At the Lowlands festival, which will take place for the thirtieth time next weekend, the Daily Paradise has been published for years, first under the auspices of OOR and since 1999 as a production of MOJO. A paper festival newspaper with a circulation of 20,000 copies per day that is eagerly bought by the Lowlanders. ‘There has to be love for the festival in it, the Lowlands feeling’, says editor-in-chief Saskia Gravelijn. Last modified: August 13, 2024, 1:21 PM
During the Lowlands festival, editor-in-chief Saskia Gravelijn works from about half past nine in the morning until half past twelve at night. Together with a team of over twenty authors, photographers, designers, runners, an IT consultant and an editor, she produces the Lowlands festival newspaper, Daily Paradise, three days a year in addition to her work for lowlands.nl.
The second best moment of her work is ‘the drinks’ that takes place in the night from Saturday to Sunday with the entire live editorial team, but also everyone who helped with the pre-production, including all the illustrators. Then the huge job is done and the last newspaper is sent to the printer. But the absolute highlight for her is the popularity of the newspaper.
Emotional scene
At the last edition, Gravelijn slept at the festival campsite. ‘Every morning I set my alarm at a time when most festival-goers are just going to bed or are sobering up.’ When she got dressed and made up on her bike to her workplace, ‘the shacks’, she saw the scene that made her ‘pretty emotional’ every morning: crowds of festival-goers rushing towards the festival campsites on the cargo bikes or the red boxes with which the Daily Paradise is distributed.
‘That those thousands of people walk around with our newspaper in their hands. And make the popcrypto together in front of their tent… And make no mistake: that newspaper is read from cover to cover by the festival visitors.’ ‘Luckily’, she grins, ‘the paper newspaper is not dead here either.’ This year she sleeps ‘with a heavy heart’ at the crew campsite: ‘Last year I slept really lousy.’
Photo: Marcel Krijgsman / Hollandse Hoogte.
Each newspaper has 24 pages, of which about eight are advertisements. The newspaper is published on all three festival days, which means that the live editorial team has to get to work on Thursday, but is ‘free’ on Sunday, the last festival day.
Bente Bollmann, marketing manager at MOJO of Lowlands and Down The Rabbit Hole, cannot make any statements about the exact printing and distribution costs. ‘The costs are partly covered by advertising sales, so the Daily Paradise is not cost-covering. However, it is such a unique publication, which really belongs to Lowlands and adds something to it, that we will continue with it.’
The festival weekend is of course the highlight of Lowlands, but with the many announcements on lowlands.nl, Gravelijn works with an online editorial team all year round. ‘After Down The Rabbit Hole and Lowlands, the MOJO staff [de organisator van beide festivals, RdQ] exhausted and a long period off. In October/November the party starts all over again.’
Gravelijn herself has only been involved with the newspaper since 2022. After one year as editor-in-chief in ‘de keetjes’ she became editor-in-chief. She herself visited the festival for several years, she was recommended for the job by the former editor-in-chief of the Daily Paradise Lucky Rotterdam. For the sake of form she sent MOJO her CV – she worked as editor-in-chief at IFFR, and as editor-in-chief for de Volkskrant and IDFA. It was soon good.
Fresh
‘I was quite excited to become editor-in-chief’, she says on a sunny morning in July in a coffee bar in Rotterdam-Noord. ‘I’m in my fifties, not really the age of the average Lowlands visitor. But I did feel that I could bring something to Lowlands and that festival newspaper, extra sexiness. I really found myself in a warm bath. Many editors have been making the newspaper for years, sometimes I can honestly say: “I have no idea, tell me.” Because I’m relatively “fresh”, I can also come up with and propose new things. Which have often been done a long time ago, haha.’
In addition to being editor-in-chief of the festival newspaper, Gravelijn is also editor-in-chief of the Lowlands website, where announcements of all acts, speakers, writers, performances and many other genres appear in the run-up to the festival. ‘I have a gi-gan-tic Google Doc in which all of that is collected. For every new name that needs to be announced, I look for the right writer. One person is more into techno, another into hip-hop or art, everyone has their own thing.’
‘Klaas Knooihuizen likes the weird, niche, X-Ray stuff and literature. Our new acquisition Jonasz Dekkers [ook redacteur bij NRC, RdQ] is familiar with the night scene, and well versed in philosophy and hip hop. That’s how it all comes together.’ The authors do their work from all over the world: Bas Verbeek is in Korea, for example, Jutha Bakker and Steven Bodeving are in Tuscany.
And then there are many specialist genres. Because Lowlands is not just a music festival: there is also literature, film, art, comedy, science, etc.
