| Defqon.1 Weekend Festival | |
| Location: | Netherlands (since 14 June 2003) Australia (19 September 2009- 16 September 2018) Chile (12 December 2015 & 10 December 2016) |
| Years Active: | 2003–Present (Netherlands) 2009–2018 (Australia) 2015–2016 (Chile) |
| Founders: | Q-dance |
| Dates: | Netherlands (since 14 June 2003) Australia (19 September 2009-September 16, 2018) Chile (12 December 2015 & 10 December 2016) |
| Attendance: | 110,000 (2024) |
| Genre: | hardstyle, hardcore, Rawstyle, Uptempo, Frenchcore and Electronic Dance music, hard dance |
| Website: | Defqon.1 Weekend Festival |
Defqon.1 Weekend Festival is an annual music festival held in the Netherlands. In the past, it was also held in Chile and Australia. Founded in 2003 by festival organizer Q-dance, the festival plays mostly hardstyle and related genres such as rawstyle, hardcore, early and classic.
The festival was previously held in mid-June on Almeerderstrand in Almere. Since 2011, it is hosted on the event site next to Walibi Holland in Biddinghuizen. Since 2009, the event has also been hosted in Sydney in mid-September, at the Sydney International Regatta Centre. Until 2011 (2014 for the Australian edition) the festival ran for 12 hours, from 11:00 am to 11:00 pm, and ended with a firework display. Since 2012, the festival was extended to three days. Since 2015, the Australian edition was extended to two days. Each edition also has an anthem, an official song that is played in conjunction with the festival. The festival is also livestreamed with video from the largest stages and audio for all the other stages through YouTube,[1] and the Q-Dance[2] website for people all around the world to tune into.
At the Dutch event the audience has grown to 65,000 visitors per day. In 2013, the Sydney event attracted 18,000 attendees.[3] The same event saw the death of a male, around 20 drug overdoses and more than 80 arrested on drug charges.[4]
On 17 September 2018, the New South Wales Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, announced her intention that Defqon.1 would not take place again, due to two deaths that took place at the 2018 festival.[5] At this event seven hundred people sought medical assistance.[6] Shane Rattenbury, the Greens leader in the ACT, has invited Defqon.1 to take place in Canberra where pill testing could be carried out after a successful trial with Groovin the Moo.[7]
On 29 May 2019, Q-dance announced on its official Facebook profiles that Defqon.1 Australia, after a decade being held at the Sydney International Regatta Centre (Penrith),[8] would be indefinitely suspended, since they were "unable to secure a suitable replacement venue for the event to take place [...]"[9]
2020 did not see Defqon.1 held after the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte declared that all events in the Netherlands were cancelled until September 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Defqon.1 was held virtually in 2021, with sets from participating performers streamed from the Defqon.1 website.[10]
The festival was held in person again in 2022, with over 100.000 unique visitors.[11]
| Year | Location | Anthem & Theme | Number of visitors* | Number of performers | TicketPrice | Token Price | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Almeerderstrand, Almere, Flevoland, The Netherlands | 25,000 | 48 | 14 June | |||
| 2004 | 79 | 19 June | |||||
| 2005 | Emergency Call (The Prophet) | 85 | 18 June | ||||
| 2006 | The Colour of the Harder Styles (Showtek) | 103 | 17 June | ||||
| 2007 | Get Wasted (Brennan Heart) | 124 | 16 June | ||||
| 2008 | Biological Insanity (Luna & Deepack) | 119 | 14 June | ||||
| 2009 | Almeerderstrand, Almere, Flevoland, The Netherlands | Scrap Attack (Headhunterz) | 30,000 | 104 | 13 June | ||
| Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia | Maximum Force (Zany) | 52 | 19 September | ||||
| 2010 | Almeerderstrand, Almere, Flevoland, The Netherlands | No Time To Waste (Wildstylez) | 40,000 | 115 | 12 June | ||
| Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia | Save Your Scrap for Victory (Headhunterz) | 72 | 18 September | ||||
| 2011 | Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The Netherlands | Unite (Noisecontrollers) | 127 | 25 June | |||
| Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia | Psychedelic Wasteland (Toneshifterz) | 72 | 17 September | ||||
| 2012 | Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The Netherlands | World of Madness (Headhunterz, Wildstylez & Noisecontrollers) | 55,000 | 21–23 June | |||
| Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia | True Rebel Freedom (Wildstylez) | 15 September | |||||
| 2013 | Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The Netherlands | Weekend Warriors (Frontliner) | 55,000[12] | 312 | 21–23 June | ||
| Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia | Scrap The System (Brennan Heart) | 18,000 | 14 September | ||||
| 2014 | Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The Netherlands | Survival of the Fittest (Coone) | 55,000[13] | 207 | 27–29 June | ||
| Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia | Unleash the Beast (Code Black) | 20 September | |||||
| 2015 | Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The Netherlands | No Guts, No Glory (Ran-D) | 60,000[14] | 250+ | 19–21 June | ||
| Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia | No Guts, No Glory (Frontliner, Dillytek & 360) | 21,000 | 97 | 18–19 September | |||
| Centro de Eventos Munich, Santiago de Chile, Santiago Providence, Chile | Unleash The Beast (Wildstylez) | 30,000 | 33 | 12 December | |||
| 2016 | Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The Netherlands | Dragonblood (Bass Modulators) | 100,000 | 24–26 June | |||
| Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia | Dragonblood (Toneshifterz, Code Black & Audiofreq) | 25,000 | 17 September | ||||
| Centro de Eventos Munich, Santiago de Chile, Santiago Providence, Chile | Dragonblood (Frontliner) | 20,000 | 10 December | ||||
| 2017 | Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The Netherlands | Victory Forever (Frequencerz) | 150,000 | €143 Weekend + Camping | €2,70 = 1 Token | 23–25 June | |
| Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia | Eye of the Storm (D-Block and S-Te-Fan) | 30,000 | 16 September | ||||
| 2018 | Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The Netherlands | Maximum Force (Project One) | 185,000 | 226 | €155 Weekend + Camping | €2,89 = 1 Token | 22–24 June |
| Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia | Dedicated To The Core (Coone) | 30,000 | 15 September | ||||
| 2019 | Walibi Holland Evenemententerrein, Biddinghuizen, Flevoland, The Netherlands | One Tribe (Phuture Noize, Keltek, Sefa) | 78,000 Unique visitors[15] | 235 | €3,00= 1Token | 28–30 June | |
| 2020 | Primal Energy (D-Block & S-te-Fan) | - | - | Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, an @Home event took place. | |||
| 2021 | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||||
| 2022 | Primal Energy (Haunted Grounds) (D-Block & S-te-Fan; under their live act Ghost Stories) | 100,000 | €3,60 = 1 Token | 23–26 June | |||
| 2023 | Path of the Warrior (Sub Zero Project)[16] | 250,000 | €249 Weekend + Camping | €3,80= 1 Token | 22–25 June | ||
| 2024 | Power of the Tribe (Sound Rush - Power of the Tribe - YouTube | 300.000 | €280 Weekend + Camping | €4,00= 1 Token | 27-30 June |