ELECTRIC PARK FESTIVAL JERSEY

The festivals are coming thick and fast, the long summer nights are here and once again thousands of music loving wellington booted revealers hit the fields for mass singalongs, mosh pits and warm cider.

Last week I caught up with one of the co-founders of Jersey’s Electric Park festival, a fantastic event that over the years has seen the likes of The Manic Street Preachers, Razorlight and the mighty Dead Mouse to name but a few. This years electric day out is fast approaching, being held at Peoples Park in St Helier Jersey on Saturday 24th September and what better way to find out all the gossip than to chat to festival organiser Mr electric himself Daniel Matthews.

(Jim)

Hello Danny Matthews thank you for taking the time out and Talking To The Songbird , We can imagine you’re super busy setting up this year’s festival. So how does running a festival in Jersey differ from the UK?

(Danny)

There is quite a lot to be fair. One of the main and obvious differences is population. We have such a smaller reach, with a population of just 110,000. This makes it difficult, our line up’s in the UK would pull 10,000+ all day long as we would have such a huge population to tap into. There are also other factors like shipping, that does not exist in UK. Also, on island costs are higher, we have to deal with travel and accommodation all of these elements play huge factors. If we were to organise our events in the UK, we would not have to deal with these elements.

(Jim)

You’ve had some stellar line up’s so far but what can people expect from EP this year?

(Danny)

We have really worked hard on the line up, it’s very strong and sits very well with the Jersey audience. It covers a bit of everything, James Bay for the singer-songwriter fans, a bit of pop with Sophie Ellis Bextor, we have some good ole indie rock n roll with Ocean Colour Scene, a legends slot with The Lightning Seeds and we are confident that The Wombats will be truly epic. They’re amazing live performers and the music is very energetic. We also have Jersey Band Von Cassidy opening the event, who’s debut album was released last year and have been making big waves ever since, definitely ones to watch and a perfect opening act.

(Jim)

What, if any are the Pro’s and Cons to a running a jersey festival? 

(Danny)

The pros are delivering an event for all to enjoy with excellent quality music, there is nothing more rewarding than to light up thousands of faces. Cons, it’s getting a more and more difficult market, as stated before, travel, economic climate, rising costs plus more events.

(Jim)

How did you fall into it (organising events)?

(Danny)

I worked at Jersey Live for many years, mainly on the site build, assisting in on site solutions, designs and working with a great team. My background is construction. Jersey Live came to an end in 2016 and in 2017 Warren Holt and myself formed a partnership with Rockit Entertainment. We started with smaller events (mainly at Fort Regent and the Opera House). We always intended in doing a festival and in 2019 we formed Electric Park.

(Jim)

How do you go about choosing the acts? 

(Danny)

We work tirelessly on getting the right acts with lots of research. We highlight several artists that would attract the Jersey market and then it’s down to availability and getting them in the right order.

(Jim)

What major problems have you over come when setting up large scale events?

(Danny)

Ep2021 was a very hard show to put on. Due to Covid we only had permission to go forward with the event with 7-8 weeks run in. We had no flights, accommodation, transport, freight booked at all as we did not fully commit until we had the go ahead. Once we had permission, we had a very short time frame to put everything together. We got there but it was one of the hardest things we have had to go through.

(Jim)

Wow, now that’s impressive to be able to pull it all together in such a short space of time. So Since the pandemic how have things changed? 

(Danny)

This is hard to tell at the moment, we are planning as normal.

(Jim)

Who’s been your Favourite booking so far?

(Danny)

Passenger. They were outstanding, and surprisingly James Blunt at Fort Regent. Both artists really engaged with their audience and that’s what you need for live music.

(Jim) 

Dream booking, if you could book any living artist/band?

(Danny)

Eminem, Killers, Muse, Kings of Leon, Liam, this list is huge Jim.

(Jim)

What was your first festival and what where the highlights? 

(Danny)

My first experience of festivals was Jersey Live and I was working. The first UK festival where I could really let my hair down was Glastonbury, main highlight there was just the pure scale of it. Only ever one headliner there and its Glastonbury. That place forever gives.

(Jim)

Weirdest backstage/Rider request?

(Danny)

Skin coloured mid high heels, we got them from De Gruchy’s ( A department store in Jersey) However I wont name the artist before you ask.

(Jim)

Where you ever in a band/Dj? 

(Danny)

No to either, I was bought up on Ska music when I was a child by my brother being a bit of a MOD and listened to all sorts from an early age, that’s my music background. 

(Jim)

What new bands are you listening to atm? 

(Danny)

Inhaler & Cassia, Larkins are good too, all very indie

Well Danny thank you so much for popping in today and chatting to us, can’t wait for this line up. Tickets are on sale now so The Songbird Hq will see you down the front.

Interview by Jim Dolan