Global Gathering: Day One

Original Photography by Pete Adkins  
Pulling into the car park for Global Gathering is similar (I would imagine) to suddenly materialising in an alien world; one minute your amongst the smooth and gentle rises of the Cotswold fringe, then you’re instantly plunged into the confusing festival-smog of choking dust rising from Long Marston Air-Field. Through the thick, impenetrable brown cloud you can make out gaudy lights, figures in erratic movement and – most excitingly – a baseline loud enough to breed butterflies in your stomach. It’s this acute transformation of land and atmospherics, cut off from the dullness of everyday existence, which fuels Global Gathering pocket of music and partying.
 
It’s probably also why Global Gathering, now in its eleventh outing, has retained its notable acclaim in being one of the UK’s most dependable dance-music events. I arrive as, above the tents and fairground rides, early evening twinkles with untamed (and undignified) possibilities. As per most dance music festivals, the twilight hours are negligible, serving only in stoking the coals of the crowd flitting between tents and still exploring the site. Heidi asserts an early highlight, smashing her rainbow-like flavours of house amongst the low and dark Electric tent, whilst on the other scale of things Jaguar Skills’ breed of populist beat re-editing fitting the early mood well and proving an early draw to the refurbished main-stage (which looks like colourful children’s building blocks, stacked upon each other – impressive).
 
Another new edition to the festival is the Ibiza-styled ‘Second Stage’, which tonight is the host for the Toolroom Knights gang. Against the surrounding circus-tents, its low-level and open to the elements DJ booth exudes a terrace-coolness, attracting the masses to push around its covered verandas that tonight see Fedde Le Grand, Mark Knight and Benny Benassi kick it. Shut your eyes as the dry ice-cannons blasted you and another breakdown erupted, and you could almost be in Ibiza. Some work is needed on the sound quality (the Wax:On tent’s output drifts across at times), but for a new venture, it proves a great success.
 
The late night DJ slots, which play the crowds into the wee hours, are a snapshot of performers at the top of their game across each genre. Above and Beyond play in the cavernous Group Therapy tent whilst Annie Mac blends electro and bassline in Wax:On. But it’s Skream and Benga in the Rinse Arena, who keep things in the right key with a heavy-baseline but a light heart-hearted approach, whilst at the other end of the spectrum Richie Hawtin does his live-techno thing in the Electric tent draw me amongst a tsunami of shuffling revellers.
 
Pendulum are tonight’s main-stage headliners, performing, as they keep telling the crowd, for the third time at Global Gathering. Their set is the usual power-house of rock-infused-dance-music and you can’t fault their enthusiasm (even considering the surprising lack of crowds watching them). Instead it’s over at the Global Tent that the two real headliners await us; Underworld and Eric Prydz. Underworld’s midnight set proves an incredible and timely pinnacle, as the duo rattle through twenty-year’s worth of material, from reworks of early hits such as ‘Cowgirl’ and ‘Rez’ to the freshly released ‘Scribble’ and ‘Always Loved a Film’.
 
With similar exuberance Eric Prydz’sEPIC show is something to behold. The full-works are on offer, with the 50ft large-scale screens, manipulative use of video and light, huge dry-ice cannons and 3D hologram projectors all coming together to offer a spectacle that feels both futuristic and warm. Culminating in a live edit of Pjanoo, the set felt a rightful culmination of an event is an encapsulated pod of all that’s great in dance-music across the board from trance to house to techno to dubstep. It’s their intuitive booking and set-timings, and enough new stuff to keep old faces coming back that cements why Global Gathering continues to offer something distinctly and brilliantly ‘otherworldly’ amongst the fields of Shakespeare country.