With the festival industry in the UK and across the globe struggling as the cost of living crisis is ever-evolving, it is certain that the market hasn’t been more competitive than now. Getting the balance right between ticket costs, down payments on services, staffing, rental of the spaces and land, toilet rentals, DJ rosters, managing tight and exclusive guest lists, and ensuring that you’re not pricing out your customers while also delivering an authentic musical experience to all – it’s no easy task. It is safe to say though – that Houghton has absolutely nailed it. And this festival really is – a serious party. Perhaps my perception is warped, after all, I am no spring chicken anymore and have seen many concerts, gigs, and festivals; too many to count. At some points, I wonder if there is a limit that I am approaching, that there is an element of becoming complacent but also generally more comfortable and being more able to say “no” to the FOMO. I am pleased to report that there is just so much more to see and hear and there are more ways to be impressed.
Where to even begin? Perhaps to give a nod of approval to the vast and attuned organization. It is no surprise given that you have Craig Richards behind all of this. What started as a 7,000 strong festival in 2017 has now with popular demand expanded to 12,000, and of course, this comes with more demands to please all. There has been a vast increase in glamping which was easily observable upon entrance with more people choosing home comforts for the long weekend of festivities. Services have been elevated with different options available both in glamping and camping arrangements, tightened security, and overall great cleaning and waste management. If there’s one thing UK festivals struggle with and are good at, is to make a mess and this has been carefully monitored with sites being actively managed for environmental impact which is really refreshing to see. Safety has also been at the forefront with reasonable measures to ensure everybody is having a great time. Excellent choice of food options open from early mornings to night and costs very reasonable given that festivals have always caused an ache for the wallet. Water available everywhere. Well-stocked bars with a special place in my heart for the Mezcaleria who also have the smiliest bartenders. On the note of staff, across the board from all staff from security to food vendors, everybody has been in great spirits adding extra icing on the cake.
The artistic expression of this festival is also unique in its collaborations. Steel structures designed by Craig Richards and fabricated by metal artist Rory Nelson scattered between the beautiful landscape around the serene Goose Lake, stages, and pop-up tents and vendors. Trippy walkway structures out of Siberian Larch (Podmakers), welded metal sculptures (Antonia Beard), and private collections of the landowners engage and excite. Lights adorning the waters in the evenings (Squid Soup) while iridescent sounds come from an illuminated ‘mushroom tree’ – cascading between glimmers of light and twinkling organic sound sources offered a moment to pause and respite between the energetic stages of the Pavillion and Earthling stages. An audiovisual trip on the benches, a moment to observe and engage with nature which is an overarching theme in this gathering. The placement of the festival in the grand estate lands of Houghton Hall with its endless rolling hills, sycamore trees, and grasslands makes this festival particularly attuned to the land and the quintessentially British naturescapes England has to offer. While this festival is primarily focused on an incredible curation of art and music – the nature aspect plays a pivotal role in merging the energy of creativity and passion for artistic expression. The setting is ideal and carefully thought out placement of art pieces and structures like the Armadillo Arts Pavillion by Unknown Works and the Orchard adorned with hammocks in between the trees provides serene spaces for tranquility and an opportunity for relaxation and rehabilitation. There is simply something for everyone here – from saunas, massages, gong baths, and even a little hut to have a cup of tea. The Orchard Dome had also become a downtempo escape in the evenings with audio-visual entertainment – more performances from Natural Symphony Live and other artists giving a luminous and peaceful trip away from the more energetic parts of the festival. In fact, it is safe to say that there is simply isn’t enough time to do it all. There is just too many juicy things going on. This leads me to the most obvious part of the experience – the music. The rumors were true – this really is the best festival for electronic music in the UK. There were so many “Wow!” moments, it was a little hard to distinguish which was more of a highlight. This brings me back to the previous point where I once thought there was a limit to what can be considered ‘new and fresh’ and impressive. The variety of artists and music was next to none, each set bringing truly its A-game with the Saturday and Sunday line-ups was a clash of the titans in terms of favorites. There were certain moments where you just didn’t think there could be any further peaks. Some sets you just didn’t want to end. Some sounds I never heard in my life. Others left me covered head to toe in goosebumps. I never wanted to stop moving. Sunday saw me clock over 70,000 steps. I thought you only lost toenails running marathons. I wouldn’t be surprised if I have some kind of a low-key fracture to one of my toes from all the stomping around. Initially, upon inspection of the line-up, there were a lot of unrecognizable names to me. Another indicator that I am probably getting on a bit and a little out of touch. One always gets a little apprehensive when they are served something new as it may mean you might be left a little disappointed. But this was far from the case with Houghton.
