The Festival Experience with... Acid Mondays

Image: Acid Mondays (image)

Comprised of Dan Ward aka Negghead and Lex Wolf, Acid Mondays are a dynamic duo that are united by a love of far out flavours, mind bending beats and reality defying rhythms.

With house and techno at the heart of their psychedelic love in, with Acid Mondays it's all about the vibe, and the pairing are seemingly always poised perfectly to deliver party starting anthems that have strong Balearic feels, but ultimately body consuming grooves to melt your mind.

Although otherworldly, their sets are no illusion, however an altered state of reality is to be expected when they deliver heaps of bangers and a raft of top remixes, not least their take on Mood II Swing's 'Closer', which last year had the backing of Marco Carola, Seth Troxler, The Martinez Bros, George Fitzgerald and more.

A huge programme has seen them travel the world this year, with festival dates, their own tour and Ibiza sets cropping up constantly, and this is set to continue as the pair come to The Social Festival on Friday 29th September - ahead of the date we asked them to share with us some of their finest festival experiences.

Hi Acid Mondays, tell us about your busy summer

We've had a great summer so far, it's been pretty hectic but really really good and positive for us. We've done a tour of the States, then we came back for the DC10 opening, we then did a South American tour of Peru, Brazil, and Argentina. We've had Sonar, Elrow and Glastonbury, and more stuff around Europe - so yeah it's been really good. We've been trying to get into the studio as well and we're off on tour again, heading back to the states.

When you're playing so many dates throughout the summer, do you have time to take stock and appreciate your surroundings and your audience?

When you're a good DJ it doesn't matter where you are, you've just got to be able to go in and read the crowd. If you've got a good music collection, you can go in and just understand the crowd you can make sure it's a good gig. Some people are quite pre meditated or have a formula, but we have all kinds of music and you just have to be able to read what's going on. For me that's much more exciting.

I think festivals are a bit different but just around the world it changes. We've got a really good following in South America, we were in Cordoba and Buenos Aires, and we've never been there before, but we spoke to the promoters and a lot of people had come to see us.

Over there, the scene is quite small but that just means tonnes of kids who are properly into it and the reactions you get over there are so, so good. Over the last two years we've gained a lot of followers there. When you do come back to Europe, places like Ibiza are always really good parties and the tours mean you can do your own thing.

You mentioned Glastonbury, what was your show like? Was it your first time at the festival?

We played the Wow! Stage at Silver Hayes. It was an R&S event with us, Paranoid London, Lone and Space Dimension Controller. That was our debut. By all accounts it was one of the better ones. Obviously by doing the seasons in Ibiza you miss the window to go to Glastonbury but this year it fell into place. 

Being on a line up with the RS crew and just being involved was great. We were there to both perform and enjoy it so it was a great experience We got to see a lot of great bands, we saw Radiohead and Solange but then I think the highlight for me personally was NYC Downlow. I've heard so much about that place from friends, and I know Gideon who runs it and puts it all together, and the vibe that was in there on the Saturday night especially was so good.

We went in, saw Radiohead then that was it, we were out basically for the weekend, seeing all kinds of bizarre, wonderful things. We're also grateful that the weather held up. 

When we were travelling around Glastonbury there was loads of weird things. There was one guy just belting out Frank Sinatra hits and there was another one where someone had got people to make creatures out of clay which was bizarre, you walked past it and thought "is this even real?"

Another great moment was when we'd been to the Beat Hotel where Seth had been playing and we all just left there and went on a little wander and ended up coming across these salsa classes at like 11 in the morning. The best thing about festivals like that is that they're a proper adventure so you just go with your crew and you just bump into random things. With Glastonbury, it's the biggest festival in the world, so the tiny little bits of attention to detail are next level. 

And you're involved with the Social Festival too, which has an incredible line up, how much was that a factor in you getting involved?

We literally got the offer for the Social as our flight was about to take off for Lima and the line up for our stage was sent through with the likes of Black Coffee, Jackmaster, Guy Gerber and more so we were just like "yep we're doing it". We played for the Social festival in South America recently . We were in Mexico City and Bogota, we had two really great gigs and everyone involved with them was really professional and there was a great vibe so when the offer came through we had already wanted to be involved.

Whichever country you go to, everyone has got their own vibe but there is a common thread that people want to dance and enjoy themselves. They love food and they love music and people celebrate life. It may not be perfect day to do but when they get time to enjoy themselves and celebrate the moment.

You can catch Acid Mondays at The Social Festival, find the Social Festival tickets below.