“The Supermarkt is closing its doors!” Suddenly this bad news hit the Grote Markt. The message quickly spread around The Hague, followed by the rest of the country. It was, or actually still is, the musical hotspot of The Hague. Located in the heart of the city, the venue focuses on talented bands and musicians being on the verge of a break through. Besides that, the Supermarkt is an expert in offering amazing nights, starting right after a show ends. Instead of being sad and sentimental, Rockstone Sessions takes you back to six years of outstanding music and great parties. Moreover, the Supermarkt is not planning to shut down permanently. We’re confident they’ll find a new location.
Programmer Marco at the office
When it started around six years ago, it wasn’t founded on the basis of a boring business plan approved by investors, who wanted to make a lot of money. That’s exactly what made it as good and unique as it is right now. Just a couple of guys who are passionate about music sensed the need for a concert venue for talented musicians. They took over the building of a former club, built in a stage and started doing what they like. The Grote Markt provided the crowd: like-minded people, who were used to going to shitty bars after the last round had been served. The effort of the Supermarkt’s small number of unprejudiced staff members took care of the rest. This included things like fixing some rails down the stage and organising an one of a kind skate contest. It was all possible. We talked about this, as well as about the process of slowly getting bigger and more professional, with Super Markt’s programmer Marco Bijsterbosch.
The poster announcing the skate constest
Marco has been part of the project since the very first beginning. This resulted in the fact that he wasn’t ‘just’ the programmer. “At a certain time, I was the manager, programmer, took care of the cloakroom and played some records if I had the chance.” They’ve been working with a small number of staff members all the time, but that’s something he actually enjoys.
Their Famous photo of a Supermarket
According to Marco, the Super Markt is a medium sized music venue and never had any subsidies. The ones that do, normally have four persons on marketing, two programmers and a manager. During our interview it becomes clear that the way they started running the place wasn’t unprofessional or ignorant. It’s just been more unprejudiced, as mentioned before, which was a definite strength. It made them able to experiment and organise fun things, while gradually becoming an acknowledged music platform.
There was one particular moment on which Marco realised that they had to adapt though. The Super Markt organised its first snowboard event and there were around 700 people, but there wasn’t even a cloakroom. Everybody just dropped the jackets upstairs. When the party ended, all the visitors just picked a random jacket out of the big pile. For the next week, Marco was in charge of swopping them around the people who attended the party. It was a confirmation that the Supermarkt was getting big. So they had to adjust to that. Marco and his team built in a cloakroom. Besides that, they moved the bar and the DJ booth to the other side.
A poster announcing the show of Jett Rebel
But adapting the interior wasn’t enough. As Marco says: “In the beginning we had concerts during the early evening. When those ended, the audience stayed inside and kept on partying. But after a while we noticed a transition. The audience left quite soon after a show ended and then other guests started coming. Those guests just came to the Supermarkt to have a couple of drinks and dance.” Marco and his team had to adjust to that new role. “We had to go along with that transformation by playing more commercial music.” However, it never became a real club with R&B and house music. On the other hand it resulted in more bands who wanted to play in the Supermarkt, since it was getting bigger and bigger. Marco and his team were taking seriously.
Many different bands have performed at the Supermarkt during the past six years. But when we ask Marco about some of his personal highlights of the entire period, the first thing he mentions is Typhoon. He gave a show just two weeks ago, but it was amazing according to Marco. “Everything just matched perfectly, the band, the lyrics and the crowd. He played for two and a half hours and everybody loved it. A definite highlight.”
Another show he really liked was the one of Taymir. It was still a very young, unfamiliar band at the time. “But you could immediately hear the potency. Sometimes you just feel it.” That was absolutely also the case with Mister and Mississippi. They once played at the Supermarkt as a support act for another band. Now they’re doing all the major festivals. Obviously Marco has seen a lot of different bands getting big over the years, bearing in mind the segment of ‘smaller’ bands he’s booking in. Chef’s Special has performed there three times for example. The first time there were around thirty people, but a year later they were famous enough to play in big music halls. Or for instance The Kik, they played one of their first shows ever in The Supermarkt.
This demonstrates the importance of a medium sized music venue. Bands need a place to start and to release their albums before the break through. Unfortunately the Supermarkt won’t be able to provide this stage anymore, at least at the current location. Marco mentions that it is common for a new place to be booming during first two/three years after opening. “It always decreases a bit after a great start. Moreover, people tend to go out less during the economic crisis.” During the Supermarkt’s early years, the late night parties provided enough turnover to cover the pre-evening’s show. When the late night dance evenings started to get less crowded, the Supermarkt just couldn’t afford to keep on going like that. As Marco says: “We have an expensive location and there are only three nights a week in which we earn money. Furthermore, we won’t get the subsidies since we have this expensive location, which also makes sense.” But on the other hand, is it really important to have this kind of venue and it should be located quite central. Therefore Rockstone wishes the Supermarkt all the best luck in finding a new location. It’s in The Hague’s interest!
Look down and see what musicians who played at the Supermarkt themselves think about it (click to enlarge). Underneath you’ll see some videos that show the fun and multidisciplinary function of this great venue.
In the video below you’ll see Splendid‘s saxophonist crowd surfing
The next video has been shot during the Showcase Talen Event in 2009. The band playing is called Moore. The lead singer is the current front man of Taymir.
This video is shows a breakdance battle held in 2009
This is an example of one of the many other events taking place in the Supermarkt