Take Ethan and Oran, who travelled from Northern Ireland, drawn in by the reasonably priced tickets and Derry hero Or:la, but extending their stay until Tuesday to catch Denis Sulta and Green Velvet: affordable plane tickets, accommodation and drink prices only help to sweeten the deal. He notes that over 60 nationalities are present at this year’s event, a pretty clear indicator that their global ambitions are well on track. “ not enough locals to make it sustainable”. “Pulling off something like our festival is not really possible unless you get people coming from abroard,” explains Attard. While Glitch serves as a cornerstone of the Maltese underground and a source of pride, international visitors keep the festival growing in reach and reputation. The whole set is like a digital fever dream as one half of the duo, To Nhan Le Thi, reads off a note sheet comprised of 0s and 1s while a montage of technological images play behind, a mish-mash of rocket launches and retro calculator inputs.
To get there, you have to walk through neon-lit tunnels and stairs before reaching a space that resembles the arid environs of the Mos Eisley Cantina with similarly alien music reverberating around the cavern’s walls. This same Mediterranean setting/ruthless music dynamic is there at the Ballantine’s Hydro Stage, Gesloten Cirkel cloaking the cosy space in evil electronica.ĭopplereffekt christen the Vault stage on Wednesday with a one-hour live set the duo is the only act to play there, which gives the set a ceremonial feel. In fact, it’s exciting to see dark music played in a lush space, particularly Volvox, who deploys a propulsive set that skips, gallops and pummels away for two joyous hours. But the setting doesn’t detract from the overall mood.
Most of the areas are playful and warm: the Cosmic stage feels more dancehall than Dax J, tropical trees dotting the secluded area while two huge speaker stacks sit alongside the booth. This ends up selling Objekt short, who does a phenomenal job of warming up the crowd for the Trip boss with a selection that includes The Maghreban’s nuclear ‘Monster VIP’. Tuesday’s running time of local lad Manthrax, Objekt, Nina Kraviz and Jeff Mills is exceptional and excitement mounts with every act – it’s pretty hard to ignore the adoring Kraviz-ites who storm the Fortress chanting “Nina, Nina, Nina!” a solid 10 minutes before she’s due to play. According to festival photographer Andrew, the Maltese love their techno and the big-room space caters to this niche with big-room ambience and bookings to boot. The Fortress stage (think Princess Peach’s castle meets Parklife) serves as Glitch’s centrepiece, an area exclusively available to the festival. “We send out surveys and people pre-registered their favourite artist,” explains Allul, “and we follow a lot of social media profiles and really start getting a feel here and there”. Glitch also places great importance on the Maltese raver, particularly evident in its booking strategy. Despite containing nine venues, Glitch only uses five, as the team wants to create, as festival co-owner Karl Attard suggests, a more “intimate feel”. Last year it moved to Gianpula Village, a compact clubbing complex located in a valley near the city of Żebbuġ. But Glitch, also three years old, remains the only festival run entirely by local promoters, all of whom have had a hand in developing the island’s underground dance music scene over the past two decades.
CONFIDENCE MAN GLITCH MAC
Annie Mac has run her annual Lost And Found festival on the tiny Mediterranean island since 2015, while Elrow debuts in the country this month. When he gets a rare moment to chat, he explains his ambitions for this year’s festival: “we just want to take it up a notch”.Įllul’s confidence reflects Malta’s growing reputation as a dance music destination.
Simultaneously, event co-founder Kevin Ellul darts around the compact site in his Glitch-branded tee, somehow managing to keep his composure in between the occasional cigarette break, the mark of a man who’s seen this all before. As the sun sets over The Fortress, Glitch’s main stage, Young Marco eases us into the night with his silky-smooth selections, the crowd growing steadily from two teens making out to a heaving mass.
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