The Black Lights festival, curated by the team behind Manchester's now-closing White Hotel, debuted in Blackpool with a bold, pan-genre lineup that defied traditional boundaries. Within minutes, audiences could transition from a BBC Philharmonic performance of John Adams' Harmonielehre in an art deco concert hall to Afrodeutsche's breakbeat techno in a side room, where lager sloshed over plastic cups. This disregard for high versus low art defined the three-day event, held from 4 to 6 October 2024.
Venues and Atmosphere
The festival intentionally embraced Blackpool's faded glamour, using venues like the Winter Gardens, Blackpool Tower Ballroom, and even a Spiritualist church. Organisers expressed affection for the town, though some found the romanticisation of its struggles—homelessness, substance use—uncomfortable. However, democratic gestures like Mark Fell and Rian Treanor's free electronic music workshops, where one participant improvised on a plugged-in banana, underscored genuine engagement.
Key Performances
The Caretaker performed corroded ballroom recordings with live dancers in the Blackpool Tower Ballroom, creating a Lynchian atmosphere. Later, Klein delivered transcendent guitar noise, including a sudden drill beat. Blackhaine, a towering rapper and movement artist, presented anguished declarative rap with surreal visuals, including an old-school streetlight as a second stage. His set, with screamed assists from Sam.Brown, inspired the rage rap scene.
Gescom played glitching polyrhythmic techno with laser squiggles, while Evian Christ's aggressive light show accompanied trance and big beat classics. Anz and Crystallmess closed with blog-house until 4am. Other highlights included Nazar's kuduro in the Pleasure Beach, Red Laser and Bakk Heia's house at Blackpool Catholic Club, and Jennifer Walton's electric guitar howls from a Spiritualist church altar.
New Commissions and Rap
The festival commissioned new work, including an untitled orchestral piece by Mica Levi, a soundscape of fireworks, avian calls, and Doppler-effect strings. Jawnino's rap tracks caused a fuse trip at Bootleg Social, and Lintd offered theatrically enunciated flows over jazz and afrobeat. Moin's set was the weekend's standout, finding euphoric post-rock through UK bass culture.
Festival Challenges and Legacy
Like many first-year festivals, The Black Lights faced timing issues, but attendees embraced a holiday mode where rules were suspended. The event positioned itself as a British iteration of experimental European festivals like Unsound and Rewire, offering a much-needed alternative to the corporatised UK festival market.
