Festival Review – Houghton 2022
You can’t keep a great festival down
After 2019’s devastating cancellation due to extreme weather and then the pandemic, Houghton Festival seemed to be destined to be a magical yet distant memory. Enter 2022 and the majestic festival finally returned with the top end of contemporary electronic music, arts and culture for a four-day long extravaganza.
So after three years of waiting, a lot of pressure was held on the festival to live up to its high status in the never-ending list of UK festivals this year. Taking base in the natural surroundings of the Houghton Hall estate in Norfolk, `curator and Fabric legend Craig Richards invited down the best in the musical spectrum for four days of straight music, no silence, just the best in the game. With a roster of artists such as Ricardo Villalobos, Peach, Helena Hauff, Matthew Halsall, Shanti Celeste, Midland and more, it was written in the stars to be a magical weekend.
With a heavy focus on minimal, house and electro, Thursday kicked off with the likes of Juno favourite Jane Fitz, who took the crowd through a journey of cosmic electro pulsation, whilst set in between the sun rays (we will try to avoid mentioning the 34 degree heat as much as possible), which glided down through the trees like something out of a Tolkein novel.
Friday landed and things kicked into full throttle with the weekend warriors all arriving in full force. Magda shelled out Detroit bass thumping electro on the Tantrum stage, which was surrounded by metal shipping crates, which kept the sound captured in full force. Over at the Warehouse (one of the only large covered stages) Horse Meat Disco swung a selection of disco and house groovers to match the sunshine and the Warehouse kept that theme throughout the day, with heavy hitters such as Running Back founder Gerd Janson and Palms Trax all on the schedule.
Over at Earthling, a 360 stage, which guided round a tin-like shack, the setting hosted some of minimal’s top names on Friday. With The Ghost, Omar, Binh and DJ Masda all throttling swung rhythms and bleeping tones to an over-excited crowd, which caused the dust to unearth and create a Mad Max esc session within the woods. Omar took the Friday highlight award with a selection of cuts which sat on the border on minimal, leftfield and cosmic, with big landing tracks like ‘Meet Me At Topazdeluxe’ and Red Axes ‘Some Lights’, it was a true masterclass in vibe setting.
As the sun began to rise, the man of the moment, Craig Richards took to the Pavilion in the woods for a three and half hour advent into the weird and wonderful side of fast-paced electronic music. Almost as if the tunes were made for that exact moment, the sun rose and the heat began to swelter on a row of sleep-resistant party goers.
As the days merged, crowds flocked to the woodland areas to avoid the suns rays and required more mellow moments to heal from Friday’s antics. Over at the audiophile esc state, Pinters, Harry Agius aka Midland took control for two hours of ambient selections, gliding mixes between the likes of Arthur Russell, Field Recordings, Piano masterpieces and more. Changing the pace over on the largest of areas, The Derrin Smart Stage, Shanti Celeste flicked through selections of house rhythms, piano stabs and euphoric drops to bring the house down.
After his ambient exploration Midland stepped up again, this time to a swamped main stage, to build one of the best-crafted sets of the weekend. From sophisticated bassline, to 90’s classics, it was a true masterclass and the moment Underworld’s “jumbo” mixed in, the crowds jaws were officially on the ground and the moment was stapled into the magic of the weekend.
The festivities continued into the Sunday and the female selectors shined through, with the likes of Powder, Willow, D Tiffany, Lena Wilkinson and Saoirse all providing that much-needed extra energy as the Sunday goers battled through. Saoirse truly stood out in the array of amazing selectors for the whole weekend, with a beautifully brutal journey into the 130+ bpm house tunes and evidently portrayed her deep and vast knowledge in the world of electronic music.
With 24 hour music and 15+ stages, there is so much to be said about this well-crafted festival and highlights came in abundance but the maestro Ricardo Villalobos created a perfect sonic summarisation of Houghton Festival. The Chilean legend was on top form, gifting the crowd with 20 minute long cuts of dubbed out minimal wizardry, mixed into sliced folk songs which were reversed and effected throughout, to make it feel like he was soundtracking something out of a David Lynch show.
It was this freedom and crowd acceptance which landed Houghton 22 with the amazing aesthetic it has managed to hold down even after a three year unplanned and unwanted break. Surely one of the best UK Festivals for the “headsy” music followers, Craig Richards and his team have crafted something truly special within the UK Festival spectrum. We will be back!
Jack Carr Miles