AWAKENINGS director Rocco Veenboer steps down

Thirty years after he organized Amsterdam's first legal "house party," Rocco Veenboer is stepping down as director of "his" Awakenings. "I am 55 years old now and it is time to pass the baton to the new generation in terms of duties and responsibilities," he said.

During Easter 1997, the name Awakenings was introduced as a party with only techno at the Gashouder in Amsterdam. After Amsterdam, monumental venues such as the Klokgebouw in Eindhoven and the Graansilo in RoMerdam also featured Awakenings events. However, Awakenings is best known for its large-scale weekend festivals in Spaarnwoude and Hilvarenbeek that atract tens of thousands of people each day.

In recent decades, Awakenings has grown into the largest event brand in the Netherlands with as many as 300,000 visitors per year: "In 1997 we organized three parties, which together atracted around 10,000 visitors. At the time, we were one of the first to do major audio-visual work. Looking back now, we have welcomed over 3.5 million people to Awakenings. These have been fantastic decades. I'm grateful that I lived in Amsterdam in 1988 and then got to be part of the musical house and techno revolution."

Veenboer is not disappearing from the party scene. He will remain working as a consultant with the techno empire until 2027.