Between August 10th and 13th, Craig Richards, in collaboration with the Gottwood team, are bringing their new art and music festival Houghton to the sprawling woodlands of Houghton Hall in Norfolk. Before we dive into festival specifics, the combination of Richards and Gottwood deserves a moment’s pause. Craig Richards has been a long serving resident of Fabric for over 17 years, and has been instrumental in transforming Fabric’s Saturday night into an event which has become a mainstay of electronic music culture. Richards will now be channelling those energies into Houghton. He’s pairing up with respected organisers, Gottwood, whose line-ups year after year have delivered magical musical moments, which is exactly what all music lovers are searching for. And so, the combination of a world-renowned musical curator and collector with a community of musically driven festival producers lends itself towards very exciting ideas about what is going to be in store for attendees.
Joining Richards is an impressive line-up hand-picked by the man himself. Headliners include Ricardo Villalobos and Nicholas Jaar, with live performances from Tony Allen, Herecules & Love Affair, and Cobblestone Jazz to name but a few. Other acts include VLOD (Villalobos and Max Loderbauer), Seth Troxler, and Rhadoo.
“I made it clear that the people invited to perform would be chosen on merit. All will be chefs not waiters. All are artists whose talent I value immensely. It is my intention that the festival represents the very best in electronic music and those performing are closest to my heart and record box” said Richards. With Houghton stating that back-to-back sets will be encouraged and longer DJ sets the norm, all powered by bespoke world class sound systems, it is impossible to fault the considerations made to encourage organic musical collaborations which will make for something incredibly special, not to mention a dawn and dusk licence, and an extra day having been added to the line-up thanks to the outstanding response of music lovers. This is going to be an absolute treat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnT_hKRqQH0
Alongside a deliriously eclectic mix of musical talent includes a whole host of artistic and sculptural installations from artists including James Turrell, Richard Long, Zhan Wang. With a festival environment consisting of a lake, woodland, abandoned warehouse, and subterranean bowl, our senses are going to be in interacting in new and profound ways with the space throughout the weekend.
By all accounts, this is a festival by music lovers, for music lovers. We can’t wait.
Tickets are on final release and can be purchased here.
Joshua Taylor
(Images: The Rest Is Noise PR)