I am still in mild disbelief that I actually made it to Gottwood. I’ve notched up three failed attempts. The first, I had a friends and family ticket, and I was guilt tripped into not going. That was a mistake. The second time, I didn’t go because of a tragedy. I lost a dear friend just over a week before. Then, last year, the day before we were set to leave, I started to feel a bit ill. By the next morning, I felt like I’d fallen off the edge of the world, and my head felt as if it was going to explode. I had no FOMO. Over the following days, all I could think was ‘Thank fuck I’m not at a festival like this.’ The next fortnight was a blur. When I got better, I wasn’t particularly upset at having missed out on Gottwood; I thought it was a shame, but I was just incredibly happy to be present again, and to feel well.
This post gets a lot more positive from here…
I’ve still not done the full four days. Having made attempt four to get there, I had things that I needed to do on the Thursday, so I opted for a lift with my pal Charlie on the Friday afternoon. It’s a decent drive, in spite of it being quite long. North Wales is a beautiful part of the world, and even if the traffic is bad, the breathtaking scenery makes it bearable.
The site of the festival is beautiful, too. Heads will know that it is strikingly similar to Houghton, with wooded areas, and a lake as the centrepoint. (Pond? A friend scathingly remarked that it is actually a pond. Either way, it’s very pretty.)
Of the two, I would say that Gottwood is slightly more picturesque. Comparisons are often made between these festivals, and I would agree with the general consensus that Gottwood could be described as a smaller, slightly less headsy Houghton. As far as the line ups go, both festivals are on point. It’s impossible for me to make every set I would like to hear at either, and I also know that anything I happen upon by accident will be quality.
Having finally made it to the site, it was around half past six when we walked through from the campsite into the main arena. Charlie suggested having a wander, and showing me where everything was, which was very sound. It’s a nice thing to do, when you first get to a festival, or anywhere, to have a walk around and just take everything in.
I stayed at The Curve for most of Friday night. Because of the inevitable thing happening of everyone you know suddenly appearing, the first set I headed to – Sonja Moonear – didn’t get my full attention. Harry McCanna was on after that, and the next on my don’t miss list. Harry was prolific at Gottwood. He’d played with the other NorthSouth residents earlier that day, and he also had a set at Wax Material on Saturday.
Wax Material is a mobile record shop, the moniker of owner and founder Jessi, and also a touring stage, with DJs playing from their van. My friends Carl (B6) and Baker (Phatt Skank) were working there and played two b2b sets. They had been at Westival the previous weekend and they’ll be at Houghton. The shop has a great selection of pre-owned records. You have the option of getting the records you buy posted, which I think is essential to a lot of people digging at a festival. Their line ups were quality. Alec Falconer, Dig This, Harry McCanna, Samuel Padden, and Willow all played from the van during the course of the weekend. Samuel Padden’s set was one of my stand out sets of the festival, in fact. This intimate corner of Gottwood was one of the things I enjoyed the most.
A question I pondered… I set out to go and see Dr Banana at The Curve on the Sunday, but by the time I got there, it was so crowded that it would have been a massive effort to get properly in, and there was so much overspill at the sides that you couldn’t really hear much on the edges. So I sacked that. Anyway, this led me to wonder if it would be possible for him to play a set somewhere like Wax Material without the situation causing mayhem..? At what point would a DJ be too big to play out of the van..? Or would it not work like that?
Another high point for me was Herodot, who played after Harry at The Curve. This was the second time I’ve caught a Herodot set without having planned to, and been blown away by it. That Romanian minimal sound at its best. I was right at the front for most of it, and the next time he’s on a line up at something I’m attending, I will go and see him intentionally .
Edward was the last DJ of the night on that stage. He played the closing set at Houghton’s Terminus in 2022. It was wonderfully trippy and the final tune was beautiful. Apparently that set wasn’t to everyones’ taste, though. Some people wanted bangers. I thought it was perfect for the setting and the moment. His Gottwood 2024 set was possibly more along the lines of what the Houghton complainers would have preferred, and was pretty hard hitting by the end.
Unlike Houghton, Gottwood is not a 24 hour festival, and it’s possibly the only festival I’ve ever been to where I’ve slept every night. In fact, I had way more sleep at Gottwood than I get most weekends, and I got six hours after the main arena closed on the Saturday, which is more than I generally get on a week night. I was quite tickled by that. I got half an hour’s sleep last year at Houghton.
The thing with me is that if I’m having a good time, and there’s something to do, or if I have a wingman, then I’ll end up staying up because it’s more fun than going to sleep. It just so happened that everyone I was with went to bed, so I did, too. I can usually fall asleep quite easily on uppers if I need to, and I don’t mind a bit of noise if it’s not too overwhelming. I actually found it easier to get my head down at 4am in on a festival campsite than I have done at 2am on a Monday when I’ve felt it was appropriate to have a certain amount of sleep.
