With the festival season in full swing and tickets still available for many of the thousands of global events, we thought we'd give you a quick overview of some of our personal favourites, as seen by some of the Defected staff. Wellies at the ready...!
Benicassim – as experienced by Simon Dawson
So we’d heard about this Festival over in Spain that goes on all night and lasts for 4 days - Friends had come back from previous years with a healthy layer of brown added to their skin, but still maintaining that distinctive ‘I’ve been on it for a few days’ look about them.
It’s held in an area which resembles an outdoor car park, very little grass, just tarmac everywhere with 2 large stages and a handful of enclosed tents. It starts at 8pm and ends at 8am and does so for 4 nights on the bounce – oh and it sits just at the bottom of huge mountain range, so is a an absolutely stunning setting. There are beautiful people all over, with golden tans, bug eyes and smiles as wide as the beach. The headline bands come on stage at midnight and its dance acts and DJs on after that.
First nights headliners were Oasis, on which turned out to be their last ever International appearance. An hour and a half of anthems that sound-tracked our teenage life. A big night. the second night’s event was cancelled after just 45mins of Paul Weller’s set because of a minor hurricane literally blowing the stage from side to side. So the entire festival arena descended upon the town centre of Beni, spreading like a wild swarm of ants in and out of the various bars. We ended up in one place that I think would legally allow only 50 people inside, but I swear there were more like 250 in there – all English, all out of their minds on who know’s what - bouncing on the bar, dancing on tables, climbing up the walls to Blur’s ‘Girls & Boys’, Franz Ferdinand’s ‘Take Me Out’, The White Stripes, The Smiths, Kings of Leon and many many more. It was proper carnage that night – one of my all time best nights.
It was, however, really the final moments of the festival that sealed my love for Beni.
The last act of the 4 days was a DJ set from Laurent Garnier on the 2nd stage, who attracted a crowd of thousands. 3 hours of deep house and techno, building it and building it with every record, everyone knowing these were the last few hours of what had been a monumental weekend and not wanting it to finish...and as the sun slowly rose above the peaks of the mountains, bathing the entire arena in warm early morning Spanish sun, Laurent eased the system from ‘The Man With The Red Face’ into a deep house remix of Radiohead’s ‘Everything In It’s Right Place’ and thousands of hands shot into the air and smiles beamed out across the arena – there couldn’t have been a better record for the moment – hugs, kisses, embraces, shouting, laughing all going on around us.
A lot of love in the air that night...
http://benicassimfestival.co.uk/
Lakedance – as experienced by Layla Evans
Arriving at the Lakedance Aquabest park, the first thing that hits you is the sheer number of bicycles that are parked at the entrance, literally thousands! People cycling up from all around Holland on their pushbikes to a festival is not a common sight for a British festival goer!
On the main stage, Afrojack was already in full swing doing his dutch thing along with Lady Blizz on MC getting the crowd jumping. The stage complimented their theme of water with a full waterfall in the front of the crowd, the décor was pretty cool throughout. Bingo Players, Dirk Dali and Bjorn Wolf all played really great sets. The highlight in the main stage was of course Dutch headliner Chuckie who completely made the crowd go nuts at virtually every record he played.
Over at the Defected In The House arena, Simon Dunmore took over from Baggi Begovic who warmed the crowd up nicely, followed by sublime sets from Copyright, Roog from Hardsoul & David Penn. The sun started to set and Chocolate Puma took to the decks to a truly one of a kind finishing set to fireworks over the lake! The 3500+ crowd in the arena were loyal to the very last note and as Simon Dunmore put it ‘it was the best atmosphere at any festival I have ever played at’ which says a lot about Lakedance considering how many the head honcho plays at!
Lakedance only has 3 arena’s which makes it the perfect festival for people who are into the music and vibe – it is a truly different festival experience and one of my favourite’s that I definitely look forward to, the Dutch REALLY know how to party and even the food is tasty and the toilets clean – what more can you ask for!
Bring on the 2010 Lakedance dates, this time two – both of which Defected In The House are hosting an arena at with headliners Dennis Ferrer, Sandy Rivera and Riva Starr along with Simon Dunmore, Copyright and Chocolate Puma et all. This time round, the festival will bump up from 10,000 people to around 15,000 – bring it on!
