Coastline carnage!
Win tickets for Hideout 2012
It is always tough for a debut festival to make its mark, and live to tell the tale. With events springing up quicker than a plague of grasshoppers on a hot tin roof, competing on home soil is one thing, but coaxing people in their droves to the other side of Europe is another. Daunting is not the word. Especially when it comes to Croatia, a sunny Eastern European holiday destination that has seen a drastic influx of Brit-born dance festivals over the past six or seven years. So, when Hideout Festival was announced for last summer — a three-day mash-up in a postcard setting with Simian Mobile Disco, Art Department and Jamie xx on the line-up — it raised a few eyebrows to say the least.
However, any doubts about sustaining a festival of this scale, constituting mainly of underground dance artists, were soon thwarted when the event showed signs of selling out its UK batch of tickets months in advance; the key to Hideout’s success being its unwavering determination to push for critical mass in every possible sense. Refusing to skimp on DJ talent (everyone from Julio Bashmore to Pendulum made the trip) without compromising on quality, it went out to programme eight stages, hosted by the likes of Crosstown Rebels, Wax:On and Reclaim The Dancefloor, not forgetting the sprinkling of boat parties. It attracted 6,500 people from the UK, Croatia and its neighbouring nations to the Island of Pag. Despite all this, the unanimous drive among event organisers to push boundaries from the beginning has led them to extend and expand into 2012. What more would you expect from the same minds behind Manchester’s Warehouse Project, probably the most professional team of nomadic promoters operating in the UK today, other than carefully measured business nous in the pursuit of optimisation?
“With us selling out in advance [first time around] we knew the extra demand was there,” says Hideout’s Mark Newton. “We had always planned to extend the event earlier, but in year one we didn’t want to take too much on, so we could provide a great event to those that attended.”
After testing the water, assessing the location and ironing out a few creases — “things such as shuttle buses” to account for the extra 5,000 expected and “maps and other services” to help people find accommodation — this year’s event has been granted two extra days, taking place between Wednesday 27th June and Sunday 1st July. Two stages have been added, including a new beach arena to allow more raving by the sea, while the Kalypso stage — previously a pre and after-party venue — will be used throughout. To help shoulder the 10,000 travelling this year, another campsite will be located on a neighbouring beach to give festival-goers a chance to sleep a stone’s throw away from the ocean. Adding to that, the line-up is even more earth-shattering, with Ricardo Villalobos, Chase & Status (DJ set), Jamie Jones, Claude VonStroke and Skrillex just some of the names pegged to feature over stages manned by14 different promotion teams and labels, including Just Jack, Dirtybird, Metropolis, Chibuku, Mono_cult and Jaunt, plus 16 boat parties.
“The concept was always to not have any musical boundaries, but to provide the best artists we could across all musical genres,” concludes Mark. “We aim, when booking, to bring the bigger and best names in each scene, but then mix it up with the hottest new talent out there as well. Names people might not have heard of or seen play before, but will come away fans.”
LINE-UP
Skrillex
Ricardo Villalobos?
Chase & Status (DJ set)
Loco Dice
Annie Mac
Skream & Benga
Jamie Jones?
Seth Troxler?
Sub Focus (DJ set)
SBTRKT (DJ Set)
Andy C?
Claude VonStroke?
DJ Fresh?
Erol Alkan
Four Tet & Caribou (b2b DJ set)
Maceo Plex
Maya Jane Coles?
Simian Mobile Disco?
Tiga
Art Department?
Nina Kraviz
High Contrast?
Breakage?
Damian Lazarus?
Friction
Shy FX
Hype?
Jack Beats
Zinc
Julio Bashmore
Kerri Chandler?
Aeroplane?
Redlight
Scuba
Ben Klock
Soul Clap
Toddla T
Artwork
Ben UFO?
Camo & Krooked
Doorly
Heidi
Eats Everything
Kyle Hall
Paul Woolford?
Ralph Lawson
Prins Thomas
Space Dimension Controller
WIN!
Tickets are sold out but we are giving away a pair of free standard tickets. Send the answer to this question to [email protected] and you could be in with a shout...
The Island of Pag is located in which region of water?
a) The Aegean Sea
b) The Adriatic Sea
c) The Atlantic Ocean