Liverpool Disco Festival 4 review

Image: Liverpool Disco Festival (source) 

The club-meets-festival offering from the teams behind Hustle and Southport Weekender has put Liverpool rightfully on the ever expanding disco map. Whilst other UK cities climb aboard with boogie get-togethers, Liverpool Disco Festival can proudly say it was one of very the first to bring together pioneering names alongside new blood, dedicating an event across various venues. 

Now on its fourth edition, each individual instalment has channelled the spirit of the disco era, all the while showcasing sounds from the very beginning right up to today's edits and releases, with previous events welcoming the likes of Odyssey, Dimitri From Paris, D-Train, Joey Negro and Nicky Siano, boasting a mix of live and DJ performances with a little something to suit all ages.

Now expanded to three days, the weekend started with a panel discussion on the Friday featuring John Morales, Natasha Kitty Katt and Al Kent, touching on the different generations of disco and why the genre is so popular today. Some music lovers were also treated to a masterclass session from Al Kent himself, a suitably impressive and interesting warm up which set the tone for the rest of the bank holiday.

For the main event at Camp and Furnace and District on the Saturday, the signature Liverpool Disco Festival blueprint was in motion yet again. A combination of six rooms from 12pm to 12am took us right through the day into the night, with standout sets coming from some LDF regulars and new performers. 

We headed into Camp to catch Derrick Carter Does Disco. His set was a far cry from some of the more obvious disco sets, flittering between lesser-known gems and infectious funk-laden records, including the shimmering sound of 'Me And My Diva' by Shoes as one of the main rooms continued to fill up with glitter and sequin clad crowds. The room was again adorned in disco balls, with a projector sheet hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room boasting the fuchsia pink Liverpool Disco Festival logo. 

Over in the Furnace 'house and underground classics' room, Sandy Rivera was playing to suit his slightly younger, scouse audience, dabbling with harder-edged tech sounds and weighty house tracks, creating a much rowdier atmosphere, which was a welcome optional switch up from the grooves in the disco room.

It was back into the Camp for the final set of the evening from Kerri Chandler. It was a tough choice with Jeremy Underground and Rahaan also closing the event, but with the recent videos of Kerri's sets still fresh in our mind, we decided he was the man for the job. He didn't disappoint, unleashing classics like Georgio Moroder's 'Chase', incorporating his keyboard into his performance where possible.

The weekender closed with a Sunday Sessions event at 24 Kitchen Street, bringing together some of the event's closest DJ friends including Morales, Nastasha Kitty Kat and Queen & Disco for those who hadn't had their fill of disco just yet. It was a sensational three days which welcomed hoards to the city for another celebration of one of the scene's most popular genres at current, we'll be impatiently awaiting the details of LDF 5. 

Watch the Sunday Sessions live streams over on the Skiddle Facebook.