During the early days of the pandemic, some very rose tinted conversations took place within the dance music world. They were all about how things needed to change and how the scene was getting stale – there was talk of DJs accepting lower fees for bookings, allowing new DJs to come through and so forth.

A few groups were notably absent from the conversation. Mainly those people who were in a position to actually do something about it. They’ve waited until pandemic imposed restrictions eased off to have their say. And their opinion is mostly on the lines that they’re simply interested in what continues to make them money.

Hence why you keep seeing the same names on every festival line-up. It’s great news for those DJs – many of which have been established for sometimes decades already – who have a steady supply of highly-paid jobs. It’s terrible news for anyone hoping to see some new talent breaking through the ranks. They are quite literally pursuing a scorched earth policy – so long as they get paid, they simply don’t care.

Over the weekend, we saw an advert from Sacha Lord’s Warehouse Project on social media – but curiously, it’s not for an event at their Manchester premises. No, the event is for the Secret Project Festival, taking place between June 17th and 19th on the very picturesque Portimão Beach.

The Secret Project? Sounds like a name designed to attract intrigue or mystery. Depressingly however, when you look at the lineup, it’s about as business techno as you can get…

The words “glitter” and “turd” come to mind, don’t they?