With Glastonbury just over a month away, we talk to Block9’s Gideon Berger about dance music at the festival.

Gideon Berger and Stephen Gallagher are Block9. They take set design to the next level, creating immersive environments for musical events on a grand scale. Every year, the duo organise their own Block9 area at Glastonbury, which serves as a darker, dirtier alternative to the mainstream mainstages. Split into three zones: Genosys, London Underground and NYC Downlow, Block9 is a dance music mecca and interactive experience like no other.

Ahead of another great year for the festival, Gideon Berger tells us about dance and electronic at Glastonbury, and the inspiration and ethos behind the Block9 project.

What would you say is dance music’s role at Glastonbury Festival?

When I first started going to Glastonbury Festival in the early nineties, the main attractions for me were the New Age Traveller illegal raves that took place outside of the festival perimeter fence: sound systems set up outside or in a tent that provided a space for the early underground US house music to be played. There were trucks, buses, dreadlocks, dogs and uncontrolled, unlicensed, un-policed freedom.

The festival kind of took this element and incorporated it into their thing, too, both the people and the music. The southeast corner’s area organisers can all trace their lineage back to this scene. So dance music has had a long history at the festival, which is a history that embraces underground music in an unflinching and unapologetic way. Dance music is becoming more central to the festival’s identity and this is a great thing. The thing we try and do at Block9 is to showcase the cream of the crop: super discerning, high quality underground music. This means NO POP! NO EDM! NO COMPROMISE!

Photo by Kamil Kustosz (2013)

Should dance at Glastonbury Festival get more recognition?

No. I think in this era of massive super-festivals in Europe and now the US, Glastonbury Festival should keep doing what it’s doing. The support that they have given Block9 is proof that the festival itself recognises that it should democratically feature all kinds of music and performing arts.

Pop-dance in a 40,000 person arena is my idea of hell on earth. The NYC Downlow, on the other hand, is my idea of heaven: a dark, packed, homo sweatbox with the best underground deep house and disco, where you can do what the fuck you want when you want. You meet people in there, you make friends in there, you create the party yourself. It’s not DJ worship. The lights are off and you gotta make your own fun…and believe me, people do!

Photo by Pete Podworski

What are you trying to achieve with Block9? What is your inspiration?

Stephen Gallagher & myself are the Block9 duo. We bring different things to the table, but I think we meet at the point where we try to explore the fleeting moment in space and time where art meets music. With our venues we try to build the perfect environment to listen to the perfect record.

The NYC Downlow is a gay space where the music that we inherited from the clubs that preceded us is passed down to the next generation and re-interpreted and updated by contemporary artists. Gay history, identity and politics are part of the space and part of our crew and if you don’t like it you can fuck off, ha ha. So I guess we are trying to build a space where the ultimate musical experience can happen. We engineer light, sound, environment and people to provide a heightened experience of music: a musical utopia.

Photo by Pete Podworski

What are some of the best DJ sets and parties you have ever seen at the festival?

– DiY in the travellers field outside the festival gates in 1998 was epic.
– Kerri Chandler in the NYC Downlow in 2013.
– Robert Hood last year on Genosys.
– Harry Midland in the NYC Downlow on Sunday last year was totally off the hook, too.
– And there was an amazing sound system, either Lazy House or Sugar Lump I think, in the mid 90s outside the festival gates too…but my memory is kinda hazy.

Finally, would you like to see more dance acts as headliners?

No.

This year’s Block9 will see performances from MN2S artists DJ Deeon and Chez Damier.

Header photo by Pete Podworski.