Yousef's festival top fives

Circus founder and international DJ Yousef brings his unique brand of house and techno to Scotland this weekend, for Wickerman Festival.

We caught up with him in the midst of a busy festival season, and asked him to share his top five festival moments and tips with Skiddle. They were:

Top Five Festival Moments

1. Playing the closing set of Exit Festival in Serbia five years ago. 7am on Monday morning, 10,000 people trying to squeeze every drop of fun out of what was an already epic festival. The police tried to shut me down and I refused, the crowd refused, the promoters refused, so they literally threw their hats into the crowd, opened their shirts and joined in for another 90 minutes! It was such a moment considering the history of repression that fortress site had dealt with in recent history.

2. Watching James Brown live at V98. He had the 12,000 crowd going insane for 90 minutes, chanting his name before he even came on. He then NAILED all 12,000 people to the floor for the next two hours with the tightest music performance I’ve ever seen, even to this day. Literally the master.

3. Playing Creamfields was always very important to me. I played ten years straight and each time I got the warmest of responses. Playing live on Radio One, my own Circus tent, Cocoon, it was always amazing. And even better when I lived in Liverpool as I could wander home or go to a really funny party with my friends.

4. Aquasella festival in northern Spain is one of the hidden greats too. Playing at 8am till 11am on a cloudy, damp but hot Saturday morning after Luciano and Ralph Lawson last year was such a great experience. Even after hours and hours the crowds are still ripe and ready to go. Recommended.

5. Bestival of course is very well documented now too. When it was a boutique 15,000 person festival it was literally hilarious. From a DJ point of view it’s really fun as you can play anything at all, and I always do, never any house or techno. From a punter point of view, when it was smaller it was like a giant house party, a get together, with LOADS of fun people in very fun costumes. I loved it.

Top five festival tips

1. Go to festival outside the UK, it’s extremely important. You can see all the bands and DJs you want, they are seldom aggro and even more rarely ruined by weather.

2. Bring a second two man tent for your stuff. You will be so grateful when you have a room for you messy boots and then a nice clean mud free room to sleep in. It will be the best £35 you ever spend.

3. Get incredibly lost by yourself and make friends with strangers... could be dangerous but most likely will end up a real adventure.

4. Try a smaller festival. A lot of the bigger ones have lost their way a bit. The smaller ones are much more manageable and tend to have more interesting acts on and people there.

5. Book Monday off work - so essential.

Catch Yousef in the Skiddle.com tent at the Wickerman Festival this Friday, along with Steve Lawler, Jordan Suckley and more. Tickets for Wickerman Festival are still available below.

You can also catch Yousef at the following events:

Uber Day and Night Courtyard Party, 26th August, Carlisle

Circus 10th Birthday, 29th September, Secret Location, Liverpool

Tickets are no longer available for this event