Best Kept Secret 2019

[mellowmaniac]

I'm also mostly very happy with the lineup so far.

But I hoped that Christine would play as co-headliner before Kraftwerk and that we would get another big headliner for Sunday (I hadn't completely given up hope for The Cure, even though it has become very unrealistic in the meantime).

Some of the acts I expected have not been confirmed yet (The Streets, Tallest Man On Earth, Idles, Dream Wife, Fucked Up), nor some I hoped for (Doves, Jarvis Cocker, Big Red Machine, Mura Masa, Neneh Cherry, Sons of Kemet XL, Suede, Whispering Sons).

However, I still expect 15-20 bands to be confirmed for stages 1, 2, 3 and 5 - plus additional acts for Stage 4 and Casbah. Maybe there will be some welcome surprises. The Friday is already quite full, but on Saturday and Sunday there is still room for improvement.

Edited January 18, 2019 by mellowmaniac

[mellowmaniac]

9 minutes ago, uncertain said:

Cool lineup. Unfortunately Spiritualized is missing from the bill and I was really looking forward to seeing them.

I'm sure they will be confirmed at a later announcement. It wouldn't make sense to have Spiritualized's photo with the ones of all the other announced acts and not confirm them sooner or later.

[StupidDream]

Even though Beach House played last in 2016, still hoping they'll be one of the late additions (late ticket pusher), together with Spiritualized. Think in the last drop of 15-20 names there'll be 2 or 3 bigger names like Spiritualized. Pretty pleased with the line-up already, before really digging into all the music. Easily see at least 5 acts a day I'd like to see and that's enough for me. Only the Sunday could do with something extra right now. Although maybe I'm quite happy with an easy Sunday because I was really knackered last year  

[visdave34]

11 hours ago, mellowmaniac said:

I'm sure they will be confirmed at a later announcement. It wouldn't make sense to have Spiritualized's photo with the ones of all the other announced acts and not confirm them sooner or later.

They have a club show in March in Amsterdam that isn’t sold out yet. Pretty sure that has something to do with them not being announced today. 

[gigi21]

Not very happy about the third headliner and Carly Rae Jepsen, but the undercard is very good.

I think there will be some other great surprises, especially for sunday, that is quite weak (in my opinion) at the moment.

[visdave34]

But Sunday at the moment is the day with most 2nd and 3rd tier acts and lacks 4th tier. So I’m afraid that Sunday will get a lot more 4th tier names added and little more surprises. I myself find the Saturday to be lacking atm. Still hoping Courtney Barnett will join Yves Tumor in the Primavera - BKS - We Love Green route. 

[mellowmaniac]

I guess for Sunday most to be announced acts will be stage 5 and some other smaller acts, as visdave wrote. The Friday is pretty much complete (except of stage 4 and casbah acts), but for Saturday we might even get some stage 1 and other "bigger" acts. 

[StupidDream]

Maybe we put a bit too much confidence in the tiers for now, as they try to fit it into the shape? Suspicious however that it's mostly Sunday names, while we have relatively few Sunday names (no night program of course). Big Thief, Lizzo, Princess Nokia, Julia Holter and Indian Askin aren't the biggest names and I could see most of them also ending up on stage THREE or FIVE, instead of TWO or ONE. So I am still hopeful

What do we reckon: Carly Rae on ONE or TWO?

[mellowmaniac]

12 hours ago, StupidDream said:

What do we reckon: Carly Rae on ONE or TWO?

My guess, based on tonday's lineup, is Carly R.J. as co-head on stage 1 and Interpol as Stage 2 head.

[gigi21]

On 1/19/2019 at 8:50 PM, mellowmaniac said:

I guess for Sunday most to be announced acts will be stage 5 and some other smaller acts, as visdave wrote. The Friday is pretty much complete (except of stage 4 and casbah acts), but for Saturday we might even get some stage 1 and other "bigger" acts. 

So do you think we'll have a totally pop stage 1 on sunday? I'm expecting a couple of more good acts (maybe a "sunday lunch" one like Johnny Greenwood, Explosions in the Sky or Ry X in the past years and another one for the early evening).

