Love International Festival 2019 - Five key sets
Posted on: 23 Jul 2019Love International 2019 has come to a close, the sun setting Team Love's fourth party on the Croatian coastline after 7 full days of some of the world's finest electronic music. Featuring yet another lineup bursting with some of the most exciting artists around right now including Paranoid London, Ivan Smagghe & Vladimir Ivkovic and Ben UFO among others, we've put together a rundown of the very best sets from this year's festival.
.jpg "Craig Richards & Nicolas Lutz @ Barbarella's. Image: Jake Davis for Khroma Collective")
DMX Krew (live) @ The Garden Stage
Any festival locking DMX Krew in for a live set is doing so in the knowledge that he'll likely be coming armed with one of the best sets of the week/weekend. That was exactly the case at Love International as Ed DMX kicked off an hour of trademark electro with 'Time Enough For Love' and didn't look back for the duration. The prolific producer kept heads spinning with a masterful mix of some of his very best tracks and showed once again that, despite a low profile, he's one of the most accomplished live acts around right now.
Saoirse @ Musu Boat Party
Morale was pretty low early on Sunday afternoon when The Martina set sail for a party hosted by Bristol party starters Musu and headlined by Saoirse - we were officially past the week's halfway point and the crowd was noticeably smaller than expected as the boat left the bay after numerous ticket holders elected to spend the afternoon recovering on land. The four-hour voyage was curated perfectly, starting out slowly and gradually building into what felt like your best mate's house party. Sat around slowly sipping drinks and listening to breezy house tracks for the first half-hour we'd never have guessed that Saoirse would end up going down an old-school garage route, but inhibitions were right out the window by the time classics like 'Migraine Skank' were getting dropped as the boat started to make its way back to shore.
Hodge b2b Peverelist b2b Chris Farrell @ The Olive Grove
These three coming together at a Bristol-run party on the other side of the continent felt like a defining moment of Love International 2019 and proved that, despite facing an onslaught of club closures and general uncertainty, the city's electronic music scene is alive and well. What was originally billed as three consecutive sets at The Olive Grove turned into a mammoth back-to-back between Hodge, Peverelist and Idle Hands boss Chris Farrell, and the pure variety of huge tracks, from dance classics like N Joi's 'Anthem' and Dionne's 'Come Get My Lovin' to guaranteed crowd-pleasers like The Streets' 'Weak Become Heroes' and Kerri Chandler's version of 'In My System' made this one of the most memorable nights at any stage across the week. There was even room for a remix of that Teriyaki Boyz Tokyo Drift tune and Sean Paul's 'Temperature' - 'something for everyone' would be putting it mildly.
Dan Shake @ The Beach Stage
There's a lot of talk about Barbarella's and the boat parties at Love International - as there should be, they're both incredible additions to the festival - but the Beach Stage is the real unsung hero of The Garden resort. Spending the afternoons on the beach with a drink in your hand and your feet in the sea is what bridges the gap between holiday and music festival, and the Beach Stage sets are the icing on the cake. Dan Shake fit the bill on Saturday as he filled his four-hour afternoon slot with easygoing house sounds before edging closer and closer to classic funk and disco, spinning tunes like Gay Marvine's 'Luv Thang', Chicago's iconic 'Street Player' and the 12" remix of 'The Boss' by Diana Ross to ramp up a party atmosphere just as the sun started to retreat behind the trees surrounding the beach.
Craig Richards b2b Nicolas Lutz @ Barbarella's Discotheque
There's something very special about Barbarella's, and Craig Richards & Nicolas Lutz, as expected, provided one of the best nights of this year's festival when they came together to play a six-hour b2b at the expansive open-air club as the Monday morning sun rose. These Craig Richards-Nicolas Lutz sets have taken on a sort of other-worldly reputation over the last year or two and for a time during this one it was hard to comprehend life beyond the four walls surrounding the Barbarella's complex. Jumping between bone-shaking tracks like Steve Bug & DJ T's 'Monsterbaze' and more stripped-back cuts like a curious re-edit of The Prodigy's 'Out of Space', the pair kept the crowd guessing and the energy sky-high from start to finish.
Love International Festival will be back at The Garden, Tisno from 15th-21st July 2020. Be sure to keep an eye on the official Love International website for 2020 news, updates and ticket information. In the meantime, you can check out our full 2019 review or relive this year's festival with our Love International 2019 Spotify playlist.
Article by:
Editor - 365Bristol.com & LOUD Magazine
Matt is a Journalism graduate and writer, passionate about supporting Bristol music, art and independent business. Get in touch via email at matt@365bristol.com.
