Music

We Watched Techno Legends In A Naval Fortification At Dimensions Festival

In case you hadn’t heard already, this year was another successful Croatian orgy of underground music on the Adriatic Coast as Dimensions Festival celebrated it’s third year of hedonism in an abandoned naval fortification. The line-up of this year’s festival, much like it’s swaggering twin Outlook, was not unlike a who’s who of modern music figures, focussing more on the house and techno side of things with veterans like Juan Atkins, Moritz Von Oswald and Underground Resistance performing alongside current names like Ben UFO, Elephino, Kutmah, Mala and Nina Kraviz. 

Now if you’re yet to experience a Croatian festival – and believe it or not those people actually do exist – then it’s not quite your classic combination of sun, sea, sex and drugs à la Ibiza. It’s a slightly more sedate affair, partly tempered by the locals relaxed attitude to a bunch of tourists taking over their cozy seaside home (in this case the really quite beautiful surroundings of Pula). Though of course there’s enough cheap drugs and late night copulation going on OBVS – it wouldn’t be a festival otherwise.

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Amongst the various stages and arenas you’ll find the staggering Fort Punta Christo, which houses a small warren of pathways and a perfectly circular open air stone room, plus of course The Moat, which is just that – an abondoned moat with 40-foot stone walls on either side and some of the best sound you’ll hear at a festival anywhere. Plus you’re in a fucking moat, and when does that ever happen?

We even made our own contribution to proceedings, taking to the water with our THUMP party boat captained by Alix Perez and DJ TLR, who basically set about showing just how you fuck up a dance on the high seas. Thankfully we (narrowly) avoided the naval piss-up becoming a disaster movie catastrophe – missing the massive storm that struck Pula the following day (if you were there, you’ll know what we mean). 

Take a look below for some choice images from this years festival, and check out the line-up for the reunion party taking place on 27th September here.

Photos credit: Dan Medhurst

Day times were about swimming, sun and the beach side stage. Perhaps these guys are just having an innocent “bundle” or perhaps they’re pushing their bromance into uncharted waters. Lol.

Girls swim too. This is one of the main attractions of a Croation festival after all – eyeing up members of the other sex washing away their comedowns in the sea. 

We caught sometime mathematician and international star Dan Snaith A.K.A. Caribou playing the opening party at Pula’s amphitheatre, which wasn’t strictly part of the festival as such, but was still cool as fuck. He’s having fun here.

Here’s Canadian sex house maestro Kaytranada doing his thing. He looks a litle sad though. Apparently he looks like me, if I wasn’t caucasian, so maybe that’s why.

This is the moat, where we caught Ben UFO turning things inside out on a deep techno tip – it looks pretty cool here right? Accept it’s actually cooler than that. 

It rained a bit.

Yet Eglo Records boss Floating Points kept things going with a tight selection of jazz, funk, soul and a whole host of music we’d spend more time seeking out if we weren’t too busy ripping trap remixes off of YouTube.

I can’t quite put into words just how much this crew were exuding sheer unadulterated feminine style. They should be at every festival, ever.

Though don’t get me wrong, the fellas were holding it down too.

One of the stand out performances, as always, was Sound Signature head honcho Theo Parrish, whose sets are becoming quite the tradition at Dimensions. We’re vibing off your consistently strong choice in hats too Theo.

This is a pensive looking Alexander Nut.

And of course, Jackmaster and Oneman, who as Can U Dance, continue to prove that they represent the hypest clubbing experience going in 2014. 

Follow Dimensions on Twitter: @Dimensions_Fest

And Facebook: facebook.com/DimensionsFestival

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