I agree that we'll definitely have 2-3 more quite big ones for saturday too.

Anyway, I love the undercard and don't mind if most of interesting names coming will not be the biggest ones... But a couple of more good surprises for saturday and sunday would be welcome 

[mellowmaniac]

5 minutes ago, gigi21 said:

So do you think we'll have a totally pop stage 1 on sunday? I'm expecting a couple of more good acts (maybe a "sunday lunch" one like Johnny Greenwood, Explosions in the Sky or Ry X in the past years and another one for the early evening).

I agree that we'll definitely have 2-3 more quite big ones for saturday too.

Anyway, I love the undercard and don't mind if most of interesting names coming will not be the biggest ones... But a couple of more good surprises for saturday and sunday would be welcome 

I don't think we'll get a full pop stage 1, because BKS is in the end to indie for that, but it could be a possibility to have a full female fronted Sunday (with Christine, Carly Rae, Kate Tempest and two other acts). BKS is pretty unpredictable, but who knows.

[Trufflehound]

40 new names. Spiritualized now officially confirmed!

Death Grips – The Raconteurs – SOPHIE – Spiritualized – Georgia Anne Muldrow – Krystal Klear – Toro y Moi – Wooden Shjips – Amy Root – Angie McMahon – Bbymutha – Blue Lab Beats – Bountyhunter – David Vunk – Denzel Himself – Ditz – Elias Mazian – Fenna Fiction – Fornet – Gotu Jim – Haron – Helena Deland – Kate NV – Lewsberg – LIFE – mad miran – Mike Rogers (dj-set) – Niels Broos – The Nude Party – Paula Tape – Personal Trainer – Puce Mary – Selma Judith – Sports Team – St. Paul – Tala Drum Corps – Torus – Varg (live) – Wallows – Whispering Sons

Edited February 26, 2019 by Trufflehound

[StupidDream]

And they also confirmed SEVEN as a new stage (or area as they call it) where you'll be introduced to experimental, R&B and world music. Still no indication where on the terrain this will be. Plus, the TWO, THREE and FIVE are getting a make over. So, some new(-ish) things to explore. 

[Trufflehound]

Timetable is up.

Friday and Saturday looking busy but not many clashes for me. Sunday could be an early night.

 

[mellowmaniac]

As I already wrote somewhere else:

I’m wondering if BKS really needs another DJ-stage (Stage Three). Right now about 40% of the acts are DJs.

The other thing that really worries me a little is that it was announced that Seven will have a capacity of around 300 people (if I remember correctly). Seven hosts a lot of the acts that usually would have played Three. Feels very much like downsizing. Also Five has a several acts that doesn’t seem to fit the previous concept of Stage Five (especially on Sunday). No idea why Seven on Sunday will host only four ambient acts in the afternoon.

Friday and Saturday will be great. The Sunday will be mostly over (for me) at about 20:00h.

[StupidDream]

1 hour ago, mellowmaniac said:

As I already wrote somewhere else:

I’m wondering if BKS really needs another DJ-stage (Stage Three). Right now about 40% of the acts are DJs.

The other thing that really worries me a little is that it was announced that Seven will have a capacity of around 300 people (if I remember correctly). Seven hosts a lot of the acts that usually would have played Three. Feels very much like downsizing. Also Five has a several acts that doesn’t seem to fit the previous concept of Stage Five (especially on Sunday). No idea why Seven on Sunday will host only four ambient acts in the afternoon.

Friday and Saturday will be great. The Sunday will be mostly over (for me) at about 20:00h.

They said some time ago (in an interview/podcast) that several stages will be refurbished and think they also said new locations, so I'm waiting with my opinion. It's certainly weird to have both THREE and FOUR like this. I'm not sure anymore how much everything is connected to the previous stage 'names'. ONE and TWO are still what you can expect I think. 

