The Oranjenacht Experience: More Than a Set

On April 26, 2026, Tuur took to the main stage at Oranjenacht, the Koningsnacht celebration hosted by Lucas & Steve on the Vrijthof in Maastricht. This wasn’t a casual booking. It was a carefully positioned opening slot ahead of some of the biggest names in European electronic music—a vote of confidence from organizers and a rare opportunity for a young artist to perform at a major regional platform.

The context matters. Oranjenacht is not just another festival. It draws thousands, it carries the prestige of being hosted by two of the most respected DJs in the Netherlands, and it serves as a cultural marker for how electronic music is celebrated in the border region between Belgium and the Netherlands. For Tuur to open the main stage meant standing in front of that crowd first, setting the tone, establishing the energy that would carry through the evening.

What happened on that stage was more than a 30-minute DJ set. It was validation. It was visibility. And it opened doors—including the one that leads directly to Groovy Tunes Festival 2026, where Tuur will return to the main stage on June 12 & 13, again as an opener, but this time with even greater momentum behind him.

The Team That Made It Possible

This episode of The Sessions includes a moment of gratitude that might otherwise go unspoken in a radio format. Behind Tuur’s Oranjenacht performance stand several people whose belief and advocacy were essential:

Lucas & Steve

The hosts of Oranjenacht provided not only the platform but the credibility that comes with it. They didn’t have to give a rising young DJ such a prominent slot, but they did—and that choice sends a signal to the entire scene.

Remco, Sander, and Jlill

These are the team who advocated for this opportunity, who saw something in Tuur’s potential and pushed to make it happen. Without their advocacy, without their standing within the scene, this moment might not have occurred. Their belief translated into a real opportunity.

La Fuente and Groove Safari

Both performing at Oranjenacht, they represent the calibre of artists sharing the same stage, the same night. To open for artists of this stature is to be part of something larger than yourself.

Brite Company

The organizers behind Oranjenacht created the event infrastructure that made everything possible. Festivals don’t exist by accident; they’re built by people who understand music culture and want to invest in it.

There is also an unexpected element of this story: the Gold Ticket. In the original design of Oranjenacht, Tuur’s slot was not positioned as prominently as it turned out to be. A Gold Ticket—a special access tier—changed the geometry of his appearance, moving him into a more visible moment. It was not the original plan, but it became the better outcome. Sometimes the best things happen when the plan shifts.

The Headliner: Armand Van Helden – “I Want Your Soul”

“I Want Your Soul” is a song by American record producer and DJ Armand Van Helden, and the third single from his seventh studio album, Ghettoblaster. The track contains a sample of “Do You Want It Right Now” by Siedah Garrett—a soulful vocal moment that Armand Van Helden reinterpreted when he commissioned a full replay of the sample in 2023 for a new remix package, giving new remixers maximum creative control.

This is not just a track. It is a landmark record in house music, a moment where technical sampling meets emotional depth. The original vocal—Siedah Garrett’s question, layered with yearning—becomes the emotional core of Van Helden’s production. The groove is modern, the pulse is contemporary, but the feeling is timeless. This is exactly the kind of record that defines an entire era of production: it sounds both of-the-moment and eternal.

In the context of this episode and Tuur’s recent performance, the choice of “I Want Your Soul” as a headliner works on multiple levels. It represents the sophistication that electronic music can achieve—the layering of old and new, the marriage of soul and technology, the idea that a DJ set is not just about drops and energy, but about emotional architecture. It is the kind of record that teaches listeners what’s possible when production is treated as an art form.

The track’s structure—built on a foundation of classic house sensibility but driven forward by Van Helden’s contemporary production sensibility—mirrors the ethos of Tuur’s own approach to DJing. It’s not about chasing trends; it’s about understanding the deeper principles of what makes a moment work on the dancefloor, what moves people, what creates connection.

Looking Forward: Groovy Tunes Festival 2026

Groovy Tunes Festival returns on June 12 & 13, 2026 for a two-day open-air experience at the historic Pietersheim site in Lanaken. The festival is shaped by the warmth of vinyl, the spirit of old-school dance floors, and the pulse of contemporary electronic music. This is the fourth edition of an event that has become one of the most important gatherings in the Limburg electronic music calendar.