Each year, the curation of the line-up is meticulously put together by Richards and his team and in this concept, you can be certain that there is a fair balance of the usual suspects as much as fresh and emerging talent. In each edition, we saw the likes of Ben UFO, Ricardo Villalobos and other members of the RPR Soundsystem, Margaret Dygas, Nicolas Lutz, and The Ghost, but we were also presented with wonderful debut artists such as Donato Dozzy, You Su, Josey Rebelle and Object Blue. This year was no exception with rising stars such as Dopplereffekt, Mala, Actress, Grace Sands, Sherelle, and over 100 other artists.
For those keen beans who were able to move in on Thursday – they would have caught an opening set of Hammer followed by Craig Richards at the Derren Smart Main stage, while UVA, Kinetic, Anwar, and Lukas Wigflex opened the Warehouse. An all-female line-up by Ellie Stokes, and Hannah Holland opened the Tantrum stage during which time Silverlining, Bobby., QUEST warmed up the Pavillion while Rob Mello, Felix Dickinson and Prosumer fired up Earthling. Unfortunately, the Quarry was “unwell” this year which saw a re-jig in schedule and Alex Downey playing in the Outburst instead proceeded by Electro Elvis, LMB, and Transparent Sound in Live. The cute tipi-style tent stage Stallion was graced by the presence of Jonny Rock and Horse Meat Disco while the Old Gramaphone opened with Remi Mazet & Maybe Laura followed by Jake Manders and Wayne Holland. Giant steps opened with Amit & Aneesh, DJ Himitsu, Cameron, and Juan Blanco all warming up the festival for the Friday sessions and providing a break before the real 24-hour music festival was to kick off. Friday 10:00 am: the frolicking began with Present Shock II by United Visual Artists (UVA) opening access to their audiovisual installation at the Warehouse blending technology and art broadly exploring the relationship between light, space, and time by the use of synchronization as a way to challenge perception. Meanwhile, James Massiah opened the Darren Smart stage while Harri Pepper, Greg Paulus, and Amit & Aneesh opened the Pinters stage, Hamish & Toby at Tantrum, and Craig Richards with Donna Leake doing Reggae sets at the Pavillion. Bas Ibellini warmed up the Earthling stage while Chez de Milo, Not An Animal, and John Tejada got the Outburst tent going. Mr. Shiver, Shy One, Tama Sumo & Lakuti with Colleen Cosmo Murphy D started bringing in the funky vibes at Stallions, while the Old Gramaphone hosted the likes of Double Agent 7, Miles Wonderfulsound, Steve Rice, Kem and Chris Sullivan, and big names such as Bill Brewster, Tristan Da Cunha and John Gomez at Giant Steps. Meanwhile, the Sculpture Garden tours have begun offering revelers an opportunity to learn more about each of the artists who presented on the festival grounds.
We arrived and caught a very fun and sun-light kissed set of Saoirse who as usual, founder of the Body Movements Festival made an excellent debut of energy for what was about to come. By this point, the rest of the ten thousand-and-something guests started arriving and settling into their respective campsites filling up the dance floors on all corners. The evening sessions across the stages saw the likes of Move D and Prosumer at Stallions, an absolutely crazy set by Joy Orbison filling out the Derren Smart main stage from top to bottom. The Transendence Orchestra, Daniel Avery, Sam Morton, and Santaka among others at the Pinters Gigi FM, The Ghost, Gene on Earth, Francesco Del Garda, Craig Richards playing a darker and more ambient set to previous ones seen thus far, followed by Convextion and Ogazón, Call Super and Ben UFO at The Pavillion. Personally, Earthling had me the whole night with Raresh playing an amplifying ditzy and high energy with some high-end minimal and tech-house sounds blended together to create a very upbeat and engaging set getting everyone’s dancing shoes firmly buried into the forest dust. Voigtmann who followed after delivered an equally tasty set that got us all ready for bed by 3 am to savor our energy for the bigger days to follow. Meanwhile, the not-so-secret Terminus stage was only getting amped up and with a very hard-to-get hold of the unannounced line-up, they started their 24-hour marathon leaving no rest for the wicked. Buried deep at the back of camping with occasional warning signs of its exclusivity and limited capacity, it sure did give some exquisite new Berlin party feeling, wondering how big this queue was going to be – and if you had it in you to make it in. Whispers throughout the festivals echoed that the wait could have been as long as three hours, and without surprise.