I'm reading something while writing this, and I came across the following, from 3voor12, which is a Dutch platform for alternative/new music. A former presenter of them (Roosmarijn Reijmer) is now working for the festival/promotor and she's saying this: (loosely translater) 'We've noticed in the last few years that electronic acts on THREE worked really well, so we've decided to extend this through the evening. It (the electronic acts) starts earlier, but also the stage will be entirely refurbished and moved to the waterside. During the day you can hang and relax with another host every day.' So it's a whole different concept. I think this can work if the weather is great like for the last two editions. Loads of people around the stage just hanging and lying around. Although with entirely different acts. Indeed, on first glance, I think I would've liked some acts of SEVEN in here during the day. 

Especially when reading this: 'Also new is stage SEVEN, a tiny stage on the water with upcoming acts in between lasers and smoke machines (sounds weird, I've to admit). Roosmarijn Reijmer: "SEVEN can hold 250 people max., this stage is new because we've felt we needed a small and compact environment for bands and artists with experimental music in all kinds of genres. A big tent is not always in their advantage, this stage on the water will feel like a small, dirty night club.' It sounds sort of cool, but I worry it's too small for some acts, and that they'll miss out on a potentially bigger crowd. This would have been great if this was for additional, intimate sets for some acts. But we'll see. 

At least it's pretty easy on the clashes for me now  

[StupidDream]

1 minute ago, StupidDream said:

Also Five has a several acts that doesn’t seem to fit the previous concept of Stage Five (especially on Sunday).

I don't know what the concept really was for FIVE  It was already a mix ranging from ('soft') indie folk to ('hard') rock'n'roll, some indie pop with electronic influences and a hiphop program at night. Indeed, Sunday looks like a day on THREE in previous years. 

I'm loving that Saturday on stage FIVE, think I'm spending pretty much my whole day there... Probably moving for Cigarettes after Sex and Kraftwerk. Finding time to properly eat may be difficult  

[mellowmaniac]

2 minutes ago, StupidDream said:

Especially when reading this: 'Also new is stage SEVEN, a tiny stage on the water with upcoming acts in between lasers and smoke machines (sounds weird, I've to admit). Roosmarijn Reijmer: "SEVEN can hold 250 people max., this stage is new because we've felt we needed a small and compact environment for bands and artists with experimental music in all kinds of genres. A big tent is not always in their advantage, this stage on the water will feel like a small, dirty night club.' It sounds sort of cool, but I worry it's too small for some acts, and that they'll miss out on a potentially bigger crowd. This would have been great if this was for additional, intimate sets for some acts. But we'll see. 

At least it's pretty easy on the clashes for me now  

I don't know. The idea sounds very intriguing, but I always assumed that Seven would be an additional stage for really left of center acts and not "replacing" Three.

(Especially in the evening) Stage Two is usually overcrowded and a lot of people want to see live acts, instead of DJs. They put  more acts on Five than before, but Stage Five and a 250 people sized Seven will not cover for everyone who wants to see live bands.

[mellowmaniac]

BTW: I'm wondering if there is any meaning to the mysterious "TBC", with a three hour set on stage Four on Sunday, being listed on the lineup page as headliner...

[mellowmaniac]

Friday: Shht -> John Grant -> Blue Lab Beats -> Primal Scream -> Stereolab -> Psychedelic Porn Crumpets -> Spiritualized -> Priests -> Charlotte Gainsbourg -> Jambinai -> Crack Cloud -> Shame -> BCUC -> Ditz

Saturday: The Nude Party -> Helena Deland -> Sports Team -> Wallows -> Yves Tumor -> Mildlife -> Phosphorescent -> Fat White Family -> Niels Broos -> Guided By Voices -> Feng Suave -> Death Grips -> Mac DeMarco -> Ex Hex -> Ron Gallo -> Kraftwerk -> Sophie -> Viagra Boys -> Life -> Toro Y Moi

Sunday: Julia Holter -> Juke Ross -> Romperayo -> Whispering Sons -> Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks -> Caroline Rose -> Liz Phair -> Georgia Anne Muldrow -> Kurt Vile & The Violators -> The Raconteurs

Definitely too many acts on Friday and Saturday and in the end I'll go with the flow anyway.

