Left of the Dial returns to Rotterdam in October
Rotterdam’s international showcase festival Left of the Dial returns to the city’s iconic venues from the 17th until the 19th of October. Organised by Rotown Rotterdam, the festival brings a range of international alternative musical talents to the city!
The festival highlights the versatility of over twenty different venues across the city, ranging from bars to theatres, churches, and boats. Left of the Dial offers a sample of the best of modern alternative music and covers a wide range of genres with bands such as Benefits, Chappaqua Wrestling, Meryl Streek, Muck., Punchbag and Twen all gracing the line-up. With post-punk, dream pop, shoegaze, alternative hip-hop and synth pop all being brought together, the festival shows that genres need not divide but instead bring together. Left of the Dial stands out for its grassroots identity and taking chances on young and emerging artists by offering them a stage at incredible venues all over town.
Dutch dream pop artist Robin Kester will be performing at stunning venue De Paradijskerk, on her upcoming festival performance she said “I’m really looking forward to my interview with Dan Carey and playing in such a beautiful venue as De Paradijskerk. I’m Rotterdam-based and I love living here!”. Northern Tech-no-wave outfit Polevaulter said of their upcoming trip “It’ll be our first trip to the Netherlands, so it’ll be a good opportunity to get a feel for the venues and the whole festival for sure. Artists doing multiple sets is really cool, no excuse if you miss them now. Plus I want to find that boat.” PUNCHBAG added; “We are super super pumped to play to an entirely new crowd as we’ve never been to the Netherlands!”, WAX HEAD are gearing up for their first ever festival experience abroad, and guitar rock outfit L’objectif are very much looking forward to seeing what Rotterdam is about, “never been before and excited to check out all the different venues. We are excited to play our set to a new audience in Rotterdam!”
Female four-piece post punk slash alternative rock band Friedberg, pop artist Liz Lawrence are all flocking to Rotterdam to bring their fanatic and dreamy pop rock sounds that will have the city’s ears buzzing for days after the festival. Left of the Dial aims to help emerging bands reach a wider audience and promote independent artists instead of those already within reach of the top. The festival has contributed to the success of bands such as Tramhaus, Lambrini Girls, Big Special, and English Teacher. Those on this year’s line-up will hopefully soon follow.
Words by Laura Rosierse
