Words by Meike Jentjens
Back-to-back sets used to feel like rare fire on a lineup, the kind of thing Draaimolen would announce in the early days of the festival and everyone (especially on Reddit) would collectively lose their minds over. Two unexpected artists paired up: a little chaotic, sometimes platonic romantic, definitely high-risk for those eagerly awaiting. But somewhere along the way, the b2b stopped being an exception and became almost a genre. At least, when you look at festival or club flyers (the whole summer line-up is announced already?!).
Every festival preview mentions at least three, or sometimes more than artists playing solo. ‘Tjarkey’ (Tjade b2b Kyle Starkey) just touched down on Soenda last weekend; Lente Kabinet just put Shanti Celeste b2b Chris Stussy on the bill for next spring, which, depending on who you ask, is either a fever dream or a cosmic accident. In any case, the format has cemented itself into Dutch festival DNA, whether the pairings make sense or not. But is that actually adding something to the music or experience, or just marketing (a dirty word for clubs)?
When it works, it really works
When a b2b does work, it’s undeniable. A few of my favourites are Mama Snake b2b Martinou at Draaimolen 2024, or Evian Christ & Torus at the same festival, the year before. You see it immediately: that moment when two DJs stop trading tracks like diplomatic gifts and start genuinely tugging each other into previously undiscovered territory. It’s also precisely that festival that made this ‘b2b-culture’ so booming in The Netherlands. Because it just works there.
Mixmag famously described good b2bs as ‘wisdom-sharing’, which sounds like something you’d find at a yoga retreat but actually hits, the best pairings do feel like two brains morphing into one. When it lands, it feels deeply communal: the best reminder that dance culture was born out of sharing: records, spaces, politics, sound-systems, weekends.
USBs pre-loaded with hype
The explosion of b2bs at festivals all over the country also means you get combinations that feel less like artistic curiosity and more like someone in the office doing drag-and-drop with names on an Excel-sheet. And most of all, you feel that. You feel it when one DJ is patiently building a dubby, slow-motion gradient and the other responds with a festival weapon like they’re playing for Boiler Room’s algorithm. And because b2bs now come pre-loaded with hype, Dutch festival, and eventually club, audiences expect the extraordinary, even when the chemistry isn’t actually there. The times people haven’t met their musical partner before, or don’t even know what the other one really digs up, are less rare than you might expect. Is that a case of ‘Artist A b2b Artist B together’ triggering an instinctive excitement simply because it’s unexpected or slightly absurd? At the end of the day, tickets need to be sold, and just like in every other ‘industry’, everything is getting more expensive by the day. So why not try something else, something silly.
But maybe that’s the real point here. The question is whether we’re doing these pairings for the right reasons. Are artists pushing themselves? Are they exploring edges they wouldn’t reach alone? Are they merging their worlds in a way that lifts the room? Or are we just stacking names to add extra sparkle to a line-up announcement that will stand out on Instagram?
If the past few years have taught club culture anything, it’s that the dancefloor can tell the difference. Not everything needs to be rare, but it does need to be intentional from everyone involved. And when it doesn’t… At least the Amsterdam Rave thread on Reddit will have a good time chatting about it.