Best Kept Secret (festival)

The Best Kept Secret festival is a three-day music festival held inside the Safaripark Beekse Bergen, within the village of Hilvarenbeek in the south of the Netherlands, since 2013.

Best Kept Secret
Dates	June 12–14, 2020
Location(s)	Hilvarenbeek, The Netherlands
Years active	2013 - onwards
Website	www.bestkeptsecret.nl Best Kept Secret Festival (in American English)

Best Kept Secret is a music festival with a line-up in which big names are alternated with new discoveries from indie, folk, hip-hop, rock, electronics or a mixture of styles. The festival's centerpiece is a lake at the back of Beekse Bergen safari park. The festival's founder described his vision as aiming to create "something that we’d like to go to ourselves".[1]

Best Kept Secret festival has one open air stage (ONE), three tent stages (TWO, FIVE and SEVEN) and two dance floor stages: THREE and FOUR. For the 2017 edition Best Kept Secret added 'The Casbah', a dive bar and hang-out, that hosts performances of hardcore bands. For the 2019 edition Best Kept Secret added SEVEN, a smaller tent stage for experimental performers.

History

The festival is organized by Dutch booking agency Friendly Fire.

In June 2013 the first edition was held, and sold-out each day with 15,000 visitors.[2]

The festival has been nominated twice at the European Festival Awards:[3]

• Best Festival Line-Up 2014
• Best Medium-Sized Festival 2014

In 2013 the festival won the 'Best Festival Award' at the 'IJzeren Podiumdieren' award show at Eurosonic Noorderslag.[4] The 'IJzeren Podiumdieren' award show is an initiative by the Vereniging Nederlandse Poppodia- en Festivals (Dutch venues and festivals association).[5]

Best Kept Secret festival introduced 'the food line-up' for their first edition. The festival organization strives for diverse and sustainable food options, including vegetarian meals, soup and juices.

Editions

2013

Best Kept Secret 2013 (1st edition)
Friday June 21	Saturday June 22	Sunday June 23
Arctic Monkeys Bloc Party Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Tyler the Creator Fuck Buttons The Maccabees Danny Brown Drenge Splashh Surfer Blood Swim Deep Space Dimension Controller	Damien Rice alt-J Two Door Cinema Club Agnes Obel Allah-Lahs Balthazar Efterklang Savages Swans Wavves French Films Iceage Mozes and the Firstborn Pantha du Prince Thomas Azier Wolf Alice	Sigur Ros Portishead Kurt Vile & The Violators Everything Everything Black Lips Local Natives Palma Violets Suuns Cashmere Cat Skaters No Age Traumahelikopter Autre ne Veut The Black Angels

2014

Best Kept Secret 2014 (2nd edition)
Friday June 20	Saturday June 21	Sunday June 22
Pixies Interpol Caribou James Blake Midlake Breton Circa Waves Telegram Jaakko Eini Kalevi Broken Twin Samaris Eaux Cosmonauts Falco Benz	Franz Ferdinand The War on Drugs Babyshambles Miles Kane Metronomy Chvrches Mogwai Nils Frahm Pink Mountaintops Radkey Night Beats Wytches Traams Girl Band The Bots	Elbow Belle and Sebastian Lykke Li Angus & Julia Stone The 1975 Catfish and the Bottlemen The Notwist The Horrors Fat White Family Truckfighters Connan Mockasin RY-X Forest Swords Deap Vally Fucked up George Ezra

2015

Best Kept Secret 2015 (3rd edition)
Friday June 19	Saturday June 20	Sunday June 21
The Libertines The Jesus and Mary Chain The Tallest Man On Earth Chet Faker Earl Sweatshirt Eskmo The Pop Group Binkbeats Blanck Mass Daniel Norgren Daniel Romano Eagulls Kevin Morby Liima Metz OFF! Pissed Jeans St. Paul & The Broken Bones Strand of Oaks The Coathangers Vessels YAK	Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds A$AP Rocky RIDE Death Cab for Cutie Of Monsters and Men The Vaccines Temples Daniel Wilson Fickle Friends Föllakzoid Ghost Culture Hinds Hookworms John Coffey Kiasmos Kindness Little May Matthew E. White Mourn Outfit	alt-J Royal Blood SOHN Black Mountain Evian Christ First Aid Kit Future Islands Jonny Greenwood & The London Contemporary Orchestra Mew Alvvays Ariel Pink Cairo Liberation Front Dan Deacon Gengahr Kate Tempest Marmozets Pretty Vicious Reigning Sound Steve Gunn Sunset Sons Waxahatchee Wolf Alice

In total, around 95 artists, bands and DJ's performed at Best Kept Secret festival 2015.

