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Europe's best indie music festival  

It's not just the abundance of beautiful bodies or the cheap beer that differentiates watching a gig in the Dutch city of Groningen from one in London. It's the trails of cigarette smoke drifting through the music venue I'm squeezed into.

UK band The Ting Tings are performing at Huize Maas, excited bodies press around me pushing for the front of the stage, and I have a familiar moment of checking that my dress has not caught the tip of someone's lit cigarette. I've been set on fire before this way. While the smoking seems oddly retro, the reason we're here is to celebrate the best in emerging new music. . . .

Within rolling distance of Huize Maas is its antithesis, a legendary venue called Vera at 44 Oosterstraat. . . .

In the basement bar, with its fairy lights and peeling paint, groups of rosy-cheeked drinkers hang out enjoying their last few months of smoking indoors. Groningen introduces the smoking ban from July 1, when patrons will experience the delight of waking up the next morning and not having their hair smell like ashtrays.

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