The 500-person capacity amphitheater much like the other stages had a unique setup, in a descending valley that led you down from a forest trail into a circular dance floor with sound systems surrounding you. The sound isn’t just crisp – it is better than divine. Arguably the best sound system in Houghton. Could it be because most of the sets are also exclusively vinyl? This secluded stage had a non-stop roster of artists playing from day to night and night into day with special sets by Jonny Rock, Silverlining, Marinn, Sugar Free, Craig Richards B2B Nicolas Lutz, DJ Masda, Vlada, Sonja Moonear, Bas Ibellini, Borja S, Kinetic, Junki Inoue, Carrau and Z@p.
Saturday took no prisoners with an all-day megatron of a line-up leaving everyone fully satisfied given it is simply impossible to clone yourself and be in multiple places at the same time. Overhearing conversations from fellow dancers, everybody was blown away by every set. You didn’t want to leave or move onwards to see something new. Each and every artist captivated you.
In my case, I started “brunch” at the Tantrum stage with a very joyful, funky and naughty vinyl set by Dr Banana. Lots of experimental sounds with great breath-holding drops all in synchronization with the technicolored TV screens on top of each other behind him. Tech-house and acid mix with a twist of the unexpected vocal.
Following this, I was amazed by the duo performance of comedian and musician Reggie Watts and old-school house titan John Tejada performing under their artist duo ‘Wajatta’ which once again brought a fresh perspective on electronic music performance. In the increasingly as well as singing along while Tejada dropped classic after classic including my favourite ‘Sweat (On The Walls)’.
I was very excited to see Sonja Moonear’s name on the roster after being moved by her set many moons ago at Timewarp in Mannheim. She absolutely did not disappoint with her set at the Pavillion although her set took on a more ditzier and bouncier vibes dropping tracks such as ‘TAN-RU – Keep Reachin’ and a more heavier ominous and playful at the same time and vocal-sexy ‘Bizarrere Inc.- Playing with Knives (Quadrant Mix)’. This session set the precedent for me for the things to come. We then moved on to a newly discovered by myself DJ Manfredas at the Outburst stage who truly was a highlight for me. This Lithuanian artist not previously known to me really gave me a run for my money. In fact, Manfredas is a bit of a local here in his hometown of Vilnius running radio shows, a record-shop bar, and his own party nights. Judging by this set – really successful ones too! His 2.5-hour set had me dancing and moving in ways I haven’t done in a long time. It is absolutely certain that I’ll be there at one of his ‘Smala’ club nights sometime soon. In the meantime, I am eagerly awaiting the possibility his set was recorded so I can relive those juicy, techy, often unexpected and jittery drops.
As soon as Manfredas’ set finished, I was quickly washed away into the crowd to catch the second half of Red Axes’ Live set which was a trip on its own. Once again, an undiscovered artist duo that had the teenage goth in me rejoice with glee. A wonderful surprise to my earbuds, a welcome uniqueness to the music with heavy industrial undertones, guitar riffs – at one point I was certain they were playing metal. What a creative approach to music! Drums, guitar, bass guitar – full riffs, industrial ringing, swooshing high-pitched sounds, and meaningful lyrics to songs. The crowd was roaring and dancing – maybe even moshing? No pogo though thankfully. The punks are not dead. Most part of this performance featured their heavier acoustic tracks along the vines of ‘Teroof’, ‘Flawless’, ‘The Watkins’, ‘Sticks and Stones’ and ‘Hey’. Red Axes also did a very impressive DJ set the following day at the Earthling stage that left my fellow superfans speechless. Ones to keep an eye out for. Afterwards we were treated to a dose of what can only be named the “triangle of needs” by Panagea at the Earthling, with the Identification of Music Group on Facebook relentlessly churning out track IDs as universally voted one of the best sets at Houghton. Absolutely relentless offensive of rolling beats, high hats, and riveting basslines. One could not stop to catch the chance to breathe with unreleased weapons such as ‘Whine and Clutch – Y U QT’.