[StupidDream]

1 minute ago, mellowmaniac said:

I don't know. The idea sounds very intriguing, but I always assumed that Seven would be an additional stage for really left of center acts and not "replacing" Three.

(Especially in the evening) Stage Two is usually overcrowded and a lot of people want to see live acts, instead of DJs. They put  more acts on Five than before, but Stage Five and a 250 people sized Seven will not cover for everyone who wants to see live bands.

Yeah, I'm also a bit suprised, as a large chunk of people is basically going from ONE to TWO to ONE. In my perception THREE was doing rather well the whole day, so dunno why they had to change that. What I didn't like was the barn-like structure that made going in and out a bit difficult, so would be happy with a more open structure. I'm hoping TWO will become a bit bigger, but probably not. 

There's enough to keep me entertained, and I don't mind an hour of more casually hanging around, but right now it seems that of the seven stages I'm only really considering actively going to three of them. Casbah is a bit too claustrofobic, as would be the SEVEN I'd imagine.

[StupidDream]

1 hour ago, mellowmaniac said:

Friday: Shht -> John Grant -> Blue Lab Beats -> Primal Scream -> Stereolab -> Psychedelic Porn Crumpets -> Spiritualized -> Priests -> Charlotte Gainsbourg -> Jambinai -> Crack Cloud -> Shame -> BCUC -> Ditz

Saturday: The Nude Party -> Helena Deland -> Sports Team -> Wallows -> Yves Tumor -> Mildlife -> Phosphorescent -> Fat White Family -> Niels Broos -> Guided By Voices -> Feng Suave -> Death Grips -> Mac DeMarco -> Ex Hex -> Ron Gallo -> Kraftwerk -> Sophie -> Viagra Boys -> Life -> Toro Y Moi

Sunday: Julia Holter -> Juke Ross -> Romperayo -> Whispering Sons -> Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks -> Caroline Rose -> Liz Phair -> Georgia Anne Muldrow -> Kurt Vile & The Violators -> The Raconteurs

Definitely too many acts on Friday and Saturday and in the end I'll go with the flow anyway.

Haha, you won't survive that Saturday, better have an easy Sunday!

I know myself, I pick 6-7 acts a day, and 3-4 I'll really put some effort in. Can't take in much more, as can my festival buddy, so best to adapt to that to have a great festival all the way through. And indeed, see what the day brings me for the rest of the time.

[mellowmaniac]

2 minutes ago, StupidDream said:

Haha, you won't survive that Saturday, better have an easy Sunday!

I know myself, I pick 6-7 acts a day, and 3-4 I'll really put some effort in. Can't take in much more, as can my festival buddy, so best to adapt to that to have a great festival all the way through. And indeed, see what the day brings me for the rest of the time.

Yes, I definitely won't make it all. But it tells me how strong the Friday and Saturday lineup is for me.

[gigi21]

Quite happy with the timetable, my only big regret is Jambinai clashing with Bon Iver, but one can't have everything.

As it will be my first time, can someone tell me how difficult will be moving from a stage to another? Is there any stage that needs more than 10 minutes to be reached from another one?

Thank you so much.

[mellowmaniac]

2 minutes ago, gigi21 said:

Quite happy with the timetable, my only big regret is Jambinai clashing with Bon Iver, but one can't have everything.

As it will be my first time, can someone tell me how difficult will be moving from a stage to another? Is there any stage that needs more than 10 minutes to be reached from another one?

Thank you so much.

They announced some changes to the setting of the stages. I'm pretty sure stage one and two will stay on the same spots and probably four, five and The Casbah as well. Stage three will probably be closer to the lake and no one know yet where stage seven will be - except that it will be floating on the water. In previous years the biggest distance was between stage two and stage five. I's say it can take up to 10 minutes to get there (depending on how determined you are to get there fast ). Stage one and two are pretty close to each other (a couple of minutes). Stage three was between stage one and stage five. To get a good spot it's usually enough to be there 10 minutes before the show starts.

Last year's map: