Glasgow’s Electric Frog and Pressure Riverside Festival, easily one of the clubbing highlights of the year. Not just because it’s on our doorstep - really, we can actually walk home from this! - it’s because it’s a techno-based music event that features some of the biggest techno artists in the world and it’s set in the stunning surroundings of the iconic Riverside Museum in Glasgow. Seriously, you have to check out this place to believe it, ‘wow’ doesn’t do it justice.
We attended the whole weekend, and yes, we’re paying for it now!
Arriving late on Saturday, we watched Sub Club’s Dominic Cappello get interviewed for a future record store project that is happening at the museum. It was great listening to his perspective of dance music and its changes over the past 30 years. Keep an eye on the Riverside Museum’s website for more information on when this will happen.
Next, we headed out into the sunshine to enjoy sets by Slam and Sven Vath, in between sitting in a private room for the artists, watching the Champions League final!
Sunday was always going to be the biggie for us, and pretty much all of Central Scotland! Sold out in advance, and with no tickets for sale on the door, the festival filled up rapidly.
With temperatures soaring, both main stages went head to head in the sunshine and highlights for us included sets by Four Tet, Slam, Green Velvet and the closing sets on both stages from Jackmaster and Leftfield.
The beauty of this festival is that age is not an issue. As long as you’re over 18 you can attend, so it’s great to see so many ‘older’ clubbers who’ve obviously been into house and techno most of their adult lives partying with younger ones, many of whom are just experiencing it for the first time.
This was clearly evident at the end as the younger audience headed for the sounds of Jackmaster and the older ones got caught up in the live audio visual journey supplied by Leftfield. Jackmaster was busier, but both stages absolutely rocked it and watching Leftfield live is something every clubber should experience.
As always, the festival never disappoints and again you find yourself tipping your hat to the organisers and promoters for having the vision to run a dance music event in such a wonderful location.
Lessons are learned every year and each year it gets better and better. We can’t wait for 2019.
© justaweemusicblog.com
Kevin McFarlane
