2017 sees the return of Mint Festival – bigger, naughtier, and better organised than 2016’s offering. Stockeld Estate will play host on the 23rd of September to some of the dance world’s biggest names, with acts ranging from techno titans Loco Dice and Seth Troxler to Yorkshire’s homegrown gem Hot Since 82 – each descend on the city of Leeds to say a final farewell to summer, and countless days spent in British fields drowning in mud, or on European party isles basking in sunshine.
Mint Festival is unique in that its sister events are equally revered in the industry. Mint Club and Mint Warehouse, two of the North’s premier dance music venues, are bastions of up-and-coming talent and have hosted much of the festival line up in the past. The festival’s new location, Stockeld Estate, goes beyond the city borders to the nearby Wetherby countryside – a far cry from 2016’s crowded Tetley Brewery.
The British festival goer seems to hold the festival-in-a-field archetype in higher regard than the recent influx of city-centre events, and for good reason. Firstly, fields afford us the space to make bad decisions and forget the slog of normal working life; secondly, being exposed to the (sometimes temperamental) weather adds to the fun, with wellies being an almost inherent feature of the summer festival calendar; and, finally, fields just scream ‘summer’, and act as a clear locational distinction from the warehouse-dominated scene in winter.
Techno, house, and disco features on the festival’s stages alongside an offering from No Curfew Events. The city’s largest events company champions a stage filled with house, d’n’b, grime, and even garage. The No Curfew stage appears to be flying the flag for the West Midlands, with a range of Birmingham’s biggest talents performing sets. Appearances from Hannah Wants, a female DJ often credited with bringing house music to a more commercial, and younger, audience; Lady Leshurr, whose rhymes range from tales of growing up to arguments and past beef; and Mike Skinner (of The Streets fame) underline this impression.
Mint Festival promises to be a day filled with great music, excessive hedonism, and maybe even a spot of decent weather. See you on the shuttle bus.
Poppie Platt
Featured Image: mintfestival.co.uk