Win tickets to Lakedance festival.
Global Gathering – as experienced by James Jackson
A legendary festival that I've frequented a lot over the years, although I use the term ‘festival’ lightly as it's actually a rather large rave, no real live bands as such, but a huge array of DJ tents that really cross all genres of dance. Digweed’s tent throbs all day with relentless progressive house alongside the open air Dubstep stage that seems to serve two purposes; providing the music for what seems to be the chill out area, or just where the stoners have parked themselves and the bar. I’ve never been one to chill out to Dubstep so we chose to stand and nod our heads to some killer slow drums and fast paced basslines.
I played the warm up set in the Nocturnal Groove arena, which was pretty quiet at that time, but nevertheless I enjoyed it as did the twenty or so people in there! This did however give me the rest of the day and night to enjoy myself and check out the other arenas.
After my set, Magners in hand (it’s kinda the law at a festival), we moved to the main stage to catch Nic Fancuilli playing some old-skool house vibes, quickly followed by the Shapeshifters and Pryda, both smashing the granny out of it to an up for it young crowd. I spent most of the rest of day in between the Carl Cox and and John Digweed tents – for me two DJs who really know their stuff – and see the crowds reacting accordingly.
Musically for me it was all about Fancuilli, who set the tone on the main stage with a dubby house vibe that has really come to fruition over recent months. It’s a great day or weekend out and if you haven’t been its really worth checking. For me what followed was a nice long drive back to London accompanied by my disgruntled pregnant wife who had spent most of the day in the VIP tent eating burgers :).
Bestival – as experienced by Greg Sawyer
For me, Bestival is the king of the British festivals; practically perfect in every way. For a start, it’s a manageable size, so you don’t end up stumbling around dead mobile phone in one hand, half empty plastic cup of cider in the other looking for your mates who decided not to show up at the pre-arranged meeting spot ‘a bit to the left in front of the main stage’. Secondly, it’s on the Isle of Wight, which means it’s a bit like going on holiday without the ballache of changing money or bothering to remember your passport. But thirdly and most important, it’s because of the fancy dress.
It is almost categorically impossible not to have a good time when dancing in the sun (hopefully) to your favourite tunes while dressed like a pirate, cowboy or asteroid field – my costume of choice for last year’s ‘outer space’ them. In fact, pretty much the only theme they haven’t covered is clowns, due to a staggering amount of objections the year they announced the idea from people who suffer from Coulrophobia.
Musically, Bestival aligns itself towards the more electronic end of the spectrum, but it is – like all major festivals worth its salt – an extremely electric affair. At this year’s event, expect to see headline acts The Prodigy, Hot Chip and Dizze Rascal rub shoulders with Gil Scott-Heron, Richie Hawtin, Simian Mobile Disco, Joy Orbison, Seth Troxler and Tensnake. Even the legendary Rolf Harris is making an appearance! Would the man who coined the catchphrase ‘Can you tell what it is yet’ as well as being the genius behind ‘Two Little Boys’ perform at anything less than the world’s greatest festival? Or course he wouldn’t.
Big names, massive tunes and steel-wobbling Australians aside, what really makes it the best is the people that attend and the incredibly friendly vibe that permeates every inch of the festival site. It’s nigh on impossible to resist its charms, from the towering, flame-throwing Afterburner stage, to the late-night cabaret and English decadence of Time for Tease or the imposingly vast Big Top, past venue of such legendary performances as Carl Cox’s old-school or Aphex Twin’s live set. In my opinion, no other festival comes close. It even says ‘best’ in the title, and they wouldn’t be allowed lie about that, would they…
Our new favourite festival…?
This year, we are incredibly proud to announce that we have been invited to host a night at the iTunes festival, taking place for the whole of July at London’s Roundhouse. Along with acts like Faithless, Underworld and Goldfrapp, Defected In The House will be taking over proceedings on Friday 23rd July for a very special night of LIVE house music.
We’ve put together an all-star band who will be joined by legendary singers Candi Staton, Barbara Tucker, Julie McKnight and Steve Edwards who will be performing LIVE versions of their classic records. They will be supported by DJs the Shapeshifters, Copyright, Simon Dunmore plus Shovell on Percussion who will keep the party going long into the night.
