A brand-new festival is taking place in Liverpool across Friday June 2 – Sunday 4th, set across a diverse range of venues and with one of the most forward-thinking lineups curated over the last few years in the city.
The Baltic Weekender is a celebration of the continued diversity of the richly vibrant music culture that has driven the Baltic Triangle’s development, now established across the UK as Liverpool’s most important cultural destination. The project is a union between 24 Kitchen Street and Abandon Silence, two of the city’s driving catalysts in its resplendent night life, and so far they have confirmed Goldie MBE, Axel Boman, Gerd Janson, Move D, Ghetts, Stefflon Don, Flava D, P Money, Elijah and Skilliam, Rude Kid, Swing Ting, Denis Sulta, DVS1, Mele, Big Miz, Moses Boyd (Solo X), Moxie, Chaos in the CBD, Route 8, Asquith, Asok, Deep Sea Frequency, Andrew Hill, Aystar, Macca, No Fakin’, Ste Hodge, Suede Brown and many more will be announced. The project also will unite many other local promoters and venues in a show of unity to celebrate the city’s continued growth and recognition as a revered electronic music hotspot, whilst seeking to preserve its future.
The Baltic Weekender will utilise some of the city’s best-loved and creative venues, and some of them have recently come under threat as property developers are attempting to profit from the rising land values driven by the creative forces in the area. Kitchen Street was the first venue to come under threat, and more recently Constellations and the Great Baltic Warehouse too. This has inspired a grass-roots led fightback which has already garnered national attention as the culture-seeking public realised the danger of threatening the very foundations of what has made the area such a focus for music, arts and creativity, as well a pop-up food and drink venues, bars and many thriving independent businesses.
Set across Constellations’ Observatory, Lobby and Garden, the New Bird Street Warehouse, the Great Baltic Warehouse and Botanical Garden, the Baltic Weekender will feature high level production installations and designs as featured in Abandon Silence’s recent shows in a series of day and night events on Friday 2nd and Sat 3rd June and a closing party on Sunday 4th June. The Baltic Weekender’s partners are Banana Hill, Boogaloo, Dimensions Festival, Down To Funk, Hot Plate, Loose Lips, Melodic Distraction, NGHTWRK, Pause, Pretty Pretty Good, Raw, Remission, Transmission Funk, Tribe and Wonder Pot.
We caught up with Andrew Hill, founder of Abandon Silence and Director at Buyers Club:
“I have been friends with Ioan and the 24 Kitchen Street team for a long time, having hosted events in their venue, though we have never worked together. Having seen friends and other promoters try their hand at large scale events, we had always discussed having a go ourselves, but only if the time was right and we did it ‘properly’. With the recent development issues and incursions in to the Baltic, we felt this was the right time to showcase what the Baltic Triangle means to us, and bring some of our favourite artists – local and international – to the area across one weekend.
We have made a conscious decision to keep this wholly independent, and have rejected sponsorship or outside investment. One of our mantras is that it would be a direct partnership between Abandon Silence and 24 Kitchen Street. I strongly believe that this is one of the finest electronic music festival line ups this summer, with the whole dance music spectrum covered. From legendary Dnb hero and Snatch star Goldie MBE to disco legends Crazy P all the way to Dutch record digger Hunee and local upcoming acts like Aystar, Or:La and Madnice, we feel our line up showcases everything good about Liverpool, and dance music, right now.”
Never has it been easier to support great people doing boss things. Grab your tickets here. They’re down to their last few tickets.