Paradigm Blog No reason for tears, because sweet new plans are coming to fruition!

We will say goodbye to our club at the Helsinkistraat in little over two weeks, entering a beautiful new phase at our own new terrain. In light of this, Thump has reached out to us and we spoke about our experiences at the Helsinkistraat, the new music program and the rest of the plans for the new terrain. Read it below! THUMP: Hey Paul and Piter! Are you getting accustomed to the idea of leaving the Helsinkistraat already?Piter Terpstra: Well, I feel this is my home away from home. And it shows in the little things. Today, I opened a random drawer and thought to myself: this might be one of the last times I do this after 6 years spent here. I will miss the simple stuff here: that living room feeling with all its cosiness and sociability, together with everyone who comes here on a regular basis too. Paul Grimmius: We aim to bring this atmosphere to the new location as well. Even though the Helsinkistraat was amazing as a venue, Paradigm isn't defined by its placement. This way, we feel we can strengthen and surpass that Helsinkistraat vibe. We have some mixed feelings all in all: we will miss the Helsinkistraat but we are also excited for the opportunities the new location provides. What is your best memory connected to the current venue?Piter: The very first party on 16 October 2011, featuring Kollektiv Turmstrasse. The vibe was downright magical, with nothing out of place and everyone united. The last track played that night was "Something Special" by Miguel Campbell. There were people dancing, with their eyes closed, on the bar and the DJ Booth whilst loudly singing along with it. Paul: That first club night was magical indeed. Everyone was just so incredibly happy. And the afterparty went on for another day, prolonging this feeling!Piter: It's such a special underground venue. Groningen had never experienced anything remotely like this. It almost sounds like it's a shame to leave this behind. So, tell us, why are you leaving exactly?Paul: You wouldn't say at first glance, but the rent is quite expensive. Back in 2011, we agreed to a 6 year rental period with an option for renewal and extension, but these costs are just too high. We lived from weekend to weekend, working tirelessly to make ends meet. Piter: That's the reason we sometimes had to make a couple of commercial choices, which, in turn, dampened a lot of the creativity here. It also puts a lot of pressure on us to organize and program an event every weekend. That's why we're going to scale it back a little on the new terrain with 1 or 2 parties per month. Paul: Organizing Paradigm Festival at the Helsinkistraat wasn't ideal either. We usually had 2 weeks to set it all up and 6 weeks to break it all down. We didn't have the storage space to keep any of the decorations either. This is another opportunity provided by the new location: we get to keep everything we've build and it grants us the possibility to develop it further, even after the designated event has ended. I can see that! The open, spiderlike Dome stage now has a roof as well!Paul: That's true! We'll also be opening the container building as a stage for the next edition of Paradigm Festival. The new location is ours to rent until 2030, so we'll keep building and developing new and existing projects.Piter: There was also an artist who approached us with the plan and question to build a little home inside the forest area, next to all the existing art residing there. Well, be our guest, we said! So, now we have a little house at the far edge of the forest stage area, which will probably be used for a live radio show during the festival! We envision that the forest, and the rest of the terrain, we develop into a network of these little cozy places to discover. How did you experience the 6th edition of Paradigm Festival on the new terrain last year?Paul: We definitely faced everything head on and decided to open up every area available to us. This resulted in an empty feeling during the quieter and more uneventful times when there weren't as many people around. We have learned from this and decided that, for this year, we want to bring everything and everyone closer together. Every stage gets its own decoration team, who've received the notion of intimacy and its importance.We also programmed a full 72-hour ride last year, but this resulted in nearly-empty areas during 9 and 12 in the morning. We have now programmed with an open end, giving the opportunity to keep going if there are enough diehards who want to keep going! We now have a grasp on how to increase the level of quality for the festival from a 7 to a 9. Yeah, we are perfectionalistic or however it's called, right? You're perfectionists.Paul: Exactly! We always want to push ourselves and try to achieve the highest potential in any given situation. This goes for anything revolving creativity, but also durability. For example, we're currently cultivating rows of potato plants, lettuce, beans and spices on the terrain, which we plan to serve during the festival. 3 of our stages (Romney loods, container building and the Dome stage) are works of art on their own, utilizing recycled materials. We're also creating 30 eco-toilets, designed to salvage pee and feces from our guests. There are several applications for its usage. For example, we can use that to heat our own offices or any other building on the terrain. Nasty, but cool. What are your plans with that Zeefgebouw?Piter: We can't present that particular Paradigm vibe if we continue the pace of organizing an event every weekend. Like we said, we're going to program 1 or 2 clubnights per month after Paradigm Festival. We can use the 3 areas inside the Zeefgebouw separately or use them in unison. The choice is ours!Paul: We have already choses once to separate the 3 different areas, which now gives us a grasp on how they feel and how their acoustics work out in reality. I really love the Zeefgebouw and see it as the Berghain in the Netherlands. Working towards NYE and NYD, we're planning on small and large electronic music performances. We will take every clubnight and plan on which area to use during it. This will enable us to throw a small and intimate clubnights, whilst retaining the option to invite well-known artists as well for the larger ones.And after that?Paul: The 3 aforementioned stages (Dome stage, containerbuilding and Romney Loods) will be developed even further. The plan is to organize clubnights there as well in the future.Piter: For example, the Romney Loods is a somewhat narrow but long hall, ideal for raves. The plan is to make it soundproof and create emergency exits and a bar inside it. What happens with your famous Loodsrave concept?Paul: We have a lot of love for our Loodsrave but we'll obviously have to leave the physical Loods in Loodsrave behind. The concept will remain, however. We just have to figure out how we're going to present it. These are some great plans you've got going on! Paul, I see that you have a Paradigm-tattoo on the inside of your wrist. When did you have it placed?Paul: In the second year of our existence. We also offered the opportunity to our volunteers last year, during the 5 year anniversary party. 25 of our volunteers took us up on our offer. One of them got 1 on his neck, others on their arms.Piter: And someone got it placed on his ass-cheek.Paul: We have really become a community. We love it to be able to provide so many people with this space. I knew this was going to be my life's work in my 2nd year. We were able to barely live off it when we entered our 3rd year. Our accountants sometimes say that we should be thinking about ourselves as well sometimes, but we're fine with how it is. The music can change, our lives can change - for instance, Piter now has a daughter and I also have a baby on the way. But Paradigm remains the same.Lees meer