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‘When doing the line ups, we listen to what people want’: Bassline legend Jamie Duggan on the biggest SpringFest to date

It takes place on Easter Sunday

6 years ago

Anyone into their bassline will have heard of Jamie Duggan; since the early days of the genre, he has been constantly innovating throughout the Steel City. As well as DJing and producing, he also runs Tank Nightclub – along with the ever-growing SpringFest.

With this year's SpringFest taking place on Sunday 1 April, we spoke to Jamie about what's in store for festival goers, as well as the next steps for him as a DJ.

Firstly, how are you feeling about this year’s SpringFest?

Very good. It's a huge line up this year and SpringFest is always one of our biggest events. Lots of massive acts on display and always an amazing atmosphere throughout all the arenas so we’re really looking forward to it!

The line-up is both huge and diverse, ranging from tech house to bassline and D&B. Whose sets are you most excited for?

As you say, with SpringFest (and FearFest) it's very diverse so you get to pick and see a lot of your favourite acts and genres all in one go! I personally find it hard to see the acts as much as I'd like to with working on the event itself, but I always make sure I see a few, even if just for a few minutes!

It's the first time we've had Jauz, AJ Tracey and SASASAS in the main arena, and you know all three of them will be hyped up and mad to see
with all our stage production going off around them!

What compelled you to choose Magna, an old steelworks, as a venue?

The idea originally came from doing a Halloween-themed event there (which is now FearFest, obviously). We wanted a massive venue to do something we'd never done before, something big/different!

And we wanted something with the look, feel and age of Magna as it suited the theme of old steelworks, big industrial, huge, dark spaces. With the success of the very first one we knew we'd done something right and the rest of the events we now do there grew from that.

Tickets have almost sold out, with the eighth and final release now on sale. Did you expect that reaction?

You never expect it, but you hope for it!
We always do our events with no expense spared, on all aspects: acts, production, security, promotion etc. And, when doing the line ups, we listen and look at what the people want. So, when you release these events you hope you've got it right and that people will buy a ticket and leave having had the best night ever!

Watching them sell out just goes some way to telling you that you've done a good job.

In addition to SpringFest, you also run the award-winning Tank – what’s it like to run such a popular Sheffield club?

LOVE IT! Like the sound of "the award-winning Tank" too!
I'll be honest, never in a million years did we actually go to BBN Awards thinking we were gonna win. Genuinely just went for a piss up! Then when they called our name out (TWICE!) we couldn't believe it.

We've worked so hard with Tank over the last four years. Put everything into it. The place is amazing. Acts from all across the UK and world love playing at it just as much as we do and there literally is no better crowd! It’s packed every week and going nuts!

The staff / management and everyone involved all massively deserved those awards! So thank you to everyone that supports us and made that possible!

In your capacity as a DJ, you are one of the originators of bassline as it is known. How has the sound grown up over the years?

It's definitely changed a lot but the vibe of it still remains. People still love to hear a big dirty wobbler dropped no matter what!

I think the difference today is that there's a lot of bass and bassline sub-genres this time around, and a lot of different and new producers / sounds from up and down the UK, which are all merging together in
each other’s sets. Which in turn is gathering huge fan bases from everywhere and spreading like wildfire!

The genre is branching out to Lost & Found, Reading & Leeds and Parklife Festivals, as well as traditionally house based clubs like Fabric. Where do you see it heading next?

Honestly, you never know. It's huge at the minute and forever growing with no signs of slowing or hitting a brick wall anytime soon, so the sky's the limit!

And good luck to all the producers / DJs in the scene that are grafting hard and making this happen for themselves and each other. Massive respect to each and every one of them!

After the success of your Pure Bassline album, what’s coming up for you as a producer and DJ?

There's gonna be a release very soon from myself and DJ Q. Got lots of people asking for our Countdown 2018 remix so we're gonna get that one out. Then very soon you'll be seeing a couple of brand new fresh releases
from myself and Booda on a label that's doing huge bits at the minute!!