Best Kept Secret Festival

Best Kept Secret Festival is an annual music festival held in the Netherlands, known for its diverse line-up of international and Dutch artists spanning indie rock, alternative, electronic, hip hop, pop, folk, and experimental music. Since its inaugural edition in 2013, the festival has established itself as one of Europe's leading boutique music events, attracting tens of thousands of visitors each year. Alongside its musical programme, the festival emphasizes art installations, food, sustainability, and an immersive natural setting.

The festival takes place at the Beekse Bergen recreation area near Hilvarenbeek in the Dutch province of North Brabant. Surrounded by forests and lakes, the venue provides camping facilities and multiple performance stages, ranging from large outdoor arenas to more intimate indoor spaces. The scenic location has become a defining feature of the event, contributing to its reputation for combining major international acts with a relaxed festival atmosphere.

Best Kept Secret has hosted performances by a wide range of internationally recognised artists, including Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys, The National, Aphex Twin, PJ Harvey, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, The Strokes, Kraftwerk, and many others. The festival also provides a platform for emerging Dutch and international musicians, making it an important event within the European summer festival circuit.

In addition to music, the festival promotes environmental initiatives, local food vendors, and contemporary art installations. Organisers have sought to distinguish the event from larger commercial festivals by focusing on curation, visitor experience, and a balance between established performers and new talent.

The festival attracted international attention in 2026 following a performance by Dutch protest singer Sophie Straat. During her set, Straat asked "all white men" to move to the back of the audience while inviting women, queer people, and people of colour to move closer to the stage. She presented the request as a symbolic gesture intended to create more space for groups she believed were less likely to occupy the front of concert audiences.

The incident generated widespread media coverage and debate in the Netherlands and beyond. Critics argued that asking attendees to relocate on the basis of race and sex was discriminatory and inconsistent with principles of equal treatment. Some commentators contended that a similar request directed at another demographic group would likely have been broadly condemned.

Supporters of Straat defended the action as a form of political performance art designed to draw attention to social privilege and representation in public spaces. They argued that participation was voluntary and that the gesture was intended to provoke discussion rather than exclude attendees from the event.

Following criticism after the Best Kept Secret performance, Straat stated that she had received abusive messages and threats but maintained that her actions reflected her artistic and political beliefs. She subsequently repeated the request during a later performance at the Ghent Festivities in Belgium, renewing public debate over the balance between artistic expression, political activism, and anti-discrimination principles.

The controversy became one of the most widely discussed non-musical stories associated with the 2026 edition of Best Kept Secret Festival, illustrating how contemporary music festivals increasingly serve as venues not only for entertainment but also for political expression and public debate.

Misandry

Misandry is the hatred of, pathological aversion to, or prejudice against men. The first recorded use of the term dates from the 19th century. At the present time misandry is widespread in Western society but may be in decline.

These days it seems you don't need to look far to see negativity focused at men. What is often known as casual misandry permeates western civilisation where many men and women commonly make negative statements about men without apparently regarding this as a problem or being challenged by anyone else present. This problem has steadily deteriorated and we have now reached the point that books with titles such as Are Men Necessary? When Sexes Collide and The End of Men can be published without significant objection from the wider community.

Negative and inaccurate portrayals of men and boys have permeated mainstream media and online knowledge repositories such as Wikipedia, where the bias is particularly evident. Wikipedia editors routinely write negative commentaries about men and Wikipedia admins protect those commentaries while censoring counter-narratives that might show less biased, more accurate information. This practice is reinforced by feminist editing gangs who congregate in regular 'edit-a-thons' with the sole purpose of increasing feminist ideology within Wikipedia articles, and to censor male-positive discourse and research on men. In a nutshell those in control of Wikipedia have succeeded in deplatforming much reliable information about men and boys.