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Olivia Stock
30 May 2023, 17:03

AVA Festival adds Goldie and DJ EZ to 2023 line-up

The electronic music titans will join Overmono, Peggy Gou, Ben UFO, and more, this weekend

Photo of the main stage at night at 2022’s AVA Belfast
Lewis McClay

Belfast’s AVA Festival has added two new headliners, Goldie and DJ EZ, to the 2023 line-up. The pair will join the likes of Peggy Gou, Overmono, Ben UFO, Central Cee, Blawan, Eliza Rose, Yung Singh, SPFDJ, and more, on the Titanic Slipways this weekend (3rd-4th June).

The two-day spectacle will also host a plethora of homegrown talent, including Kettama, Swoose, Spray, Kessler + Enby, and Nikki O, as well as a festival-closing set from Northern Irish powerhouses and AVA veteran’s Or:la B2B Sally C.

AVA have introduced a new warehouse style stage, Pump House, for this year’s outing, which promises to be a “harder, darker space” for the Belfast crowd with audiovisual production provided by Visual Spectrum.

Kicking off proceedings, AVA will be joining forces with Output Belfast to bring Ireland’s leading music conference to Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter. The annual conference will take place on Thursday 1st June at The MAC and The Oh Yeah Music Centre, and provide over 30 sessions, workshops, and masterclasses across all aspects of the music industry – including creative skills (writing, performing and producing) and business skills (management, streaming, music and image, networking and industry partnerships).

The festival has also announced its afterparties programme, which will take place across Belfast City Centre at Thompson's, Ulster Sports Club, Boneyard, and The Marcus Ward. The Friday night will feature appearances from the likes of IMNOTYOURMATE + PAÜDÍE, Swoose + Spray, and Jossy Mitsu + Nikki O, as well as a takeover from the Soft Boy crew, followed by Saturday night sessions from AVA veteran Hammer, Yung Singh + Síofra, Kessler + Hannah, and X CLUB + Ricky Chong. Tickets are still available here.

New AVA headliner, Goldie, recently announced that his debut album ‘Timeless’ is getting the remix treatment. Out 21st July, ‘Timeless (Remixes)’ will feature 17 reworks of the UK d&b figurehead’s 1995 LP. Symmetry Recordings founder Break, Grey Code, Searchlight (AKA Zero T and Beta 2), Nookie, and OneMind are amongst the names contributing remixes.

Since launching his new label, NUVOLVE, in 2020, AVA’s other newest headliner DJ EZ has been working with rising talent in the world of UK Garage. Recent releases on the imprint include Vital Techniques, Dynascope, Shy Cookie, and Tripleset.

Limited tickets to AVA Festival 2023 are available here. Check out the full line-up featuring DJ EZ and Goldie below.

Revisit our review of AVA 2022 here