That first night, I didn’t kip for long, because around 7am it absolutely tipped it down, and I discovered that my tent wasn’t waterproof. Never buy £20 tents from Argos. I only did it because I co-own a bell tent, but it seemed a bit excessive to bring a six man tent to a festival where I would be its sole user, and I probably wouldn’t sleep. As it turned out, I actually had a space in artists’ camping anyway, as me and Charlie were on Matt JL’s guestlist. I knew this before I went to bed the first night, but I wasn’t with those guys at the end, and I didn’t want to disturb them if they were already sleeping.
It had rained on the Thursday, but by Friday afternoon the weather was pretty nice, and it held all through the night. It was not pleasant to find that my tent wasn’t going to provide shelter from the rain, and I decided that I had better get up and ensure that all my stuff didn’t end up drenched. After that, I went to explore what was the possibilities were for breakfast. The food options at Gottwood were pretty decent. By the time I’d finished my scran and coffee, the rain had stopped and the sky was looking more like a June sky should.
Saturday was an amazing day. I spent most of it listening to my friends playing awesome sets. That morning, I was awake a long time before any of my pals, and I was keen for the main arena to open. There was only so much wandering around the campsite, and the limbo area bit with the breakfast vans, that I could do, and I definitely didn’t feel like sitting down and chilling, as lovely as the surroundings were. Leeds party Freq were doing a stage takeover in Ricky’s, but they didn’t start until midday. You could go through to the festival from 10am, though, so I headed in.
After buying some replacement sunglasses, having parted ways with mine the night before, I headed over to Wax Material, which opened from the start. Carl was at listening station, and he waved me over to listen to the record he had on. We’re doing a b2b at Imaginarium for Manifesto in a few weeks, and he wanted my thoughts on some of his picks. After that, I decided to have a dig. My finds travelled back to Leeds with Carl, and I collected them last weekend. I got a pretty decent haul. Including a random blind (or deaf rather) roulette choice from the bargain bin, which turned out to be awesome.
One of the nicest things is watching your mates absolutely smash a set. It’s almost as much of a buzz as when it’s yourself behind the decks (I can’t pretend to be selfless enough to deny that beats everything). Gottwood was all about that. In spite of us having a serious lack of venues at the moment, Leeds has a strong scene, and a lot of talented people. The Freq takeover of Ricky’s started at midday on Saturday. Resident and founder, Harry (Kinso) played the opening set, and set the bar high for a day of incredible music. About halfway through his set, a troupe of oompa loompas danced in, and I’m glad to say that it turns out that I’m not as much of a miserable snob as I maybe thought I was, and it put a big smile on my face. They were on a stag do, and they were all very sound, and they stayed for the whole set. I couldn’t stop laughing. I had considered dropping a gary before they entered the scene, but there didn’t seem to be much need after that. To add to the wonderful silliness, a load of the Leeds crew were wearing toadstool hats, so it seemed like half the room was mushrooms and the other half was oompa loompas, all bobbing about to the tunes. Very good times.
I had planned to wander around and catch a few different things through that day, but I was too into the tunes at the Freq takeover. Sometimes it’s a nice thing to dip in and out of things at a festival, and sometimes you just need to be there for the whole thing. Chris Mehlor and Max Le Louche were on next, and their set was something special. As was Matt JL and Dom Bradbury‘s b2b at The Lighthouse, and Carl and Baker’s (B6 and Phatt Skank) the next day at Wax Material, where they treated us to a set of filthy garage bangers (they both play a broad spectrum of sounds, so it could have been something entirely different). Anyway, Leeds did Leeds proud as far as up and coming DJs go.
I’ve shared some clips from my pals’ sets on Instagram. Sadly, my phone was long dead by Sunday when Carl and Baker played, but there’s some Saturday here.
Just the one photo. I never really take any at festivals. Not because I think it’s not the vibe, or whatever – I just don’t think to.
Both Ricky’s and The Curve are under coverings, which is both a great thing (we’re in the UK, rain happens), and a not so great thing (you feel like you’re indoors, and eventually I get a kind of being inside fatigue). After spending hours at Ricky’s on the Saturday, it was really nice to go to The Lighthouse, and to be outside, especially in the glorious June sunshine. After that, for hours I struggled to be anywhere that resembled indoors. My pal Kieran cites Andy Luff‘s set at The Curve as one his stand outs, and in different circumstances I could have got as involved as he did, but I couldn’t get past the wanting to be under the sky, rather than under a canopy and feeling like I was in a nightclub.
Now I’m going to scribble over everything I just said…
When Binh, Lutz, and Masda played b2b2b at The Curve, it was like being in a nightclub dreamscape on acid, and it was ace.
Jokes aside, I have nothing against a covered stage, I was just really appreciating being outdoors on such a nice day, I guess. I did get over it eventually, around the time it got properly dark, which I suppose makes sense. I wouldn’t have missed Nicolas Lutz, Binh, and DJ Masda playing a b2b set, anyway. It was an intriguing combo, and it worked. As the music got trippier, the lights and projections got more intense, to the point of being almost unbearable. I mean that as a compliment, by the way; they were perfect with the music. The only downside for me, during that set, was the crowd. For the most part at Gottwood, I thought the crowd was really sound, but just for those few hours, our crew seemed to keep ending up next to people who would either fall over, dance into you, or have really loud conversations over the music. To be fair, I can understand the knocking into you – the combination of barely being able to see what’s in front of you and being in an altered state will make that fairly inevitable, and I should probably be more forgiving. The loud chatter I do take issue with, though. Obviously, sometimes, in the middle of it all, talk will happen – and that’s sound – but don’t go right into the depths of a dancefloor to have an hour long gossip. I will never understand why people do this. At one point, we were next to a group of people who took this to such an extreme that it was impossible to even be annoyed, because it was hilarious. Imagine listening to that set, and then there’s also an episode of Coronation Street happening right next to you; all this loud and mundane chatter about so-and-so’s ex over the dark and weird music. The absurdity of it tickled me.
