Touching down on the grounds of Capesthorne Hall, Cheshire on August 31, Hide&Seek festival will announce their intent as they look to change the UK festival game. Designed and curated by the ever popular You&Me crew, whose parties have helped redefine Manchester clubland over the last few years a festival was the logical next step.
Their Manchester based parties at various venues across the city have amassed somewhat of a cult following in the North of England. As their signature blend of groovy house, rolling electro and stripped back minimalist sounds have helped rejuvenate Manchester’s underground.
As strange as the concept might seem a common feature of events we have attended is the brand’s ability to create togetherness by celebrating uniqueness. This stems from a forward-thinking booking policy built on relationships, shared vision and talent rather than big name ticket sellers.
As they have moved from strength to strength the interest and admiration for what they do has increased. A well informed, openly experimental and highly active scene has developed around the brand and the time has come for them to attempt to make the magic happen on a larger scale. As such, we thought it was time to sit down with the team and find about their plans for their first large scale event.
Hide&Seek has for many appeared out of the blue. However since its announcement it has quickly become one of the must-attend events of the summer alongside the likes of Houghton, Gottwood and some of the European heavyweight events like Sunwaves. For those that don’t know about the brand can you tell us who is behind the event, your event experience and what you aim to achieve in 2019?
Hide&Seek is curated by the team behind You&Me in Manchester as well as some highly skilled professionals from within the industry. Over the last two years, we have been working towards this dream. It has taken a lot of hard work, research and determination but it looks like we will finally make it a reality.
There is four of us that make up the You&Me brand and of that number, three have been running an events company for the last seven years. You&Me is almost four years deep now and is where most of our underground promotion experience comes from.
In regards to Hide&Seek our only aim this year is to bring together like-minded music lovers, and give them amazing music & visual experience in one of the most beautiful locations in the UK! If everyone can leave with a smile on their face after experiencing what we have planned, then our job is done.
There have been plenty of people before you who have attempted to pull off large scale events only to hit a brick wall for a number of reasons. Cash flow, licensing, logistics are three possible reasons why festivals are a hard beast to tame. What makes you think Hide&Seek will be different from those that have gone before?
We like to think we have all these areas covered. Of course, we will run into some hurdles along the way. However, we have faith in our team as well as the professionals we are working with across each element of the project. There is enough experience to overcome any challenges. We are confident nothing will stop the festival from being a success.
Over the last few years, we have seen a real demand from party goers for the unique, the obscure and the quirky. Where have you taken inspiration for Hide&Seek from and do you think this is a truly unique event?
The success of a festival depends on a lot of things and can be measured in various ways. Come Sunday morning after everything has finished and you look back at the day before. What would you quantify as a success?
As I said earlier, smiles on faces. We will measure success on the following factors: ‘Did we surprise people? Did we bring like-minded music lovers together? Were they blown away? Did the programming reach a level where it transported people on a magical journey?
A venue is arguably the most important part of any event. The backdrop is the first thing people see on their arrival and can be pivotal in creating the right atmosphere. Can you tell us a bit about your venue and how easy was it to find a venue?
We had been searching for venues for months. Searching the internet or driving around back lanes for hours, days, weeks on end. We were knocking on doors, trying to persuade farmers to let us use their land and even considered doing it illegally in the woods. The list goes on.
Eventually, we bit the bullet and decided if it was going to happen we needed to look at something a bit more event friendly. This then leads us to Capesthorne Hall. We arranged a meeting, delivered our pitch and they loved it.
As for a description of the venue, it is nothing less than breathtaking. The drive through Cheshire to the venue is an experience in its self. We shouldn’t say this but we were actually sold on Capesthorne Hall before we even met the management. The drive-in is that amazing!
What would you say the three most impressive features of the venue are?
- The Hall
- The Flower gardens
- The Secludedness
This year Hide&Seek is a one-day event. For those travelling to and from the event what is your advice for getting there and back safely?
We have tried to make it as easy and accessible as possible for everyone. Rather than try and cover it all here we have put a whole travel guide together on the website. Hopefully, that makes life easy for everyone.
The travel guide can be found here – www.hideandseekfestival.co.uk/travel
Talk us through the line up who is behind the programming and how did they go about it?
We all work together on the lineup and the programming it’s definitely a joint venture with everyone expressing an opinion. Every artist on the line up we have all experienced together. Either at one of our events or around the globe. The common theme is we have always been blown away by the artist.
When it came to the programming though we all sat down, discussed their styles, the reason why we think they would fit our vision for Hide&Seek and then reverted back to our previous experience of the artist. Eventually, we had a lineup.
It is also important to note a lot of the artists we have built a personal relationship with through You&Me. It is important as they understand what we are trying to create. They have bought into our vision and will help deliver the event we have imagined.
Who are you most looking forward to seeing?
Sorry to dodge the question, but it’s just too hard to answer! Each artist brings their own flavour.
There is a number of brands associated with this event like Animal Crossing, Modular, Set One Twenty, Augmented etc what is there involvement and how are they going to feature on the day?
Pretty much all the brands involved have been brought on board due to long-lasting relationships. The brands involved all share the same passion and love for underground music. Again we trust them to create our vision with their unique take on it. It is also important as they can help push the festival to the right people. It is very important for us that everyone buys into the culture we are trying to create at Hide&Seek and we know these brands already epitomise that.
On another note, many of the promoters are also part of very reputable events organisations in their full-time careers. The knowledge they have developed over the years, within their area of the market allows us to learn from them and take their advice to better ourselves. For this year each brand will be given slots in which they can share their sound. As the festival grows going forward their involvement will only develop.
