Summer Love Festival is about bringing the good times to a good crowd. The music is taken from across the dance spectrum of the last 40 years with different stages and different vibes with attention to detail and big production throughout.
This year’s event will be on Saturday 17th September 2022 from 12pm – 11pm at Billing Aquadrome Northampton.
Mr C, Robert Owens, Terry Farley, Graeme Park and more headline and here we speak to Mr C about it all.
https://linktr.ee/summerlovefestivaluk
https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/RedHill/Northlands/Summer-Love-Festival/36063393/
How has summer been so far?
Summer has been very hard work but we’re starting to see the fruits of our labour. I’ve been having a brilliant time though, having played some great gigs around Europe like Clockstock Festival & Clockwork Orange Ibiza, Moondance Festival Croatia, Healing Garden Festival Netherlands, StreetRave Glasgow & some great club gigs too. I’m off to Burning Man on Sunday with some great sets lined up there.
What are your memories of last year’s Summer Love festival?
The people & vibes were next level. You could feel the love, like a proper summer of love feeling. The music was just brilliant on all stages at all times. There were no queues anywhere for anything & it felt like we’d created something magical.
What did you learn in the process of doing the event?
I learned so much. Last year was a baptism of fire entering into the festival game. LOL. I’ve been able to put those learnings into creating a vision of how to move Summer Love Festival forward as a 10 year project & of course the planning of this year’s festival.
What is new for this year? what’s been added or amended?
There is so much new. We were moving to a new site in Surrey but didn’t manage to get the license, so we’ve relocated to an amazing site called Billing Aquadrome near Northampton, slap bang in the centre of England. The site is a holiday village with great amenities & infrastructure. The Summer Love & C76 stages will be located in the main venue & outside by the marina lake & we’re creating a Summer Love village in the main field for the Superfreq, Graffiti Kings Radio & Viper Lounge stages etc. The event is still running all 5 stages as advertised on Saturday the 17th September, but due to this fantastic site upgrade we’ve also added a Friday night welcome party & all day on Sunday at no extra ticket cost. So people can still enjoy a great 1 day festival or should they choose they now have the option to enjoy the whole weekend with us. The 30 lodges & 37 clamping pods sold out in a couple of days but there’s lots of camping options at billingaquadrome.com
How important is diversity on a modern festival line up?
Of course diversity is important, it always has been at my events, which is why we’ve always booked female, gay & DJs of colour, but the music is most important. 25% of our line up are people of colour. I’ll definitely have a couple more ladies on next year too who weren’t available this year. The ladies are in hot demand these days.
What are the key things you wanted to get right with the event? what do you want it to be known for?
The music is most important. Summer Love festival showcases the very best in British dance music from the original OGs of House & Techno, to the roots of that & up to the best in newer young talent. The music is everything, which is why our crowd is struggling to work out what stage to be at, at what time. Such a great line up. Of course we want to get the entire experience right so providing a great infrastructure is also vital. Great sound systems, lighting, decoration etc.Our vision is to continue to build on our loving community of like minded Souls who want to celebrate life to the very best music possible in a safe & welcoming environment.
How did you decide on who to book, what was the aim with it?
Last year we had Robert Owens, Eddie Richards, Jazzy M & Terry Farley playing on the main stage but we’ve moved them to the modern music tents this term. Eddie is now in the Superfreq tent & the others are in the Graffiti Kings radio tent. This opened up space to have Graeme Park, Linden C & Rob Acteson on the old school stage. The Superfreq stage is mostly label artists & residents so that’s easy & Graffiti Kings Radio DJs make up the rest of their stage & some of the Viper Longe stage. The C76 stage is all about the 70s so I was able to book my teenage DJ heroes. The Viper Lounge is a miss mash of London’s amazing talent & people close to our crews.
What can people expect from you at the festival? What sort of sounds?
Personally I’ll be digging deep for an acid house set on the Summer Love Stage. I’ll also be doing a live PA as part of my set, 4 songs & be accompanied by David H Percussion throughout.The Summer Love stage will be 1st wave house & acid house music. So 1986-1992 loosely. Superfreq is upfront deep tech, acid & techno. The Graffiti Kings Radio stage is all flavours of upfront house music. The Viper Lounge will be eclectic, funk, disco, hip hop, electro, breaks, disco & more. The c76 stage will be roots reggae, funk & disco.
Do you play differently in the summer outdoors, in the sun vs in a club?
It really depends on the crowd, stages, set times & set up but people generally come to hear me do my thing, play mischievous music & have fun, so I do. If I play outdoors, I will be mindful of who’s on after me so that there’s some sort of continuity for the crowd but that doesn’t usually affect my intention.
