It all goes down in the lush setting of Sherbourne Park in Warwick and will be headlined by a mix of world class DJs including Gerd Janson, Octo Octa b2b Saoirse, Jeremy Underground, DJ Boring, Dan Shake, CC: Disco, Dam Swindle, Crazy P Soundsystem, MATHAME, DJOKO b2b Harrison BDP, Byron The Aquarius b2b Jamie 3:26, Raw Silk and many more.
It comes from the people behind Warwick and Leamington’s most popular and acclaimed underground party and here we speak to them about the festival and more. Here we speak to directors Will & Alex about their illustrious events.
Tell us about the parties you promote and why you wanted to start this festival?
Hi! We’re Alex and Will, promoters of Access, a UK club night mainly based in the Midlands and in London. We started booking smaller DJs around 2016, working our way up to bigger names until becoming a household name in the Midlands. Eventually, given our big following and love for event planning, we ended up launching our very own festival “Access The Festival” (ATF), taking place for the second time this June!
What was the initial plan, the vibe, the sound – who is it for?
We felt that there is a lack of events of this type in the Midlands, despite the big amount of House, Disco and Techno lovers in the area. ATF is for all people that want to kickstart their summer the right way, with an outdoor festival that keeps an intimate atmosphere between artists and crowd.
What is there to look forward to and do apart from the music?
Entertainment is really important for ATF’s vibe – there are fun fair rides, great food and drinks, beer pong tables, chill out areas – there are a lot of hidden gems around the festival, so we’d definitely recommend exploring the site!
Who are you most excited about seeing and why?
The list of people we’re excited about is so long, every artist on the lineup is special to us. However we’ve been wanting to have Gerd Janson and Octo Octa over for a while now – we definitely will be there for every second of their sets!
Tell us about some of the production, the sound systems and so on? how much focus is on these?
Production is absolutely at the top of our list when it comes to planning our events and stages. We often start by looking at what can be achieved technically/visually then building a theme around that. The Daylight Disco stage is great example of this and certainly got a lot of attention!
For our festival we have designed 3 distinct stages put together through many iterations optimizing the feel and design. We always like the DJ and crowd to feel connected and feel each other’s energy so you will never see a DJ 5m away from the front row lost on a massive stage area. Festival sound is such a fine balance between how loud we can go to keep the council happy and maintaining clarity across the low to highs. We use top sound engineers that certainly know how to tune a system to get the best clear sound that feels pleasant to listen to.
This year the Groove Garden stage is going to be a super cool upgrade putting the DJ right in the center of the crowd under an overgrown garden canopy.
How has your brand access evolved over theirs what have been some of the highlights?
We’ve been through everything really, from small resident DJ club shows to sold out nights with over 2K people in London, or hosting big artists in a small room for socially distanced sit-down events during the pandemic. Our biggest achievement however is definitely selling out our first ever full-on festival. All these different events we’ve hosted have proven that we have an incredibly loyal brand, people trust our events and make the vibe special every time. We love seeing artists grow over the years as well, for instance Folamour who we’ve hosted 5 years ago in a club that holds 300 people, all the way to having him back this year with over 1K guests in one of the Midlands’ biggest venues.
And what have been some of the funniest or craziest memories?
There’s quite a few of these. A very funny moment was in our early days of promoting, when a high profile guest DJ (who shall remain unnamed) asked for sushi for dinner, only for all sushi places to be closed by the time he arrived. One of our team members with a passion for cooking bought all necessary groceries and cooked home-made sushi for the artist!
One of the most beautiful moments was at last year’s festival, when all of our guest DJs were dancing together on stage, celebrating their first festival back post-lockdown. Dan Shake, HAAi, Laurence Guy, object blue, Ross From Friends, Steven Julien… It was just insane and resulted in some heartwarming footage!
How hard was it to get through the pandemic and come out the other side?
So so so so hard. It was a true nightmare, but we learned a lot and made the most of it. The pandemic truly shook the industry, however made our love for music and events grow even stronger. We also took the massive opportunity to get our festival off the ground right at the start of summer last year when COVID was still a massive issue. Despite all the obstacles that came our way we made it work and people loved it!
What else have you got coming up?
Apart from Access The Festival 2022, we have some very exciting things coming up in London, namely for this year’s Halloween. Some people might say that we will be hosting more events in other countries as well in the near future. Stay tuned!
JOIN US ON JUNE 10 & 11 FOR A WEEKEND OF MAGIC AND FEEL-GOOD ACCESS VIBES TO KICK START THE FESTIVAL SEASON.
Grab your tickets here
Follow:
IG: www.instagram.com/accessthefestival/?hl=en
W: accessthemusic.co.uk/access-the-festival
FB Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/338104334585206