Meanwhile, Zip had everybody equally dancing crazy at the Pavillion, with more moody and minimal tunes such as ‘Andrade – Get Away from the Pressure’, more vocal smashers such as ‘Zed Bias – Shell the Again’, an epic remix of Joy Orbison’s Flight FM mixing ‘Races’ by IPC over it and friendlier more twinkling starry songs for the sunrise such as ‘Random Factor – Broken Mirror (Freaks Turning Orange Vocal)’ and ‘Blue Boy – Funky Friday’. The sunrise took care of an absolutely perfect set by Margaret Dygas who got the whole crowd blissed out to the maximum. Watching the sun creep up behind the trees and the lake while she played songs Deetron’s ‘Can’t Love You More’, Nina Simone’s ‘My Baby Just Cares For Me’ and a dreamy remix of Michael Jackson’s ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.
Sunday morning continued with a beautiful set by The Ghost in the cozy and fully-packed Stallions tipi stage with blissful groovy funky and disco tracks all thrown together like the delicious refreshing salad you needed after an all-nighter. Featured tracks were unreleased Ortarix, ‘Movin’ Souls – Nonstop Juggelin’ (Hey Gringo)’, covers of Santana’s ‘Oye Como Va’, ‘Kisses’ by Miss Monroe and ‘Lava Lava’ by John Spring. In the meantime, the rest of the stages presented with the likes of Mr. Scruff, an ambient set by Midland, Vera, Dresden, Higher Intelligence Agency, Enrica Falqui, and Maybe Laura. The evening once again had a fierce competition between artists Moodymann, Nightmares on Wax Soundsystem, XDB, Rhadoo, Palms Trax, and Optimo closing out with some incredible sets.
Meanwhile at the Terminus, we finally jumped in on an opportunity where we moved quickly in a swift 40-minute operation and got greeted to a very spooky and alien set by Kinetic with some juggling beats. A welcome change from all the euphoric notes of the morning and sizzling daytime, this evening was full of journeying acid overlays and ambient dark techno grooves. Following this and even more trippy mystical and dark set was played by Junki Inou who saw us ready for the final acts of the night.
With a very competitive end of the night between Ricardo Villalobos, Hunee and John Talabot, we made our way to Outburst and planted ourselves firmly next to the left speaker at the front for Talabot’s absolutely insane set. Again, for me a highlight – at one point a friend and I holding onto the railings and rocking all over the place with some crazy drops and tunes. The Catalan mastermind truly took us on a journey of all corners of music, with taking us through remixes of Pet Shop Boys (possibly a Shep Pettibone mix), minimal stompers like Maetrik’s ‘Sexus’, old school minimal and progressive tracks like ‘Steps’ by Greenman and dark ambient like ‘Stoicism’ by Main(Void) and closing with the delicious ‘Yummy’ by Voodoo.
For some the party didn’t stop there and Carrau and Zap would save the final last drops to close out this magnificent endeavour that was Houghton Festival. By this point, many had already departed for their Monday responsibilities and the lucky last would have enjoyed the last few shakes before all the magic – like many good things in life – would have to end.
Overall, Houghton easily gets my 5+ stars. Despite its exponential growth since its inception, this is truly a masterpiece of an event. It is carefully curated with exquisite sound systems and attracts a very wholesome community and vibe. What I found particularly worthy of brownie points is the general lack of phones flashing into artists’ faces and phones out in general. Was it the lack of reception perhaps or that people were generally here to dance and fully immerse themselves into the music and the experiences that this festival had to offer? In any case, the crowd was very comforting, charming, polite, safe, and very low-key. The lack of costume certainly took the pressure off, and you can literally turn up however you like. You are not there to ‘check-In’ or get tagged in pictures. You are not there to livestream your experience. You are there to fully unplug and check out. There are no overcrowded ‘it’ crowd DJ booths. In fact, some stages completely lacked a DJ booth and even press did not have access to enter. You are there to simply be fully engrossed and enveloped in the music. That was exactly what we did, and I have returned to London with my heart full and inspired beyond what I could have imagined with a whole deck of songs to shop for which I missed to do at the Trevinos shop in situ.
This festival has stolen my heart and without a doubt, I will be back. This time making sure I’ve got a couple of extra days to decompress in the picturesque scenic countryside and National Parks of Norfolk.
Until we meet again!
