HIDEOUT HYSTERIA

IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING, THE GALDEM HAVE FINALLY MANAGED TO PULL THEMSELVES TOGETHER AND NAB OURSELVES TICKETS TO HIDEOUT IN CROATIA THIS SUMMER. Needless to say you can probably deduce from the incessant use of capital letters that I am outrageously excited. I never thought I'd see the day where this many of our group (11 to be exact) would be sufficiently organised in actually following through on long standing plans to book something together for the summer. I've never been so glad to be proven wrong.

I had actually got myself a ticket last year and was planning on going with a couple of close friends but was mortified on realising that I had work experience starting the Monday after the festival and that obviously it would run late into Sunday night and the chances of me making it into London on time for work in the morning were average to slim. But that's all in the past now and I can only help but believe that God is giving me a second chance.

The feedback I've had of Hideout over the past two years has been overwhelmingly positive mostly thanks to the painstakingly careful construction of such tremendous line ups, this year including UK Bass heavy weights Chase & Status, Skream & Benga, Rudimental, SBTRKT, Julio Bashmore and other such big names. The beauty of Pag Island itself has got to be one of the other main factors of Hideout's magnetic attraction, placing over 100 acts in and around the stunning Zrcé Beach in it's many open air clubs and of course on the notorious Hideout Boat Parties.

The notably different atmosphere to that of other Croatian dance festivals was something that came up often when talking to last year's Hideout attendees with most highlighting it's difference from the other whopping and successful Croatian festival Outlook. Although Outlook is no doubt the boss of beach festivals the emphasis was that Hideout offered a more chilled vibe, a huge factor probably being the more heavy dub and drum&bass orientated nature of the Outlook line ups, where as Hideout leans more towards the house side of things. Hideout is also decidedly more glamorous than Outlook as the majority of Hideout's festival goers opt for staying in apartments in nearby Novalja.

One of the things I am most looking forward to is being far out at sea, watching the sun go down, and busting some serious moves whilst listening to the dulcet tones of Redlight, Bondax and Gorgon City. Yep, that's right, I've got We Own Boat Party tickets AAAHHH YEEAAHHH. Unfortunately our group had to split down the middle so the other half will be heading to the likes of Joy O and Jackmaster on the Numbers Boat Party which I am absolutely gutted to be missing but as I haven't seen Redlight or the Bondax boys since back in November (too long for my liking) I had to go for the We Own Boat Party. Seeing Skream & Benga tear it up on a boat would've been a very special moment, especially as I'm loving Skream's foray into disco ventures at the mo, but alas these sold out at the speed of light.

It's hard to pinpoint a few names out of the mass of talent that Hideout has got in store for me but West Coast producers Eats Everything and Justin Martin (UK and US west coasts respectively) are up there with the acts I'm most eager to see along with the likes of Tensnake, Baauer, Ben Pearce and Kidnap Kid.

So I leave you with Hideout's 2012 highlights to give you some idea of what glorious madness awaits me and be sure to expect rave reviews the minute I'm back.

Stalking Redlight at Cable

For those of you that know me, you will probably be aware of the fact that I am something of a Redlight enthusiast. Fanatic? Maybe. Stalker? Who can say. What I do know is that he absolutely smashed Detonate Indoor Festival in Nottingham in May and so it was that my love for him was born. When I found out he was playing Cable in August for ‘Loud Noise’s’ 1^st birthday there was no way I wasn’t going to go, especially as Cable is a banging venue, so I gathered the troops and bought myself a ticket before anyone could object. We arrived to Addison Groove blasting This Is It and immediately got our skank on to his acid basslines. After a couple more bevs, me getting vommed on, and some serious sweating, it was time for Sir Redlight to do his thing. Safe to say we both lived up to the expectations of him smashing it and me going absolutely nuts, a particular highlight being the madness post-Lost In Your Love drop. What I love most about Bristolian Hugh Pescod (yes, I know his name), is that he moved away from being labelled and confined by a genre by leaving drum’n’bass productions behind so that he could create his own fusion of bass driven housey beats . Obviously I was devastated when his set finished and could only be consoled by chasing him down for a photo which is actually still my phone background. The atmos somewhat declined after he popped off which was reflected in the emptying out of room 1 for Dark Sky - a bit too dubby for our high spirits. A nice surprise was how New York Transit Authority packed it out again and absolutely brought the roof down for the last couple of hours, an even nicer surprise was Redlights reply to my tweet as we left the building which I proceeded to brag about for days after. Yeeaa he definitely fancies me.