Moving train
‘The process is like a moving train if everything goes well. But there are always cancellationssometimes very last minute. And you think that such a bio of 85 words is easy to write, but it is a delicate matter. Lowlands also has its own tone of voice, it can be funny, witty, with a wink. But never hurtful or negative.’
There is always something: a new sponsor, a brewery that brews a beer especially for the festival. ‘It is never boring’, says Gravelijn. ‘In those two years as editor-in-chief I still haven’t managed to keep track of my hours. A quarter of an hour here, half a day there, half an hour there.’
Editor-in-chief Charlotte Lipic is her ‘right hand’, she also serves as a sparring partner, as do former editors-in-chief Swie Tio and Martin Schäfer for advice.
‘We write the announcement texts of the artists and performances in advance, and also for example the serial, written this year by Elfie Tromp. The cartoonists submit their ‘LLowstrip’ and of course the popcrypto is also made in advance. The latter still seems very popular, because the winner wins a free ticket for next year’s festival.’
‘We always get bags full of solutions,’ she laughs. ‘They are dumped on the floor somewhere backstage and then we appoint someone to fish out the winning crypto.’
Bron: Daily Paradise/Lowlands/MOJO.
The Lowlands bubble
Gravelijn attributes the fact that the festival newspaper – with a circulation of approximately 20 thousand on approximately 65 thousand visitors – is so popular to the fact that there is so much to experience at the festival that it can sometimes make visitors dizzy. The Daily Paradise offers, ‘in addition to a cozy “our bubble” feeling’, also a guideline: what you must see or what you really don’t want to miss.’
Gravelijn tries to involve the editors ‘democratically’ in the selection of performances that receive extra attention in the newspaper. MOJO also has an important voice in this. ‘Sometimes a booker is very happy with an act, or a somewhat smaller artist is on a somewhat larger stage or at an exciting time. A mention in the newspaper can then give that final push.’
Cover en spread
Just as ‘democratically’ Gravelijn chooses the candidates for the cover and the photo spreads with the coordinators of photography and the designers, Angelique van Woerkom and Pascal Tieman, ‘and everyone else who is involved’, although MOJO has the final say. ‘But of course we can already make a pre-selection.
The editor-in-chief doesn’t really have a rock-solid rule of thumb for those pages. ‘It has to show love for Lowlands, for the festival, the acts, the camping, being with friends, the night. The Lowlands feeling. And that can also be a bit rough.’
In three festival days, about 175 articles are written and published. Partly these are the announcements made in advance, and everything that remains, the ‘swiss cheese’, is made at the festival. ‘Varying from a report on the Art Tours to asking visitors what they thought of a specific performance.’
In April, the editor-in-chief, the designer and the art director meet and discuss the plans for the next edition. ‘Because I’ve only been editor-in-chief for a short time, I have a kind of, eh, need for recognition’, laughs Gravelijn. ‘I want to do and try out all sorts of things.’ This year, for example, she got Jip van den Toorn as a cartoonist on Saturday.
“Look,” she says, and she grabs last year’s newspapers from her bag. She opens the Sunday paper and looks for the center page, where on the center spread is a photo of a nighttime visit to Adonis [een tent waar ‘s avonds en ‘s nachts lbhti-feestjes georganiseerd worden, RdQ]. ‘This photo wasn’t suitable for the cover, but it works very well as a center spread. It’s my favorite photo from last year.’ Among photographers, the search for cover image and the best photo for the center spread is a thing: everyone wants to take that one perfect photo.’
Bron: Daily Paradise/Lowlands/MOJO
Many of the writing editors and other employees have a ‘normal office job’ in their daily lives and sometimes do not work in journalism. The composition of the team has remained largely the same for years. ‘You have to have a good handle on writing about Lowlands. LLowlingo we call that; witty, unique, you rarely find it anywhere else.’
Witches Cauldron
An IT consultant is setting up a network of his own on the festival grounds, so that the editors can do their work undisturbed. The editors are spread out backstage over four huts – photography, editing, design and the hut of the chief and final editors, which is also equipped with a sofa and a refrigerator.
Around half past twelve at night, the newspaper pages are sent to the printer in Amsterdam after final editing, design and approval by MOJO, under the supervision of designer Pascal Tieman. ‘That’s when we open our first beer’, chuckles Gravelijn.
A few hours later, around eight in the morning, the newspapers are brought to the polder by a ‘truck’. There, twelve ‘postmen’ are ready to distribute the newspaper on cargo bikes at the campsites. Since last year, there are also bright red – the festival colour of Lowlands – newspaper bins at central locations on the campsites and the festival grounds.
On the last day of the festival, Sunday, the live team is free. ‘It’s hard work, but everyone gets a decent daily price, and, also for your +1, a festival and parking ticket. Food and drinks are provided. It’s such a nice group of people!’