Throughout the festival, the visuals and lighting were amazing. From the trippy lasers in the Curve to Danimation‘s wonderful projections on the house by the lake, it was all on point. That kind of attention to detail makes so much difference to the whole experience, and to get it right as well, so it’s not too much in the wrong way; so it’s beautiful and psychedelic, and not brash and jarring; that’s a real art. It’s not just all about the tunes.
That whole weekend, the only thing that I did find jarring was that they showed the England game. I will add that me and a mate once took a few hours out of a festival where we were playing to go to a local pub and watch a Liverpool game. It’s not because I’m not into football, it’s just like how I’m not into pesto on cheesecake. I do get it – it was the Euros, it was England – it just seemed wrong there. Although I suppose you wouldn’t want half the festival leaving for a couple of hours, and it wouldn’t really be feasible for all those people to attempt to invade the local pub. But it was weird. For me, personally, I’d always choose tunes over football – or over pretty much anything, in fact – so I’d not even considered that I’d see the first England fixture. I happened upon it in a moment of minor doom, as well, which I guess didn’t help. The weather had suddenly turned, and it was raining. I was trying to get to the Walled Garden to see Tristan Da Cunha, but I ended up way off track because a one way system had been implemented, and I got caught up in a huge bottleneck crowd on the path, and I must have forgotten about everything else trying to escape it, and didn’t think about where I was actually going. By the time I came back to Earth, I realised that I was miles away from where I was trying to get to; I’d ended up near the top end of the campsite. What an idiot! There was no one way system on this path (I was right on the periphery of the festival) so I nearly turned around to walk back, but then I decided against it. The whole sudden crowd situation had been a bit of a west out, and it seemed like a nice thing to do, after that, to carry on, and to walk through the campsite, and just have a few minutes’ peace. I’d not walked for long when I spied an opening in the trees with a sign above it that said ‘Festival Entrance’. Until then, I hadn’t realised that there was another entrance to the main arena in the campsite. It wasn’t anywhere near where I was staying, so I’d never had to go in that way. I walked through, and I instantly felt like I’d stepped through a hole in the hedge, and come out in a parallel universe. Everything looked the same, and there were all the festivalgoers, but instead of a DJ, at the front of the crowd was a huge screen with the football on. It was strange as fuck.
That weird little adventure was the closest I came to any kind of doom through the whole weekend, and I actually quite enjoyed it by the end. The bizarre through the rabbit hole feeling of suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, seeing the football happening, is something I’m now looking back on quite fondly, and within moments of the initial ‘What the fuck?’, I was laughing at myself, and at the whole situation. When I finally made it to the Walled Garden, I felt a bit like I’d just completed a level in a game. I’m chuckling now thinking about it. The relief was immeasurable.
When it came to the closing set of the festival, that took a few rainy detours to get right, too. I wanted to go and see Eris Drew and Octo Octa, but the guys I was with took more convincing than I’d expected. I considered going off on my own, which I’m always happy to do – sometimes I prefer it; an hour of Red Axes on my own, by a speaker stack, in the sun, had been blissful – but you want to be with your pals for the last set. I didn’t want to force anyone to do what I wanted to do, either, so we walked around for ages before we actually got there. One of my mates said they had walked over briefly and heard something that sounded like ‘awful europop’. I tried to explain that if he’d stayed for more than a few seconds, whatever the tune was would have made sense and been good, but he wasn’t convinced. It took everybody not being convinced by anything else that was happening either for us to end up there. They had probably been on for about 45 minutes by that point. It was awesome, and my friends agreed. They were playing these ace edits of 90s bangers. A lot of stuff that would have been cheesy if it was done differently. The edits were on the fly, too. I spoke to someone afterwards who had been backstage, and he was enthusing about their mastery as DJs, and also about how they buzzed off each other and worked so effortlessly as a b2b. Which I guess they would, given the bond that must exist between them. It was a perfect festival closing set, and an awesome buzzing atmosphere. We eventually got right up the front, and we stayed there.
To sum it all up; it was an amazing weekend. When one of my mates, in a blissed out moment, taking it all in, said:
“Life is beautiful!”
I laughed and made a quip about the garys being decent.
“No!” he protestested, “No – I really mean it! It is! All of this – we’re lucky.”
I stopped teasing him, because he was right. So many people don’t have anything like this in their lives, some people don’t even know it exists. To be immersed in this kind of scene and culture, to share it with your mates, and then to be able to experience it all in such an awesome setting – that is a beautiful and fortunate thing.