Prydz’s gala performance in the rain. The Beats for Love festival is halfway through
The Czech Republic has not seen such a laser show for a long time. One of the biggest stars of this year’s Beats for Love, Swedish Eric Prydz gave an excellent performance in Ostrava. The author of the hits Pjanoo and Opus, which have hundreds of millions of plays on the Internet, closed the program on the 2nd day and bridged the jubilee 10th year of the festival into the second half.
Already on the opening day of this year’s Beats for Love, the audience expectations of the organizers were exceeded, when 34,000 dance music fans arrived. On Thursday, even more visitors passed through the gates of the area in Dolní Vítkovice – also thanks to the fact that there are two holidays on the calendar. “The larger attendance was felt, but thanks to the significantly higher capacity of the area, the newly arriving fans spread out beautifully. It reached 38,000 supporters, which makes us extremely happy,” said the head of the festival, Kamil Rudolf.
The program on the main stage was spectacular. The Ukrainian Korolova brought a truckload of positive energy to Ostrava, while Delta Heavy and Dimension from Great Britain pleased the fans of the popular D&B style in the Czech Republic. Dimension, whose real name is Robert Etheridge, was particularly enthusiastic about the festival environment. “I remembered my first show, when no one showed up. Now I arrived in a foreign country and it was completely crowded. I’m excited, the fans gave me a lot of energy,” said the likeable Briton.
Then it was the turn of the masked German “Joker” Boris Brejcha, whose crushing techno set was accompanied by a massive final fireworks display. The aforementioned Eric Prydz took care of Thursday night on the LOVE stage. The music and laser show of the man who founded the famous group Swedish House Mafia was not spoiled even by a little rain at the end. And paradoxically, the drops started to fall at the exact moment when it was raining in the animations on the big screens. Therefore it can be said to say with a little exaggeration that Eric Prydz had his performance really coordinated. “While the first day of the festival is always such a warm-up, now we’ve really kicked into high gear,” added Beats for Love director Kamil Rudolf.
The other stages were packed too
The D&B Forge by Ostrava stage, Harmony House Square by Evropa 2 were also traditionally full, and fans also found their way to the Future by Proud stage, Techno Dome by ČEZ and Empire stage by My Oxygen. This scene – if it continues like this – claims to have a higher capacity in the coming years.
The “techies” were pleased with performance by the Briton Eli Brown, who played for a completely filled large-capacity tent. Italian Hypaton, nephew of Giuseppe Ottaviani, who will perform in the Moravian-Silesian capital on Friday, received a similar honor on the Future by Proud stage. “Hypaton is hugely popular on social media. Sometimes fans write us that we book older artists and I’m glad we gave Hypaton a chance. It was a great experience,” said stage manager Jakub Šindler. The show of the emerging generation of artists goes hand in hand with the name of the scene – i.e. Future.
Also thanks to the Friday feast of Cyril and Methodius, Ostrava lived with dance music until late at night. Danced, tired, but happy visitors left the area of the largest domestic festival. “And that makes us happy the most. We have a heart in our emblem, and also that is exactly howwe try to organize the whole event, with the feelings from the bottom of our hearts,” smiled Matyáš Ožana, Marketing Director of Beats for Love.
Discussion forum Talking Beats has started
The second day of this year was accompanied by the beginning of the Talking Beats conference. The organizers presented it last year – and the result exceeded expectations. That’s why the second part of the discussion forum moved from the U6 cafe to the more spacious control room of the coke plant.
Those who chose the spoken word instead of the dense tones of electronic dance music on all 18 stages received instructions on how to be a quality DJ/producer, listened to a debate about the mental health of artists and got a behind-the-scenes look at the organization of a giant cultural event – the Beats for Love festival .
On Friday, the second half of the jubilee 10th year will start in full swing. At the Talking Beats conference, there will be talk about Ostrava, negotiations with the most famous artists, and the combination of family life and the profession of a DJ.
In Dolní Vítkovice, fans will be delighted by the Italian project Meduza and probably the most listened-to Brazilian on the planet, Alok. Lovers of the D&B style should be thrilled by Friction from Great Britain, while the star Future by Proud stage will be the Dutchman Ferry Corsten. All of that happening in perfect partly clear weather, which should put a good face on the organizers for a change.
