- Hideout won me over in 2012. As I found out last summer, it's a festival that's hard to fault in all the areas that matter most. Sure, shuttle busses were often precariously over-packed and available dance floor space could be measured in millimetres, but when it came down to it, none of this seemed to hurt anyone's ability to have fun. In fact, sometimes it even contributed to it.
Much of the same can be said for Hideout 2013. As in years past, the main event went down over three days and nights, preceded by a series of boat and pool parties. It seemed that the majority of attendees took full advantage of the near weeklong programme: most were already sunburnt and hungover by Wednesday, the first day of the festival proper (not that this affected anyone's energy level).
The first night had sets from Ben UFO, SBTRKT, John Talabot and Subb-an across the two larger venues (Papaya and Aquarius 1), while Bondax and the Dirtybird crew held things down at the smaller Kalypso. The opening slot at the latter—easily Hideout's most interesting venue, thanks to the psychedelic jungle theme—was handled by Croatian jock Mariano Mateljan, who deftly mixed cuts from Nick Curly and Roman Flügel at the tail-end of his set.
Photo credit: Hideout Festival
Bondax stepped up next, dropping a rework of Wildchild's "Renegade Master" less than ten minutes after Mateljan closed with Ricardo Villalobos's "Hands Up." For the audience, though, musical continuity was not much of a priority: the UK duo's boisterous selection and quick-fire mixing clearly won over more people than subtler house would for the rest of the festival. Bondax set the tone for the next three days—energetic, big room music would garner the most applause on all stages.
Thursday saw Seth Troxler, Tensnake and Loco Dice each step up after an extended Circo Loco session, helmed by Cassy, Dyed Soundorom and others. Dice's dawn appearance was a particular highlight, keeping Papaya busy way past 6 AM. On Friday, Hot Creations hosted what was perhaps the best-attended pool party of the week, with Lee Foss and friends dishing out exceptionally sunny house to an eager afternoon crowd. Later that night, Jamie Jones, Soul Clap and Pearson Sound soundtracked Papaya and Aquarius 1, while deep house and disco was the order of the day at Kalypso courtesy of Youandewan, Move D and Floating Points.
Photo credit: Hideout Festival
Much of Hideout's success can be chalked up to the organisers ensuring that, during festival week, there aren't so many variables at play. Close to half of the artists who played in 2012 returned this time, and in terms of the weather, it seems anything other than a blue sky in Croatia at that time of year would be an anomaly. Furthermore, all of the festival's music spaces have been used extensively in the past, so issues arising from untested venues are non-existent. The lineup is essentially a list of the most UK-relevant big name house and bass acts in the world—barring an Eyjafjallajökull-type situation, attendees are going to get what they paid for, even if one or two people miss their flights or get food poisoning. And if the non-stop intensity ever became a bit too much, the beach is just five minutes away.