x, caused people to really turn to each other to find support while going through the emotions of the loaded message in the song. But like the previous mentioned song is about: the best had yet to come as she treated the audience with some unreleased songs as ‘niemand is bijzonder’, ‘authentiek’ and ‘Ben je klaar’ her personal favorite at the moment of her upcoming album Gedoe which will come out on October 3rd this year, she managed to unite all generations through her strong lyrics about things like climate change, authenticity and other life and world questions combined on flavors of pop and rock.
Supported by her band who just like Pommelien showed nothing but gratitude, energy and happiness as well as her friends of the Netflix series ‘Knokke off’, also known as ‘high tides’, in the audience she finished her set with ‘Atlas’ a song which currently takes over the hit charts in Belgium and the Netherlands and got everyone on the site to dance, sing and spread love making sure that Pommelien felt all the love by chanting her name together. Feeling all the love she couldn’t leave the stage without performing the song that was her coming out, ‘ongewoon’, which just like when she released it got received with open, loving and accepting arms leaving the stage to be closed by Goldband, a pop group from the Netherlands consisting of Boaz Kok, Karel Gerlach en Milo Driessen, who treated the crowd with performances of their popular songs like ‘Noodgeval’.
All together Beach Festival Nieuwpoort managed to create an atmosphere where all ages came together to spread love, happiness and gratitude by uniting over music.
