A group of musical friends and I took a trip to Amsterdam to play a gig consitsing of UK underground dance music, namely, Jungle. We stayed at a commune in the North of Amsterdam named Het Groene Veld. This was our second stay, six months after our initial stay in May.
The second day, the Saturday, was one of my rainiest days I’d experienced. Our stay coincided with ADE (Amsterdam Dance Event) Festival, and also a pivotal moment in Global Political Awareness, with many protests happening across the world for Palestinian liberation. Therefore, Saturday saw our day parading throught he streets of central Amsterdam, following a number of vans and vehicles with rigs attached to them, playing out sounds of trance, fast techno, jungle and dub. Some of the people hosting sets on the vehicles would occasionally mention the reason for the prosession, and call for those of us following to think about the situation happening in the Gaza strip.
The weather combined with the seclection of music gave the setting the atmosphere and aesthetics of an illegal free party, excpet this was a planned and approved public event. When spaces are open to cultural activity legally, it lessens the need for people to attend illegal gatherings, aswell as opens the setting to those who wouldn’t usually attempt to be in that setting.
We returned to the commune, where the venue for our gig was also located. This rave was the second installment of N4 x Percy Mingle x Singularity in the city. The rave was one of the most beautiful nights of electronic dance music I’d witnessed. Perhaps it was because I was travelling and playing alongside a crew that has come to be a community and dancefloor family to me. Or perhaps it was because of the free nature of the city, and better yet, the commune we were staying at. The open attitude towards drug usuage in Amsterdam allows for people to enjoy the rave as they please, free of judgment, as well as allowing for more forms of connectivity within the audience to take place. This open attitude also allows for people to abstain from any substances; I felt there was zero pressure to even drink in Amsterdam compared to the UK. The people of Amsterdam enjoy the music more deeply than we do in the UK- you can tell from the way they engage with the dance and the DJs. Only in Amsterdam have people I’d never met before in the crows come up to me after my set to really speak about the music I played, and compliment my set genuinely. More people are dancing, and in freeing, non restrictive ways, something that is apparently seen across continental Europe.
The commune, Het Groene Veld is a place I fell deeply in love with since I visited the first time back in May. It is a breakaway from society, its own mini society. When leaving, I collected some resources about the commune, including newspaper articles and booklets, from the people we were hosted by, Kiara and Chin. Whilst the commune may seem like a place of pure joy and freeness, it has had to go throigh tribulations to create that safe space. The nature of the cultural freehaven is that its future is never guaranteed- growth in urbanisation of land will be and has been a threat to squatter communites cross Europe. However, regardless of the worries members of those communities may have to go through, and the tensions it may create within the environments, art is always available for the community to turn to collectively, and has been a key tool in keeping these communites alive.
Before Het Groene Veld, there was ADM, a squat that housed 130 people. It lasted from 1997 until late 2018 / early 2019. Throughout its period of existence, there were many threats to its longevity, with many eviction attempts, and even members of the commune being attacked or killed. Regardless of these issues, ADM was known as a “cultural freehaven”, with the many festivals its members put on providing a a centrepoint of music and art for themselves as well as the wider community.
Although ADM doesn’t exist anymore, Het Groene Veld houses around 40 of the old occupants. Sadly, all the others were displaced. ADMs story is one that can be seen across Europe, with the KOPI Wagenplalt eviction in Berlin, and even closer to home, the REPO centre in Norbury, London, which housed some freinds of mine.
ADM- and Het Groene Veld- proves the viability of a society away from mainstream norms, and proves for the importance of sound, music and art in upholding such a community. It is a desirable environment to live in- the cultural freehaven allows for one to live at their own pace. The “jobs” would the use of personal skills and trades to uphold the upkeep of the comune, with everyone’s skills sustaining the basic needs of each individual. The cultural freehaven allows for one to connect with nature, an important asset to our human experience- something we lack in cities that affects us more than we can even comprehend.
Whilst I think every human would benefit from this type of living, I think it would be impossible to build an environment of such in a widescale manner. We, as modern Western beings, are adapted to a technological way of living; we rely on the systems built by mass industrialisation. However, I believe that an open space available for everyone to access as they please, and return to “normal” society when needed would be more feasible. i envision a centrepoint of sound and art, a communal space for people to connect, and simultaneously disconnect from modern society.
I envision an everlasting, open access, cultural freehaven.