bennyhana22

I would say it's because it's not seen as that kind of festival. It's not Houghton, Freerotation, Gottwood etc, and so the line-up is curated for variety, keeping the largest number engaged and entertained etc. How many 'all-genres' festivals have regular 3-4h sets? Not many, I'd say. Even Boomtown, which is probably the danciest of the multi-genre biggies, doesn't have 3-4h sets in any significant way. A shame, I agree, but I'd be more surprised if they did have them, tbh... The only place I could really see that being a regular thing, I think, would be the Downlow. Ben

Apologies for being lazy and not reading the planning stuff, but I seem to remember (probably erroneously) that they were pretty sure they wouldn't het planning permission to leave the base in place forever, but that it was 'OK' for a year or so more after 2019. Before the webcam went down it was ever present in the Arcadia field and I though that there were defo plans for Pangea Mk 2 for 2020, even if the long term future was uncertain. TBH, given the time and financial investment they made in the project, I'd be very surprised if the crane is not there this year, again even if its days are numbered at Glastonbury , at least, due to planning. I guess the main issue that it was going to take something monumental to follow the spider and not always be a little bit of a deflated balloon. Ben

I love a man with ambition! How many 4-hout sets can anyone remember from ever? Coxy played for 3h45m (by the lineup listings) at the Glade in 2019, of course, but I can't think of any other truly long sets... What have we got? Ben Edit: oh, and Jane Fitz - I'll be right by your side...

I'm convinced it's the field most dependent on where you are. I always tried to get right under the spider, which meant I missed the visuals, but, man, the sound was superb in the middle of the speaker set-up. Jon Hopkins in 2017 was extraordinary. For 2019 and Pangea's first year, we again were right by/around the booth, and the sound was pretty good again, though not yet at spider levels. Of course, nothing could completely resolve the fact that every other track was Jamie Jones dropping some flappy hand stuff...! Ben

That would be fascinating. There are a lot of dance-moneys at Glastonbury, but I still wonder how many people would be drawn to Pangea by this huge, iconic 'name', only for RDJ to drop a deep set and them go "what the fuck is this?"! Bicep, he ain't... Ben

Eek! Ben

Even easier - pack up your stuff on Sunday morning, put in the lockup, dance all night +/- sunrise at SC, pick up stuff from lockup, yomp to PGA. Magical. Ben

Yeah, it's always pretty damn impressive. For those who like it full-on, they're being very generous in giving you Blawan, Pariah and Karenn! Helena b2b Stingray is an electro wet-dream. I bloody love Mor Elian and need to see her more than just the one time I have so far. The Master, DVS1, clearly loves this festival. I'll never forget his set in the Moat at the Fort. Masterclass. Steevio and Suzybee with all manner of modular loveliness. And I really need to see Djrum before too long - a favourite of Child 1. Excellent lineup again. Ben

I saw them headline Green Man in the summer and, though often a bit 'soft' for me (I also just don't really like vocals in 'dance' music...), they were great! As @Tuna says, visuals are nice and the sound at GM is stellar, so that made a big difference. And they dropped a MASSIVE techno banger late in the set - might have been a Daphni track, I guess. @Supernintendo Chalmers - nice new avatar Ben

Would love this too, but I'm pretty sure their touring dates already announced rules them out 😢 Ben

In this world of everything being manipulated, tweaked and photoshopped, if that's genuine, that's stunning. Ben

Although, you have transposed the 2 and the 9...!! 😬 Ben

Always there for ya! Ben

You're way off with your estimate there, pal. That's Pi in the sky thinking, there... Ben

Overmono are great! But I've got to point out that it's Genosys, Matt! I think they'd work better on IICON, actually... Ben

I'm bamboozled at the concept of what 'VIP' might mean at an event like that 😆. Ben

Upvoted as a fellow never-down-voter, @Ayrshire Chris Viva La Positiva! And Happy New Year. Ben

Hope it's excellent, pal. Saw Joy O in a brilliant venue in Birmingham (one of the now-departed Rainbow Venues 😞) on a bill with Scuba and Object. All three were on fire and one of my favourite ever nights. Ben

Yeah, agree with this a lot, @Matt42 There was lots to enjoy about Waterworks festival in September, good sound on a number of the stages etc, but I found to really hard to get to, get into and see out a full set. That was partly my fault as I probably tried to see too many DJs and so was bouncing between stages too much (Moi? Surely not...), but also maybe that it wasn't quite my ideal environment. I love dancing outside, but I also 'have' to be right in a crowd to feel part of the set. That was impossible at WW without being in a position where it was so rammed that dancing was impossible. I can't understand why so many people seem content to be shoulder to shoulder with no way of moving more than an inch, at a rave. Surely that's missing the whole point, isn't it? That leads me back to the (gentle and non-pompous) challenge that so, so many people now seem to go to events to be as close as possible to their idol DJ, rather than go to immerse themselves in the dance and the music. Ho hum! 1. we defo need to get at least one set meet-up of threaders at GF2022, so we can put out philosophy into practice 2. we defo have to get @Supernintendo Chalmers to GF2022... Ben

Obviously it would be the Saturday that I would look at, and when I saw it last week I was a bit...depressed/frustrated. It's just the same old names all the time. Why is that? Is it because the promotors know that these names sell tickets? It just seems that the (techno) scene has moved inexorably towards line-ups that cater for people who aren't that fussed about dancing to a really innovative or adventurous set. They just want the 4/4 bangers from names they recognise. I'm not articulating this very well, and I also have to acknowledge that we are looking at one of the best known UK summer dance festivals, rather than a nicely grubby underground rave at a small venue run by those who really 'care' about the culture. Typically long-winded from me, sorry, but yeah, all a bit same old same old. I'm excited about the WHP event I'm going to four weeks today because I know that the choices I make will often take me away from the superstar-DJ-casual-raver-attractors... I'm not being snobbish and elitist about this, I promise, I just wish there were more opportunities for me to see artists who understand what makes a techno rave, in the way that I do. I'm open to anyone @ing me about this! Ben x

Yeah, I don't know most of them, and a bit of Googling seems to indicate they're pretty generic EDM types. I'll put a shout in for Ben Sims in the thread top 10, please! Ben

Sorry, @MaxPower, he's not really my thing, so I'm no help. Caught a bit of him in Silver Hayes in the daytime one year as I was marching through on my way somewhere!* Hopefully someone in the thread can help. Ben x *I was heading North so it must have been to JPT...

Oh My Giddy Aunt 😲 Ben x

Soairse now in the CS slot at E1 Ben

Yup. Got to say, Shanti vs Object vs Karenn (DJ) vs Saoirse is an insane clash! Have tweeted E1 to see if they've replaced Call Super. That line-up does need another reasonably big hitter... Ben