2016

Best Kept Secret 2016 (4th edition)
Friday June 17	Saturday June 18	Sunday June 19
Beck Beach House Christine & The Queens Wolf Parade DIIV Mystery Jets HONNE Slow Magic Empress Of The Heavy Preoccupations Moon Duo Beach Slang Palmbomen II	Editors Caribou Air Bloc Party Dinosaur Jr. Destroyer Glass Animals Bewilder Sleaford Mods Blossoms Low Julien Baker Black Box Revelation Kelvin Jones Pional (live)	Jamie XX Two Door Cinema Club Wilco Yelawolf Yeasayer Band of Horses BADBADNOTGOOD Fat White Family Oneohtrix Point Never Indian Askin Unknown Mortal orchestra Half Moon Run VANT

In total, around 100 artists, bands and DJ's performed at Best Kept Secret festival 2016.

2017

Best Kept Secret 2017 (5th edition)
Friday June 16	Saturday June 17	Sunday June 18
Run The Jewels Agnes Obel Metronomy King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Section Boyz Amber Arcades Denis Sulta DJ Prime Hundred Waters Jenny Hval Joey Purp Jo Goes Hunting Kelly Lee Owens Kornél Kovács Leif Vollebekk Mannequin Pussy Real Estate	Arcade Fire The Boxer Rebellion Floating Points George Ezra Andy Shauf Chris Cohen Circa Waves Cloud Nothings Froth Her Honeyblood Joy Orbison Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith Kim Janssen Laurel Halo	Radiohead Aurora James Blake Kaleo RY X Soulwax Strand Of Oaks American Football Arab Strap Junun ft. Shye Ben Tzur & The Rajasthan Express Canshaker Pi Cass McCombs Fil Bo Riva Henry Wu presents The Kamaal Williams Experience Iguana Death Cult Kadhja Bonet Kikagaku Moyo Marlon Williams

2018

Best Kept Secret 2018 (6th edition)
Friday June 8	Saturday June 9	Sunday June 10
Arctic Monkeys Chvrches Deerhunter Future Islands Tyler, The Creator ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead Naaz Rex Orange County The Comet is Coming Tom Grennan The Districts Job Jobse All Them Witches Sudan Archives Flohio Volcano Boys Crows	The National Wolf Alice Warpaint Vince Staples The Kills Isaac Gracie Slowdive Johan Angus & Julia Stone Four Tet The Internet Vince Staples Alex Cameron Shanti Celeste Big Ups Wavves Pale Waves Mattiel	LCD Soundsystem Father John Misty Rodriguez Spoon Mogwai Khruangbin Ty Segall Unknown Mortal Orchestra Gang of Youths Preoccupations Rostam Superorganism Waxahatchee Dermot Kennedy Yellow Days John Maus Vagabon

2019

Best Kept Secret 2019 (7th edition)
Friday May 31	Saturday June 1	Sunday June 2
Bon Iver Charlotte Gainsbourg DJ Koze Primal Scream Spiritualized Shame Cate le Bon Jambinai Psychedelic Porn Crumpets SHHT Angie McMahon Bountyhunter The Nude Party Personal Trainer Sports team Stereolab Julien Baker Crack Cloud Blossoms	Kraftwerk Cigarettes After Sex Guided By Voices Mac Demarco Death Grips Yves Tumor Borokov Borokov LSDXOXO Ron Gallo Snail Mail The Beths Fornet Wallows Fat White Family Feng Suave Lucy Dacus Aldous Harding Phosphorescent Viagra Boys	Christine & The Queens Carly Rae Jepsen The Raconteurs Interpol Kurt Vile & The Violators Big Thief Indian Askin Kate Tempest Lizzo Princess Nokia Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks Liz Phair Caroline Rose Cautious Clay Romperayo

References

1. Festival Review: Best Kept Secret 2014, The Line of Best Fit, April 17, 2015
2. Eerste editie festival Best Kept Secret uitverkocht
3. Nominees European Festival Awards 2014 Archived February 18, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
4. "Nieuwkomer Best Kept Secret beste festival". NU (in Dutch). Retrieved 2015-12-31.
5. Nieuwkomer Best Kept Secret beste festival, de Volkskrant, 18 January 2014

External links

• Official website