LOST VILLAGE: JAYMO & ANDY GEORGE TALK THEIR NEW FESTIVAL
Annie Mac, DJ Koze & more.
Lost Village is the latest boutique festival to hit the UK, spearheaded by affable DJ duo and Moda Black frontmen, Jaymo and Andy George. Originally hailing from leafy Lincolnshire in the Midlands, the pair are journeying back to basecamp for the three day event, that's due to run in the woods outside their hometown this Bank Holiday Weekend. The line-up for Lost Village is predictably impressive with headliners including German legend DJ Koze and BBC Radio One First Lady Annie Mac, plus sets from the who's who of up-and-comers from the UK and beyond. DJ Mag sat down with Jaymo and Andy George to find out what they've got up their sleeve for their first ever festival...
Why your own festival? Why now?
Andy George: “From the outside it may look like a sudden thing, but this is something we've been planning for a few years. We've always thrown parties and we're always looking to push things that bit further, so once you're at the stage of doing 2000 people in a warehouse, the next logical step is a boutique festival.”
Jaymo: “We've grown organically though. We started small, 400 people or so, and just kept pushing that bit further. The hard part wasn't deciding to do a festival, it was finding the right place to do it!”
Tell us about what to expect from Lost Village?
AG: “We were talking about how cool it is when you're walking around abandoned places, old castles, buildings that have become derelict, that sort of thing. You get that weird feeling of lives once lived, an almost palpable sense of history, to the point that it's almost unnerving.”
J: “The same goes for that feel of adventure you get when you're walking through the woods and you don't know what's around the next corner. Maybe there's a hint of nostalgia in there, making us think about films [like] Stand By Me, but we figured that if we could inject that feel of adventure into a festival then the results would be much more exciting. We just didn't see the point of putting tents and sound systems in a big field — lots of festivals do that really well already and, lets be honest, the festival market is pretty stacked.... so we just wanted to do something really different.”
Can you let us in on any secrets about the site?
J: “Well, there's 4 stages; Forgotten Cabin, Abandoned Chapel, The Ruins and Basecamp. Majority of this is in the woods, with lots of winding pathways connecting each area. Expect to be really disorientated for the first day or so — that's kinda the idea!”
AG: “As soon as you've figured something out, it stops challenging your brain and it becomes boring, so our aim is to keep people on their toes! There's lots of weird things going on in the Lost Village too, some you may never notice, some you will. There's a bunch of weird inhabitants too and if you choose to find them and quiz them, you might just be able to unravel the mystery of the Lost Village. This is more than just dancing in the woods!”
It’s not just DJs playing, tell us about the live acts?
J: “Live music is very important to us and will be something that grows further next year. Our aim is for Lost Village to simply be seen as a place to hear good music, sometimes from big names, sometimes from up-and-coming artists, sometimes from complete curveballs (again, if you're in the right place at the right time!).
AG: “This year, we have people like Arkon Fly, who are an electro-funk duo from London. We also have Roosevelt coming over from Berlin, which we're very excited about. He's about to have a very strong year! Die Vogel, who is part of DJ Koze's Pampa crew is playing live too. His stuff is straight bonkers and sometimes almost challenging, but in a truly brilliant way. That's what we want though - brilliant and bizarre music to accompany the brilliant and bizarre environment!”
Talk us through some of your most memorable festival sets?
J: “One of the most surreal festival memories that always stands out, was playing on the Beach in Tokyo. No sleep on the flight over, straight from the airport to the festival, God knows how many people we played to, it was a lot, but we're feeling trippy as hell by this point, because we've had a few drinks, it's boiling hot, no sleep, loads of our mates were there too, hence the party spirit was in full swing. Then we ended up staying out for ages.”
AG: “Yeah, we got back to the UK about 24 hours later. I remember waking up on the Monday and the whole thing just felt like a weird but awesome dream. Like, I didn't even know Tokyo had a beach until we got there.”
What would be your ultimate main stage line-up of artists — dead or alive?
J: “Depeche Mode, Aphex Twin, Thomas Bangalter, Prince, Altner8, Nirvana, New Order, Miss Kitten, DJ Koze, Matthew Herbert playing live at sunset. Shall we go with that? I'll get it booked!”
Where can we spot you this summer following Lost Village?
J: “Immediately after Lost Village you can spot us running to T5 as we're both going away for a couple of weeks to try recover from this past 9 months. Turns out running a festival isn't something you can do on your lunch break!”
AG: “But of course we'll be over in Ibiza lots of summer, mainly doing Moda Black parties in conjucntion with Doorly and his crew at Sankeys. But also at Blue Marlin a few times too.”
Anything else we should know?
J: “If you've seen Lost Village it's very much got a tribal theme...”
AG: “So come prepared else you might just be the only one in jeans and t shirt!”
Lost Village is on 22nd to 24th May in Lincolnshire.
Full details and tickets here.
