Zone Magazine Issue 011 - Paul Oakenfold

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
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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