Thunderdome Never Dies will premiere on Thursday 14 November. The eighty-minute film looks back on the origins and history of one of the strongest youth / music cultures in the Netherlands and far beyond the country's borders.
Thunderdome Never Dies will premiere on Thursday 14 November. The eighty-minute film looks back on the origins and history of one of the strongest youth / music cultures in the Netherlands and far beyond the national borders.
Thunderdome Never Dies guarantees a “trip down memory lane”. Pioneers of the time, such as Duncan Stutterheim and Irfan van Ewijk (founders of ID&T), François Maas (project manager) and Sander Groet (founder Mysteryland), look back on the early days of Thunderdome, while DJs such as DJ Promo, The Prophet, DJ Dano, Gizmo and DJ DROKZ share their experiences with the Thunderdome. Of course the fans from then and now will also have their say. Thunderdome has an unprecedented fan base to this day. Not only in the Netherlands, but also far beyond. Perhaps illustrative is The Wizard, hey iconic logo of Thunderdome, which is worn as a tattoo by a large number of fans. Besides the smiley, The Wizard became the most famous logo of the international dance scene. The conversations are amply interspersed with images of the illustrious parties.
Thunderdome started a total revolution in the nightlife in 1992 and became the founder of our greatest cultural export product: dance music. In 2017 Thunderdome returned after a silence of 5 years. Thanks to Thunderdome, hardcore music grew far beyond the national borders. Hated and revered by the outside world. Gabber became the largest youth culture the Netherlands has ever known. At its peak in the 1990s, one in three young people called themselves gabber and the street scene was dominated by Aussies, bomber jackets, Air Max, bald heads and The Wizard.
Currently, the gabber is less recognizable but still very much alive. The subculture recognized many forms and sub genres in nearly three decades. From Classics to Industrial, Frenchcore to Uptempo and Terror to Early. The upcoming edition of Thunderdome under the motto “Ode to the Gabber” can look forward to 50,000 visitors from over 45 countries in Utrecht on 26 October. This makes it the largest indoor festival in Europe and the largest edition of Thunderdome ever. Thunderdome 2019 was sold out in no time at the beginning of June, but a limited number of tickets were held back for late decision makers. These have been for sale since Saturday 5 October at www.thunderdome.com
About the makers
Thunderome Never Dies was made by directors Ted Alkemade and Vera Holland. Ted (1990) directs documentaries and commercials. His work is characterized by aesthetic image and urgent stories. As an autodidact, he soon made an award-winning short documentary. Several mid-length docs and international commercials soon followed. Vera (1989) works at KRO-NCRV as a concept developer. She also initiates and directs independent documentary projects about sub-cultures. Together with Ted Alkemade she made Wij jagen (Holland doc), Thunder (3LAB) and Phil and Pascal conquer the world (KRO-NCRV).
Bob Alkemade is director of photography. Bob (1988) gives each scene an intimate and personal touch. With his eye for detail, he turns every event into a work of art. He works closely with Ted and because of their family ties and extensive work experience together, they are a well-attuned duo.
Edvard van 't Wout (Amsterdam, 14 October 1973) is a Dutch producer of films and television series. He has been active in the media and entertainment industry since 1998 and founded production company 2CFILM in 2013. As a new generation film producer, he specializes in non-traditional film financing. In 2010 he introduced a new 'advertiser driven' financing model for the online distributed feature film 'Claustrofobia'.
In 2013 he was the producer of the first second screen film 'APP', a true novelty in the world of international cinema. The commercial success of the romantic comedy 'Hartenstraat' (2014) proved his vision of developing efficiently produced, high-concept feature films, producing dozens of Dutch feature films, including Fissa, Hartenstraat, Dylan Haegens' De Film and Whitestar. Edvard has a bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.
Rogier Jaarsma of Deep Thought Productions is producer of Thunderdome Never Dies. Deep Thought Productions is a production company specializing in creating and producing music videos for the national and international music industry. They also produce documentaries, commercial films and photography projects. Rogier (1974) is a creative producer at Deep Thought Productions and founded the company together with Jurian Schipper in 2000.