Ah yes, summer: The season of gluttony, sunburn, stringers, and poorly fitted River Island shorts. Historically the marking of the beginning of summer on the ancient pagan calendar was used to signal the end of the dreaded ‘cutting season’ and the beginning of the much more adored annual pilgrimage to Ios.

Summer 2017 is set to become one of the strongest listings for electronic music in Ireland in a very long time, and as it draws closer the insufferable itch to set out on the festival season that comes with it seems to be felt this year stronger than ever. Should it be? Am I wrong? Is this year really any better or is it just the excitement of being able to throw on my favourite pair of over priced boat shoes from my local Urban Outfitters that’s getting the better of me? Let’s see:

AVA Festival in Belfast brings over Jeff Mills and Guillaume Marmin, Ben UFO, Fatima Yamaha, and The Cyclist on Friday. I could say more about that but there’s no point. On Saturday they’ve programmed Tinfoil, Dennis Sulta, Marcel Dettmann, Bicep, Hammer, and Rebekah. They’ve also lined up a host of local acts like Techno & Cans, DJ Deece, Magnier (House of Disco), and local boys Twitch. I love AVA Festival  and it’s only getting better with age. Hmmm, I can feel some excitement building in my bones here. Let’s continue…

Easily the leading dance music festival in Ireland Life returns adding huge names like DeFekt, Ricardo Villalobos, Nina Kravis, Sunil Sharpe, Jay Clarke, and Goldie. Can you feel that? That’s excitement! Body&Soul boasts Bonobo, and New Jackson. Excitement (still) building.

Forbidden Fruit have arguably turned the most heads this year with their inclusion of Aphex Twin on their Sunday line up. Other highlights include Orbital, Booka Shade, Hot Chip, Mall Grab, Nicholas Jaar, Moderat, Maceo Plex, KiNK, Fatima Yamaha, Motor City Drum Ensemble, and Dennis Sulta. *Excitement still not waining…  Bare in the Woods have booked Mike Skinner & Murkage, Quinton Campbell, and Damiano Von Eckert. Get yourself to Scrobarnach and catch Ansome (Live), Neil Landstrumm, Jamie Behan, Jake Nolan and Tommy Holohan. Ah yes! – that familiar feeling of excitement. Electric Picnic have only released their first wave of acts, but already we’ve Pete Tong and Soulwax to look forward to in that. If it’s anything like last year the electronic acts should be announced fairly constantly as we get closer to the weekend. Oh! – and let’s not forget the ‘small’ addition of The Martinez Brothers to Longitude. My excitement levels are abnormally high.

Take all of that in for a moment of contemplation. The legends of Detroit, the kids of Glasgow, the urbanites of New York City, and the connoisseurs of Berlin all gathering in Ireland this summer alongside some of Ireland’s best talent is something we’ll all be talking about for years to come. Remember too that all of this comes on the back of Higher Vision, and Barn Dance already kicking off the season with massive success.

Don’t worry. I’ll probably calm down later and process all of this better in an hour but the sun’s out and it’s nice to get excited about things, right? Pass the esky and sun cream. Cheers.

No more articles

We use cookies to monitor usage on our site. Your information will never be shared! read more

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Close