Eating might not be your top priority at a festival but when you’re there for 4 days of madness, eating really isn’t cheating. It facilitates the longevity of the party.
Luckily the Dutch events I’ve been to all take eating really seriously and provide so many options. The Wasted Lands area which is exclusively for the campers at Defqon1 Festival didn’t disappoint either.
There were fresh smoothies being served up right next to the weekend warrior gym. You could get pizza, chips with Fritz sauce, bao buns, noodles, even a special warrior breakfast box but the only thing I could get down after a mental night raving was the juicy BBQ Chicken Wrap.
They take your order and get it on the BBQ. The smells are drawing tired ravers from the surrounding campsites looking for sustenance before another 20 miles worth of marching to stages and dancing the hakken. Be warned, the queues can be long and teamwork is necessary if you’re going to be ready for the Opening Ceremony!
I received two halves (great for sharing) of a lovely wrap filled with juicy BBQ flavoured chicken with guacamole, salsa fresca, sour cream, cheese and lettuce . It cost just three tokens (about €10) and set me up right for the day. What’s even better is they have another stand inside the festival at Toofargonia for all the day ticket ravers which is great because everyone gets to try my Defqon1 comfort food.
Normally, I love pizza but the pizza here wasn’t doing it for me. I think I might have been too dehydrated to get down all that bread and I don’t really like thin crust.
You’ve kept me fed all weekend with the wraps you couldn’t finish eating
Simba
The Wasted Lands also had some chill out areas, the entrance to the silent disco at Silber, a fair ride, a spa (if you want to brave the hot tub that everyone’s been in), arcades, lockers, bars and a camp shop where you can buy and even rent out portable chargers for your devices if you leave a deposit. There’s normally a few scavenger hunt clues hidden around here too.
It really is the centre of everything. It’s the first place you get to when you first enter on Thursday or Friday as a camper and all the campsites are accessed this way. I was staying in Highlands which is pretty central. I’d hate to stay in campsite 5 or 6 which as a huge walk over the bridge. My blisters were bad enough. There’s also two entrances to the festival grounds from here but you can’t take any food or drink in with you from Wasted Lands. Not even empties!
Wasted Lands is open even when the festival shuts and it’s where all the people who don’t want to sleep hang out until the early hours. The bars stay open pretty late, maybe 2am and you can buy a pack of beer or stelz to take back to the campsite.
Eating really isn’t cheating. It facilitates the longevity of the party.
arby
Watch out for the gazebo parades and make sure you bow down to whoever is carrying the biggest speaker. Well, until security shut it down at around 4am!
