Gottwood Festival 2016 review

Image: Gottwood

Now in it’s seventh year, Gottwood has built up nothing short of a loyal following from all of those who have attended previously. 2016 was our fourth year in attendance, and it has been a pleasure to watch the festival grow into one of the worst kept secrets in underground dance music.

From humble beginnings as a 1000 capacity ‘perfect weekend away from reality’ hosting three stages of fun across Friday and Saturday, as we reach this year's get-together, the mystical forest in wales has opened up further to allow revellers deeper into the woods to enjoy nine arenas each with their own personality for four days of musical madness.

The reason for its popularity comes down to a number of factors. Firstly, the line-up is nothing short of impeccable year after year. Never forgetting its roots, big names that span the genres of house, techno, breaks, bass and more are joined by smaller crews from around the country, with Banoffee Pies representing Bristol, Butter Side Up representing Leeds, Half Baked representing London, Wigflex representing Nottingham and many many more. 

Secondly, this plethora of sound to be discovered is done so amongst an unbelievable setting. Even when embarking on the journey down to North Wales, you head through idyllic scenery of coastal landscapes, towering cliffs, finishing off the drive by heading through an untouched traditional welsh village full of charm as you make your way to the hidden away festival site, where the natural beauty only continues. 

Last but certainly not least, Gottwood is a parallel universe for escapism like no other.  An unspoken rule has developed encouraging those that attend to dress how they’ve always wanted to dress, unleashing their weird and wonderful alter egos. Beyond the music, a whole host of artwork and interactive installations are waiting to be discovered in the woods, releasing your childlike nature as you explore – Gottwood truly forces everyone to become a caricature of their ‘real life’ selves.

We arrived on day one of the festival, beginning our weekend on Thursday night with a helping of raw grooves from legend Mr. G in the ‘walled garden’. With an eager crowd from the start, queues were forming already but those who were lucky enough to get in to the closed off stage were treated to an exceptional welcome party.

After some serious foot stomping, and with three more days left of Gottwood, we headed back to the centre of the site where a selection of food stalls surrounded the almighty Mother Owl stage - bigger and better than previous years, this stage posed as the perfect centrepiece for the festival.

As the haunting sounds of Nina Kraviz' 'Pain In The Ass' belted from the wooden owl, we grabbed our first meal of the weekend - not of a standard festival burger and chips, but a Mediterranean vegetable hot pot from one of the many boutique food stalls that was available on site, which we enjoyed by the lake as the moonlight twinkled across the water. 

Feeling refreshed from our early night, we couldn’t wait to enter the woods again on Friday to enjoy the grounds in their daytime glory and to see what hidden gems the sunlight would reveal. We headed straight to ‘Ruffy's Lab’, which decorated to perfection to resemble the Wayne's World garage. The stage hosted interviews, workshops and straight up good times in collaboration with Stamp the Wax and Ruf Dug.

Tristan da Cunha and Dave Beer of Back to Basics notoriety where first up to talk. Anyone who is familiar with the 25 year-old Leeds based club-night can imagine the hilarious and insightful tales of hedonism and house music that were revealed in the two hour interview and Q&A session that unravelled.

With so many stages on offer, Gottwood encourages you to explore the site in a different way every day, enjoying every minute and every sound as you come across it. After a day of stage hopping, we started our evening by heading to the Opt. Cabeza, an Aztec mask shaped stage situated by the lake, where Banoffee Pies were taking over for the evening.

Having built up a steady reputation for tropical based fun with a heavy helping of wax, these boys were a great warm up to the evening. Amongst serious stomping jams we heard classic party starters such as Armand Van Helden's 'You Don’t Know me' and bongo-infused dance floor jives, getting the crowd ready for the nights activities with a fun start to the evening. 

That night saw Daniel Avery, Move D, John Talabot and Kowton B2B Hodge bring their A-game, as is standard at Gottwood festival. Christening the almighty laser dome that night too was Wigflex, raining down a techno storm into the flickering red abyss – we can’t think of a more appropriate setting for the techno titans from outer space, as guests Joy Orbison B2B Job Jobse represented the Nottingham night in style.

However, we decided to continue our evening with another helping of Back to Basics at the Tree House stage, where Dave Beer, Tristan da Cunha, Denney and Ralph Lawson were on the bill. What proceeded was a helping of energetic, straight up house, with each of the residents representing their own infusion of the club night’s sound to the sea of ravers that descended upon the hay bale clad arena. Closing the stage was Ralph Lawson, choosing the uplifting Galaxy 2 Galaxy 'Hi-Tech Jazz' as one of his final tunes after a belter of a set.  

Heading back to the campsite, we lost ourselves in a mind boggling installation hidden in the woods that we can only describe as a sensory room, allowing us to shout into a podium as our voices echoed amongst a sea of eerie sounds, followed by an accompanying wave of light, mimicking the sound and bouncing around the room. Where else would you find an experience like this other than Gottwood?

Saturday saw us discover irish DJ Lorcan Mak – having released records on Southern Fried records and Midnight Munchies, he found a new fan in us as he treated those at the tribal head stage to 3am dancefloor tunes at only 4pm, with tracks such as Romanthony’s 'Let Me Show You Love' starting the day off nicely. 

A trip further down the lake took us to the mighty curve stage, named so due to panoramic strips of video screens encapsulating you in the dance floor. Here, Half Baked - famed for their Sunday afternoon parties in London - were pumping out sounds that we’d never had the pleasure of hearing before. The DJs represented the brand with chilled out beats with heavy basslines, you could absolutely imagine this music being played in their home-grown after party setting. 

Then, from minimal and naughty to all-bells-ringing grooves, Move D followed on from Andrew Weatherall as he set him up with chugging goodness ready for his much-awaited disco set. Following on from his phenomenal selection of last year, the Triagon stage was packed with smiling faces singing along to disco classics such as Anita Ward's 'Ring My Bell' and Patti Jo's 'Make Me Believe In You'.  

As Sunday came, we were sad to see our four-day holiday into the musical underground come to an end, so we were determined to go out with a bang. We made our choice to spend it with Hunee. Like Move D, Hunee performed exceptionally in 2015 and he followed on greatly in 2016. Playing in the walled garden, Hunee had a daytime set, allowing him to span genres for a truly eclectic three hours.

From trumpet led melodies to Jamie Anderson and Jesse Rose's remix of Steve Hurley’s 'Jack Your Body', followed on by the 20:20 Vision rework of Blaze 'Lovelee Dae', he proved to all that were there why he is considered one of the best current selectors.

It was hard to decide where to spend our final dance but we decided to flit between the techno and house offerings from each stage respectively, starting off at the Triagon where the Isolee Mix of 'Cardiology' by Recloose put us in a great mood. Making the decision even harder, as we ventured further up the forest and back to the campsite halfway during the evening, DJ Koze's 'I Want to Sleep' was luring us back into the Treehouse stage, where Jane Fiz was making what we believe was her first appearance at the festival. 

Making the last venture through the mystical path and into the forest, we were sad to say our goodbyes once more to the unforgettable Gottwood experience, as we sat in the magical wooden dome installation that welcomed us in for one more final appreciation of the forest. 

As the festival continues to grow, pushing boundaries year after year, for those that are attracted to dance music for its creativity, new experiences and community of interesting, welcoming and inspiring people, then Gottwood is certainly for you. This review sadly is only the tip of the iceberg that awaits those who attend Gottwood. To see what else is in store, the only way to find out is to go to the woods.

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