Sam GreenwoodEvery June for the last twenty years, thousands of music fans make the annual journey to Derry for Celtronic, One of Ireland’s leading electronic music festivals. Like many arts and cultural events across the globe, Celtronic 2020, which was to feature some of the biggest names in electronic music artists including Detroit visionary Jeff Mills, had to be cancelled due to the Covid 19 pandemic.
Celtronic have now revealed the programme for Celtronic 2020: Together-Apart, which will take place online from tomorrow [Tuesday June 30th] until Sunday July 5th and will feature over 100 hours of exclusive performances from more than 60 local, national and international artists.
A spokesperson for Celtronic said ‘Nothing that we do will replace or replicate the beautiful togetherness and unity experienced dancing to the best electronic music in the world in a dark room with a massive sound system surrounded by friends and crew. We hope that Celtronic 2020 – Together: Apart will provide some joy and bring us all together while we remain apart. Join us from your living room, your bedroom, your garden or your workplace, alone or with your family and a few friends, and listen and watch some of the amazing local and national electronic music emerging from Ireland, stream exclusive performances from some of our favourite international artists and check out some of the recently discovered mixes from the last 20 years of Celtronic.’
Headliners at Celtronic 2020: Together-Apart include Luxembourg classical and experimental pianist Francesco Tristano, Celtronic favourite Move D, Running Back label boss Gerd Janson, Eamon Harkin of Mister Saturday Night-New York City fame and Derry’s Or:la who is now one of the most in-demand artists in Europe.
Live performance of electronic music has been a key element of Celtronic’s programme since it’s inception. Renowned and respected artists including Boxcutter, Paddy Mulcahy, Arvo Party, Optmst, Joe O’Hagan and The Cyclist will perform live sets from home for the festival while the ‘Sounds from A Lost Dancefloor’ element of the festival will see some of Ireland’s leading electronic music artists including Phil Kieran, Space Dimension Controller and Autumns perform live sets at St Columbs Hall.
The Black Madonna b2b Mike Servito, Celtronic 2017
Some of the region’s best DJ collectives have been lined up to play at the festival including Queen & Disco, Bekuz x Influx, Osilate, Twitch, Deep Fried Funk and Hotline. The online festival will also feature streams of recently unearthed sets from the Celtronic archive including a two hour set from the late Andrew Weatherall, recorded in Masons Bar in 2009.
BBC Northern Ireland has had a close connection with Celtronic since the festival began back in 2001. This year will be no exception. BBC Radio Ulster’s Stephen McCauley Show will feature some of the best performances at Celtronic over the years each evening from 7.30pm – 9.30pm on Monday 29th June through to Thursday 2nd July. On Saturday 4th July BBC Northern Ireland will celebrate dance music with a special Lock-in Beats event – an 8 hour party featuring exclusive new sets, Celtronic Together: Apart festival coverage and classic performances from the BBC archive. The night will be streamed live on bbc.co.uk/nilive from 7pm and will also be available on BBC Radio Foyle DAB, BBC Radio Foyle Sounds. After midnight BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle FM join to continue Lock-in Beats with special sets from headlining DJs right through until 3am. There’ll be new and exclusive sets from Caoimhe Mooreland and Holly Lester. From the BBC archive, there’ll be incredible live performances from Lemon Jelly and Radioactive Man; and DJ sets from Dave Clarke and special festival recordings from Space Dimension Controller, Phil Kieran and Queen and Disco.
