Promoter interview - Jungle Drum & Bass - The One In The Woods
Liverpool's community minded and meticulously crafted One In The Woods is back with another mouthwatering mix of house, techno and drum & bass heavyweights in Orrell Hill Woods from July 28 - 30. This year sees the festival evolve from the two day event of previous years into bespoke three day camping festival offering its largest ever line up with DJ Marky, LTJ Bukem, Goldie, A.M.C and many more.
Here we speak to Owen and promoter David Potter about the 2023 edition.
How has this year been getting this festival together? do you enjoy it, is it torture, or somewhere in between?
It’s been a labour of love really from setting out the new layout of the festival to designing the stages, now on the lineup wise, it’s been torture dealing with so many agents and managers with everyone wanting their act on top, so to counter that we decided it full A-z no tiered a-zs just full on.
Who is behind this festival and what are their backgrounds?
Ok, there’s me, I’ve been involved in events for over 20 odd years putting events on all over the country but I took a break from it all in 2012 then there’s Jords Oli and Franco who I met about 5/6 years ago in property. We got chatting one day about music. I told them my background and that was that we were doing a club night. Also, there’s Mikey, he is our ears on the ground as he is a real raver out every weekend, and James the woodland owner.
What was the initial idea and inspiration for the festival and when was that?
Back in 2019 we decided to put on a club night in Liverpool called The One the launch date was set for April 24th 2020 at the Camp & Furnace, the thought behind it was to bring the two genres dnb & techno back together under one umbrella. We booked Jeff Mills & Dave Angel on the techno side and Fabio & Grooverider, DJ Hype, Mc Conrad on the dnb jungle side as the heritage and Lucy Calyx & Teebee. We also had other events planned in Liverpool at the Invisible Wind Factory with the likes of Sub Focus and Ben Klock however none of these events happened due to Covid we were completely wiped out, so instead of just laying down and losing everything it became apparent that outdoor shows had more chance of happening. I went looking for outdoor spaces all over and eventually stumbled across Orrell Hill Woods and at that point met James the owner and we hit it off immediately and that’s when the festival was born.
How hard was it to get off the ground? What did it involve?
Extremely hard with cash flows Absolutely loads of man-hours meetings with the council jumping through hoops, getting the previously booked artists to move their bookings over, finding local support to get on board, which we have done all the way through from DJs to production companies to film crews and more.
What are the key things to get right at the festival?
Budgets, Help, sound system, Toilets, if you don’t have the right budget things can soon get out of hand. Friends, family and volunteers helping out is essential to the vibe of the festival, ours is a real family vibe that sets the tone as you walk in. Sound System - it’s all about quality and needs to be and sound right. Toilets - if you don’t have enough toilets on site it can soon ruin the whole experience.
What informs the booking and sound of the festival?
Good music is essential to us at the festival. I personally have a real link to the dnb scene and now it inside out, add Mikey’s knowledge of what’s hot in the clubs helps but all of us are into the underground sounds of electronic dance music in one way or another.
What were some of the biggest challenges of making this happen?
Money is always the biggest issue, people forget we are just an independent 5000-people festival. Agents forget this and try to charge tens of thousands of pounds for acts that just don’t work with us. We are not a 50,000-people festival so margins are very tight.
What are you most looking forward to about this year's event?
Opening the gates to all the party people, so they can see what a magnificent venue we have and watching their faces as they move around.
What tips have you got for anyone coming about things to do and explore?
Make sure you explore all the stages, something special is going on in each of them. Make sure you camp as well as this year we are offering onsite camping which will be fun.
