Part of DFTD’s current speaker-rattling tour will stop over at Outbreak, a fast-rising Coventry-based dance event and the UK’s biggest indoor music festival, Their debut in March presented everyone from US house legends Kerri Chandler and MK to heavy newcomers Hannah Wants and DJ Caspa via so-called ‘G-house’ upstarts Amine Edge & DANCE. It presented them so well, that we’re already here – six months later – with 2014 festival number two across 31 October and 01 November.
It’s not, we should make clear, a replica of Coventry’s springtime frolics either. Outbreak returns to The Ricoh Arena but has packed that stadium even more tightly (and expertly) than before. We should probably flag DFTD’s involvement first. The Defected sister label will offer house stars Sonny Fodera, Flashmob, Cristoph and Andy Daniell on the first day; elsewhere, revellers will confront sublime electronic beats from Gorgon City, Hannah Wants, Sigma, Dynamite, David Rodigan, Ryan Blyth and Charlie Sloth.
What of Saturday? Visionquest-er Seth Troxler is probably the biggest pull, but then there’s also Skream, Lee Foss, Heidi, Route 94, Darius Syrossian, Secondcity, Nina Kraviz, Matthias Tanzmann, Boddika, Lance Morgan and UK garage veterans Artful Dodger and Spoony (with the Dreem Team). Such scale confidently reflects Outbreak’s status as the fastest-growing electronic music festival in the UK right now and, with that, it’s high time we caught up with ‘teamoutbreak’’s Events Planner & Manager Chris Hogg.
Not long to go with your second festival in a year – all still on track?
We're having a very productive week as usual; everyone in the office is getting excited now! This week we have been putting all the final touches to some of the production pieces we are having at the next festival and just generally finishing off all the little odds ‘n’ ends. We’re managing to keep on top of things at the moment and just taking each day as it comes…trying our best to sort out the customer queries and make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible come judgement day.
Your 2014 schedule is incredibly ambitious – do you every worry you’ve bitten off more than you can chew?
My mother always did say I had eyes bigger than my belly! But, no, we’re not going to say that it’s been an easy task. We’ve had many late nights in the office working, but we knew what we were signing up for.
How did Outbreak come to pass – what’s the story?
The team have been doing events across all genres of electronic music for many years now. Personally, I’ve been involved in music from a very early age. I had my own music store when I was 17 then progressed into helping out with events flyering, then doing my own small events with friends, and now here we are. A festival [the very first took place last October at Leicester’s O2 Academy] has always been a dream of ours, so when the plans finally started to become a reality we knew it was now or never really. We didn’t want to regret not giving it a try in 10 years’ time.
What is Outbreak’s unique selling point?
We’ve all been to a festival, dipped into the overdraft and spent a small fortune before. We wanted to make Outbreak as affordable as we possibly could without compromising on the line-up or anything else.
Outbreak is described as the UK's fastest growing electronic music festival – still the case?
The response and feedback we got from the last festival in March was fantastic! We've broken all the previous ticket sales records we had already - it seems that us Brits just love going to a festival!
What's your demographic - who are you expecting to attend?
We have tried to appeal to a wider range of people this time. We’ve added some techno DJs to the line-up and a drum & bass arena; both scenes are huge throughout the UK and Europe. There are a few international travellers coming for this which is good to see.
Tell us about the Defected and DFTD tie-up….
We love Defected! We have all been big fans for many years; been to a few too many Defected In The House parties as well! [laughs] When we wanted to team-up with clubbing brands, Defected was naturally top of the list.
And the other acts? Who else are you looking forward to seeing at the Ricoh?
There's too many people we are looking forward to seeing for me to list here. Seth Troxler is always a character when he's at a festival. We're always happy to see Hannah Wants as well. The DFTD and techno arenas will be nice touches.
What’s your take on the UK festival landscape today? It’s been fairly turbulent of late….
We’re trying not to run before we can walk really, our little team is very close knit and we’re all still learning and working very hard to make sure that the least amount of mistakes are made.
And your view of the electronic scene in Leicester, where your team is from?
The electronic music scene there is nothing to shout from the rooftops about, but it’s grown massively in the past few years and is getting better.
Outbreak - 2015 and beyond?
We want to conquer the world!! [laughs again] We do want to expand the festival again going into next year, get bigger acts and more surprises lined up for our following…try and keep people as eager as possible.
For more information on the latest (indoor) Outbreak Festival (including tickets, VIP services and luxury accommodation) visit www.outbreakfestival.co.uk
For full lineup details and tickets for all parties on the DFTD tour, head to http://defected.com/events/
DFTD VLM02 mixed by Flashmob is out (digital) 9 November - order from iTunes
