DVS1 speaks out about the damaging effect of festivals on club culture.
In interview with The School of House in Amsterdam, DVS1 provides some remarkable insight as to how the electronic music scene has evolved.
“Festivals do not bring out the best in artists. Let’s define ‘festival’ also. A festival, to me, is something that has multiple stages: more than five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten stages. There are beautiful, curated, small two to three stage ‘summer parties’ that fall under the umbrella of ‘festivals’. To me, those are different. These big, commercial style 10 to 20-thousand person festivals… that is what I think is destroying the culture. DJs are becoming used to playing 90-minute sets to a short attention span audience which is then taking them out of the environment of being artists. When you have 90-minutes on a big stage – playing to a bunch of kids who are not willing to sit through your left and right turns – you play in the middle (the bangers) and that’s all you do because otherwise, you are going to lose everyone. When you play in a club for three to five hours, it tests your ability to move through time and space, go up and down, play with the vibe and play with the tensions in the room. If everyone is focused on that one room and that one sound, they are with you! They chose to come and be a part of your experience for that night. That is what challenges you as an artist.”
