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Disclosure’s performance at a London festival was cancelled five minutes into their set following a crowd surge.
The English electronic duo were scheduled to deliver a surprise set at Boiler Room’s World Tour at Lee Valley Showgrounds on Sunday (25 August).
The performance at the Waltham Cross site was announced just three days prior and promptly sold out. Other artists on the line-up included Giggs, Sara Landry, Flowdan, and Rosey Gold.
However, the set was cancelled just five minutes in due to crowd surges posing a health and safety risk.
In a statement, Boiler Room said that it “became clear five minutes into their set that a big proportion of festivalgoers wanted to get into the tent to see them, so as a safety precaution, the set was halted”. No one has been reported as injured.
The performance was cancelled entirely, to which Disclosure responded: “Unfortunately it’s out of our control, but the festival has deemed it unsafe for us to play due to crowd surges.”
The duo – comprised of brothers Howard and Guy Lawrence – also told fans on Instagram that they had worked “really hard” on their set, and flew to London from LA to perform.
“Unfortunately it’s out of our control, but the festival has deemed it unsafe for us to play due to crowd surges”
The incident comes just a month after Peggy Gou’s Seoul Boiler Room set was shut down by police over fears of crowd-crushing.
The event, held at Seoul’s SFactory on 27 July, was evacuated before the South Korean DJ was due to headline the stage.
According to a report by Korea Times, emergency services received reports of overcrowding during the event, resulting in 11 fire engines and 42 firefighters being sent to the venue.
Five people were reportedly treated for breathing difficulties, but no casualties or serious injuries have been recorded.
At the time, Boiler Room also added in a separate statement that it takes safety “extremely seriously”, with “detailed measures in place at every event to ensure a situation like this doesn’t occur”.
“We are reviewing our systems internally to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” they continued. “To our fans in Seoul, you and your city are incredibly important to us, and we’re devastated that we couldn’t deliver you an event to the standards we hold ourselves to.”
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The team behind Northern Ireland’s Belsonic concert series has unveiled the new two-day Emerge Music Festival.
The 20,000-cap electronic music-focused event will be held at Boucher Road Playing Fields, Belfast from 27-28 August with headliners Eric Prydz, Disclosure, Peggy Gou and Patrick Topping.
The first year will see more than 40 acts across three stages, including the likes of Kettama, Mall Grab, Michael Bibi, DJ Seinfeld, Dusky, Special Request, FJAKK and Rebekah.
“The electronic music scene is one that has grown steadily in Belfast over the 30-odd years that I’ve been promoting in the city”
“The electronic music scene is one that has grown steadily in Belfast over the 30-odd years that I’ve been promoting in the city with my Shine brand, and it’s grown exponentially over the last few years,” says co-promoter Alan Simms of Shine Productions. “Belfast is one of the most fertile and dynamic scenes of its kind in the UK or Ireland. We’ve promoted many large scale outdoor electronic events in recent years but always wanted to do a huge multistage event of this kind.
“Feedback from our audience suggested that a huge appetite exists for a unique production of this kind in Northern Ireland. We’re lucky to have some of the world’s biggest names in dance music on our inaugural line-up of Emerge Music Festival, most of whom we’ve been working with since their very first club shows in the country.”
Day tickets are priced from £55 (€66), with weekend tickets available from £95 (€114).
The 15,000-cap Belsonic returns to Belfast’s Ormeau Park from 13-26 June with headline acts such as Iron Maiden, Gerry Cinnamon, Calvin Harris, Liam Gallagher and Lewis Capaldi.
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Artists and DJs including Massive Attack, Declan McKenna, Orbital and Rob da Bank are bringing the noise this month’s climate protests, where a team of music programmers are risking arrest to provide a musical accompaniment to the demonstrations.
The two-week ‘International Rebellion’, organised by pressure group Extinction Rebellion (XR), began on Monday, and sees activists call on governments around the world take urgent action to tackle global warming.
In London – home to one of the largest of the protests, which are also taking place in 59 other cities worldwide – demonstrators have at various times shut down down Whitehall, the Mall, Westminster Bridge, Downing Street, London City Airport and, most recently, the BBC’s New Broadcasting House headquarters.
The London ‘rebellion’ is “decentralised” and divided into 12 zones, an XR spokesperson tells IQ, with entertainment duties on each site overseen by one or more programmer.