What makes Groovy Tunes distinctive is not just the sound it curates, but the philosophy behind it. It is explicitly about blending eras—old school with new, vinyl culture with digital production, heritage with innovation. It’s Made in Limburg, rooted in a specific geographic and cultural identity, but ambitious in its artistic vision.

Tuur will open the main stage again at Groovy Tunes. After Oranjenacht, after building momentum through performances and radio presence on RTV Maastricht and 3Heuvelland, he returns to another significant platform with deeper credibility and clearer positioning.

The organizers of Groovy Tunes—Youri De Coninck and Bjorn Migdalski, who together form Groovy Tunes Sound System—are known for their meticulous curation and their commitment to fostering the next generation of artists. They are not filling slots; they are building a narrative, season by season, about where electronic music in the region is going and who is leading it forward.

For Tuur, Groovy Tunes represents more than just another booking. It’s a confirmation. It’s proof that the momentum from Oranjenacht was real, that the network believes in the progression, that the path forward is clear. Opening a festival in your home region, at a venue that matters, in front of crowds that understand the culture—this is the kind of moment that shapes a career.

The Broader Picture: Radio, Platform, and Artist Development

This month’s episode of The Sessions is really about something larger than a single set or a single night. It’s about how an artist moves through the ecosystem. Radio becomes not just a broadcast medium but a context-setting tool. A festival appearance becomes more than a performance; it becomes a credential, a moment of visibility, a marker of progression.

The Sessions exists in this space. It’s a platform where Tuur’s voice is heard, where his selections are broadcast, where listeners can discover not just tracks but the taste and sensibility of an emerging artist. Over three episodes, the show has built an identity: thoughtful, curated, connected to real moments in the scene.

Episode 003 does something that episodes 001 and 002 didn’t do quite so directly: it makes the show autobiographical. Tuur is no longer just a curator hosting a mix show. He is now a performer at major festivals, a person for whom this radio show serves as a parallel track of visibility and voice. The Sessions becomes both a mirror and a megaphone—a place to reflect on what’s happening in his life as an artist, and a platform to broadcast that journey to listeners.

This is important because it mirrors something real in contemporary music culture: the radio show and the live performance are no longer separate tracks. They feed each other. A strong set on a festival stage becomes material for conversation on the radio. A thoughtful radio show becomes proof of an artist’s deeper sensibility, something that makes a festival organizer more confident in booking them.

Music as Network, Network as Music

At its heart, this episode is about something simple but often overlooked: electronic music, at every level, exists because of relationships. It exists because people believe in each other, advocate for each other, show up for each other.

Tuur’s appearance at Oranjenacht was not the result of a cold application or an algorithm. It was the result of Remco, Sander, and Jlill believing in him. His booking at Groovy Tunes came because organizers saw what happened at Oranjenacht and wanted to continue that story. Lucas & Steve, despite their global profile, still invest in local talent and local culture.

This is how scene culture works. This is how a young artist becomes a seasoned one. And this is why radio shows like The Sessions matter—they’re not separate from the live experience, they’re part of the same ecosystem, the same conversation, the same network.

The track selections for this episode reflect this understanding. “I Want Your Soul” is not a random choice; it’s a record that only makes sense in the context of a network—people who understand house music, who respect the craft, who see the connection between a sample from 1985 and a production in 2007 that still sounds fresh in 2026. These are the people in Tuur’s world. These are the people who appear on his stage and in his radio show.

The Season Ahead

As The Sessions moves forward, the shape of what it is becomes clearer. It’s not a show about playing records. It’s a show about understanding a scene, documenting moments as they happen, and creating a space where those moments can be reflected on and shared with listeners.

June will bring another episode, shaped by whatever happens at Groovy Tunes. There will be new moments, new connections, new records that matter. But the foundation is already being set: Tuur is building a platform, network by network, moment by moment, radio show by radio show.

Broadcast Notes

Broadcast on RTV Maastricht and 3Heuvelland, The Sessions continues to evolve. Episode 003 shows that the show is growing with its host—deeper, more reflective, more connected to the real moments that shape an artist’s journey.

The Sessions is not just another radio show.

It is a chronicle of a scene in motion.

It is another step forward in the story of electronic music in the border region.

And it is proof that the best things still happen when people believe in each other.