HEADROOM
Venue TBC, Abergavenny
Fri 2-Sun 4 Aug
There’s been a movement in recent years towards festivals that are small-scale, with little separating performers and attendees except one provides the entertainment and the other enjoys it. The UK dance scene is no exception: Freerotation, just outside Hay-On-Wye, notched yet another successful weekend of top drawer techno amidst a loyal crowd last month, and it seems likely that it at least partly inspired the first ever Headroom, set in the garden of a farmhouse near Abergavenny.
Founded by two Bristol DJs, Elliot Weston (also behind the Banoffee Pies label) and Jess Farley, Headroom has a capacity of 250 and tickets and info is obtained by joining a Facebook group. It’s about as close to a private party as could legitimately be featured on this page, with the description also noting, “Attendance will be weighted more heavily to women and non binary folk.”
The setting looks right lush, the music goes on all night and there’s some top drawer names on the lineup. Weston and Farley both feature, as DJ Autumn (not to be confused with DJ October, another Bristol face who’s got a peaktime Friday slot) and Jessica [pictured] respectively; other likely highlights include Manc duo Blasha & Allatt, the increasingly lauded Gwenan, bass devastator K-Lone and Freerotation’s own Tom Ellis.
words Noel Gardner
Tickets: £75. Info: www.residentadvisor.net/profile/headroom.dance