“We’ve had a hell of a lot of people that want to perform at all the sites,” says Sam Weatherald, music programmer at Global Justice Rebellion, which is looking for a new home after being evicted from St James’s Park yesterday. “There’s a big [XR] database for everyone who’s interested, because we’ve had so many people saying they want to play.”
” Music is really great to get the message across”
Acts booked by Weatherald, also co-founder of Antenna Collective, for St James’s Park include rapper Dizraeli, reggae band the Majestic and sitarist-cellist Pete Yelding.
Anthony McGinley, aka DJ Absolute, is based in Trafalgar Square, where XR activists secretly set up a large stage for speeches and live performance. Artists who have played or will play in the square include Disclosure, Orbital, Johnny Flynn and Rob da Bank, DJ and founder of Bestival, as well as members of Pumarosa and Mystery Jets.
“Everyone I’ve asked to play has said ‘yes’,” comments McGinley. “It’s a cause I think a lot of musicians are passionate about. And it feels really good for me, personally, to be able to use my skillset and passions to do something to highlight [XR’s activism].”
Elsewhere, Massive Attack played all 12 sites earlier this week, according to the XR spokesperson, by moving around with a sound system in a backpack, while Declan McKenna played a free show on the Mall – the singer-songwriter’s first in a year.
Weatherald says it’s important to make use of music and arts to address social issues, noting that his and other International Rebellion sites are “chocka with heavy political and social issues, talks and workshops, so it’s really important to have the music there. Music is really great to get the message across.”
“It’s beautiful to see everyone coming together”
But it’s not without its challenges, adds McGinley. “The goalposts have obviously been moving a lot with this – there are all these external forces impacting on what we’re trying to do, so there’s been a lot of solving problems that have come up on the night,” he says.
“Seeing all the raids happening is a bit scary, and it can be disheartening when you’ve planned something only to see it get shut down. [At press time, in excess of 1,000 protesters had been arrested.] So there are a lot of mixed emotions, But also some really amazing highlights – it’s beautiful to see everyone coming together.”
The International Rebellion protests follow a busy summer of festival appearances for Extinction Rebellion activists. Melvin Benn, managing director of Festival Republic, told IQ last month there were 60% fewer tents left behind at its events this summer as a result of XR’s involvement. “I’ve been asking people for ten years not to leave their tents,” he said. “But the first year I get Extinction Rebellion involved, everyone takes them home!”
Other International Rebellion events are taking place in cities including Paris, Madrid, New York, Hong Kong, Toronto, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City and Melbourne.
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Fyre Festival, a new event by Ja Rule’s Fyre Media booking agency, has unveiled the line-up it hopes can lure deep-pocketed music fans and celebrity spotters away from Coachella this spring.
The festival, which will take place on 28–30 April and 5–7 May – the weekend after Coachella wraps up – in the Exumas, Bahamas, will be headlined by Pusha T, Desiigner, Major Lazer, Blink-182 and a Disclosure DJ set, with Migos, Kaytranada, Skepta and Lil Yachty also on the bill.
Fyre, however, says the “unparellelled soundtrack” is “only a piece of the two-weekend experience. Attendees will take a departure from the familiar for the adventure of a lifetime, immersing themselves in art, first-class cuisine and new levels of luxury.”
“The Exumas will also offer the ultimate destination for boaters, divers, snorkellers and kayakers looking to explore its beautiful turquoise waters and idyllic beaches,” the announcement continues. “It’s been said that from space, astronauts deem the Exumas as having the clearest and nicest waters in the world. Guests will be invited to take advantage of the beauty of the islands, with onsite programming including sunrise yoga, meditation, massages, fitness bootcamps, art installations, and much more.
Fyre Festival is reportedly already in financial trouble, having missed a number of deadlines for payments to artists
“Local excursions will include yachting, jet skiing, snorkelling the deepest blue hole in the world, seeing the swimming pigs, exploring the caves and catamaran parties.”
All $1,500 GA passes are sold out, with remaining tickets starting at US$2,500 for those with their own yachts, increasing to $399,995 – $49,999 each – for ‘artists estate’ and ‘artists palace’ packages, which include flights, artists’ pass tickets, accommodation and “exclusive VIP experiences”.
While the Bahamas’ ministry of tourism expects Fyre to deliver the islands a “significant economic boost”, The Wall Street Journal suggests the festival, which has already shifted an estimated 12,000 tickets, is already in financial trouble, having missed a number of deadlines for payments to artists.
IQ Magazine explored the growth of luxury/VIP experiences at music festivals in issue 66.
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