A completely volunteer-run bar/cultural centre/disco on the
Concertweg in Ridderveld, Alphen aan den Rijn.
Het Kasteel started as Midas back in the 1970s. Midas was a place
to hang out, but soon people started organizing parties and inviting
bands. Midas was renamed to Het Kasteel in 1982 and it's still growing
and getting more and more professional.
The building in which Het Kasteel is situated is divided in two parts,
the Grote zaal (the main hall) and the Kleine zaal (the bar). The Kleine
zaal contains a bar, a small stage and a complete set of DJ equipment. It
also contains tables and chairs so you can sit and talk while drinking a
Murphy's or Heineken and listening to the music.
The Grote zaal much larger than the Kleine zaal, and in addition to a bar
(much larger than in the Kleine Zaal) and DJ stuff it contains a dance
floor, a large stage, light effects.
There's always something to do in Het Kasteel (except on Mondays, unless
you like cleaning up the mess people made during the weekend). On Tuesdays,
Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays the kleine zaal is open for people to
have a drink and recover from the rest of the day. Dance parties are
organized on most on Fridays and Saturdays and if there's no party, the
kleine zaal crew fills in.
These parties include the Trendkill, with lots of loud punk and
metal music and the Echo! with more popular music (popular with the
general Kasteel audience, there's not much mainstream music
to be heard). There's also the Easy Tune, which features lots of music
from the 1960s and 1970s).
It also has a webpage: http://hetkasteel.nl/