Arcane are a new event looking to shake up the clubbing scene in Leeds. With their debut event in the city this week coming after a successful starter in London, we sent Joshua John to meet with one of their founders, Oliver Outen, and see how their midweek revolution has come about.
‘Arcane Events is a club night and collective pushing the best in underground drum & bass music’ explained Oliver, ‘having started at the beginning of the year we felt that there was a gap in the market – to hear this amazing music we’d always have to pay upwards of a tenner and wait until the weekend.’ For Arcane, Oliver explained his aim was to change this by ‘putting on a cheaper, midweek student night without compromising on booking some of the finest selectors the scene has to offer’.
Upon the suggestion that Drum and Bass had become a saturated market in Leeds, Oliver replied ‘the whole idea behind the company is to promote great drum & bass music but at an affordable price for students. We plan our lineups very carefully to represent the entire spectrum of the genre, booking some of the most renowned artists in the scene alongside talented up and comers who are on the verge of breaking through.’ He continued ‘We try and make each set at our night special – our first event in Leeds will feature the headliners Annix playing a ‘History of Annix’ set, with their own productions, old gems, classics and never before heard dubs!’
Oliver hinted at their plans for the future, stating ‘We have another midweek event scheduled at Wire before the end of the year. Expect the same high quality, underground drum & bass with a takeover from one of the biggest labels in the scene.
Oliver has begun performing as one half of ‘Deadline’ alongside Peter Van Dongen, who also is a founder of Arcane. Deadline perform at each Arcane event, and was happy to show how important they are to the set up, explaining ‘part of the reason we started Arcane was a vessel for us to play out more under Deadline.’ He continued ‘It’s really difficult to break into the scene and this was an easy way to promote ourselves. We’ve been attracting a lot of attention and in the past year we’ve supported Sub Focus, Dimension and Skankandbass’.
When asked what we would say to those dithering on buying a ticket in future, Oliver responded ‘If you really love your drum & bass and don’t have a 9am the following day, there’s no excuse!’.
Join Arcane on Wednesday 12th October for their launch in Leeds, bringing DnB heavyweights Annix and Skankandbass to Wire for only a fiver.
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