Page 42 - Zone Magazine Issue 011

festival review - uk
A Soggy Sunday of Dance!
If I had to sum up my day reviewing the dance tent for Welsh music festival Glass Butter Beach this year I would say there was plenty to ‘wet’ the appetite even on a weekend plagued by extreme weather conditions which had the organisers cancelling a full Saturday’s list of events. Despite the bad weather conditions, festival organisers worked non-stop to make sure Sunday’s events went ahead and eventually, we got the green light. The line-up for the dance tent included Lionel, Brandon Lee, Ed Mackie, Strictly Underground, Paul Sawyer, Goldierocks, and heavy hitters Waze & Odyssey and Patrick Topping.
The first few sets consisted of a mix of popular classic and new House & Tech tracks from local and guest DJs Lionel, Brandon Lee & Ed Mackie. The tent started to fill up nicely, and even after a 3-minute break due to equipment changes, the crowd still stayed, and as Strictly Underground took to the stage they revved up the BPM’s with a high temp techno set.
It was then time for Krafted’s “Paul Sawyer” to take over the decks, beginning with a strictly underground sound which had an infectious groove whilst keeping
the young audience happy. During the set a series of builds and drops gave the tent that hands in the air factor with tracks such a “Detlef –Kinky Tail” standing out as dancefloor winners. Knowing a more commercial sound from Goldierocks was up next there was a smooth switch in the sound for the last 15 minutes of the set which ended with classics such as born
slippy. I would say it was very intelligent and professional set from Soultrak.
Goldierocks then took over the decks and straight away went into a high energy dance set playing a mix of well-known commercial tracks which throughout used quick cutting and transitions from one track to another keeping the crowd entertained and not leaving space for a rest bite. By this time we could see the full effect of the on-stage visuals provided by the talented VJ Leon, from Habs2ci, who made sure he kept up with the pace of this set using live, in-time, visual mixing.
The stage was then set for the big guns, Waze & Odyssey and Patrick Topping who both produced top class tech house sets which kept the crowd to the bitter end despite the weather conditions getting worse and worse outside of the tent.
I also managed to catch some of the
action over at the Main Stage, which produced a cracking set from The Cuban Brothers, whose performance included a selection of cover tracks done in an infectious, high energy performance style. This had the crowd jumping up and down right throughout the set.
All in all; the Glass Butter Beach team did everything they could throughout the day to keep the entertainment coming whilst constantly ensuring safety was a high priority.
Despite many disappointed festival goers missing out on Saturdays events I hope GBB comes back stronger next year and they get to put on a show fitting of the work that they put in.
Connect:
https://www.facebook.com/
glassbutterbeachfestival/
Words by Gavin O’Callaghan (Red Lab)
https://www.facebook.com/redlabuk
Pic by Darren Braddick
42 ZONE-MAGAZINE.IE