10 of the Most Iconic AVA Moments of all Time
Words: Dylan Murphy
Image: AVA by The Hype Factory/Lewis McClay
In the past decade AVA Festival has become an institution of electronic music in Ireland. Continually evolving, it’s moved from a humble one day event made up entirely of Irish acts in T13 Warehouse to hosting over 10,000 people and the biggest names in dance music across a weekend in The Titanic Slipways.
BICEP, Jon Hopkins, Ben UFO, Mall Grab, KiNK, Or:la and more have all graced the stage at the festival since its inception – some of them multiple times. AVA has continued to grow without compromising its connection to grassroots culture in the north with acts like Sally C starting in small letters on the bill before playing the main stage in 2023. It’s a tried and tested pipeline for emerging talent and one that keeps local acts at the heart of what it does.
And who can forget the Boiler Rooms? Whether it’s Skin on Skin’s melding of drill vocals and techno during his set or Space Dimension Controller dropping ‘Ayla’, it’s further proof that Belfast has some of the best crowds in the world.
With this summer marking 10 years of AVA Festival, we spoke to the DJs, acts and people behind the scenes to talk about their most treasured memories ahead of what promises to be another bumper year.
Holly Lester
Whilst having my boiler room debut in 2018 is gonna be forever up there in my favourite AVA memories and general life memories, I think I’ll also remember my first AVA set post-pandemic for a very long time. The energy was insane as soon as I walked into the Nomadic stage. I was feeling a bit nervous about returning there and feeling a bit out of practice, as I’d only done a few gigs prior to things reopening. But as soon as I started playing it was just magic. Everyone was just so elated to be there and to be partying together again. I could properly feel the joy from the crowd! Definitely one of my favourite sets of recent years!
– Holly Lester Photo by @katedonaldsonphotography
Emby
From going to AVA from the start to performing at it now watching it grow as a local artist has been truly remarkable. Seeing friends and peers from the island performing in 2021 was my highlight. My good mate, IMNOTYOURMATE truly blew me away that year. Watching how engaged the crowd were with his high energy set was cold. No better crowds in the world.
– Emby by @mattspratt
Timmy Stewart
For me, a fave AVA highlight across the decade was the year I was asked to play an unannounced extra set on the Friday night at the Boucher Road site. I’m gonna say it was 2021?
It is always nice to play an extended set at a festival, with time to move around styles more. The stage just kept filling up and I loved the fact no one knew who was playing until they landed in, due to hearing what was pumping out. Literally the power of the music right there!
– Timmy Stewart by Rough Hands
Jordan Nocturne
My first AVA was actually the second year of the festival as I’d missed the first year. For me, the excitement sticks with me as I thought it was amazing to see Belfast’s club scene celebrated in such a big way. For years, Belfast had been overlooked and suddenly there were music heavyweights like Boiler Room showcasing the city’s artists and promoters to the rest of the world under the iconic cranes. It felt like the city had stepped up a gear.
– Jordan Nocturne, @tellyourmumitookphotos
Kessler
Way too many memories from AVA Festival to sum up in just one text but a couple standouts include: KiNK performing at the S13 location and next thing you know a samba band appears, stole the show for me that year. That was also the year i was more involved in the production side of things as I did my uni placement at AVA. Went from assisting the production crew build up the Main stage to then playing the opening set at it. Another highlight, would have to be my first Boiler Room at the Boucher Road site in 2021. After the previous year cancelled due to covid, it was such a good homecoming and a moment i’ll cherish for ages!
– Kessler, Photo by @tellyourmumitookphotos
Lucinda Graham
My yearly exodus to AVA festival just gets better and better. Some of my most treasured memories with my closest friends have been formed over these sunny weekends. Getting ready with the girls, the outfit planning, bumping into old friends – (Not to mention the outfit making!)
Creating my own looks for the festival has been such an integral part of the whole yearly experience, and the festival truly facilitates a space where people want to dress up, go all out and express themselves. I think that creating this sort of space for experimentation through style has played such a central part in the cities cultural growth and feeling safe to express yourself regardless of gender, sexuality or background.
SWOOSE
I mean, over the years there has been plenty of AVA memories. From Dave the rave Tester’s outfits, to having my ma behind the decks drinking my rider to playing Fern Kinney – ‘Love me Tonight’ as the sun was coming up at 8am at the unofficial crack on. One particular memory stands out when I was asked to do the Boiler Room and my best pal Evan was the host. I messaged him in advance to say no funny games when introducing me…out walks Julian Simmons to introduce me.
Emmett Costello (AVA Festival programmer)
Programming the festival with our team has been such an amazing experience – way too many highlights to pick just one to be honest – but a few that stand outs are:
For Those I Love joining Overmono live on stage in 2023 for a surprise appearance – FTIL got up on top of the stacks and was belting out ‘I Have A Love’. It came together very organically in the weeks leading up to the show with everyone’s schedules aligning, and was such a powerful dancefloor moment. Goosebumps, yeoooo’s and tears everywhere. One of those times where you shake yourself and ask if this is really happening.
Samba Band joining KiNK live on the main stage in 2018 – Sarah our founder had the idea of a local Samba band joining KiNK as a surprise on our mainstage. I admittedly thought the idea was crazy initially and he’d never go for it, but KiNK was so into it, and with a few weeks going back and forth with the Samba team on email, combined with him flying into Belfast the day before to do some prep on site with the Samba Band it was a go. Half way through his set, the 8 piece band came out on our main stage and he worked them into his live show – it went nuts and ended up being such a moment. Proper one off festival experience.
Plain Sailing
One of our favourite memories was playing b2b with Bloom with EMBY. I think it might have been the first time the festival has introduced grime and hip hop into their programming and it felt like a major highlight for lots of different people. It’s also been great seeing EMBY smash it every year since playing with different crews too.
