By the time you read this article, the cleanup will be well underway at The Garden in Tisno. Why? Because Defected Croatia finished up back on Tuesday after six days and the huge logistical operation of clearing everything out before the next festival arrives simply has to be undertaken – it’s simply a fact of life.
As all those banners with the Defected logo and various other things written on them are packed up into boxes, ready to be sent back to the UK, Ears To The House can’t help but wonder – what else will the label have decided to stick into packages at the same time?
A few months ago, we reported on a sudden love-in at Defected HQ for all things Detroit. The label – which has done little for Detroit-based dance music since its inception – launched a blitz of publicity about how great the city was. Names such as Moodymann, mysteriously rising star Ash Lauryn and Carl Craig were mentioned – whereas the name Derrick May absolutely was not.
What was behind all this? The answer, as ever with Defected, isn’t hard to work out. They had an event to promote – a Detroit takeover of one of their events at Croatia. And now that event has happened – and by all accounts, it was one of the more successful things at the festival – what’s going to happen next? Where’s the next event where Defected get behind Detroit? Or can we expect to see releases from the likes of Carl Craig or Ash Lauryn soon appearing on the label?
Well, the label’s release schedule is a closely guarded secret, so we have no idea if anything is planned there. But the events side is easier to establish – and to do so, we visited the Events page on Defected’s own website. The next appearance for Carl Craig at one of their events is at Defected Malta, due to take place between 7th and 9th October. But for the rest of Detroit?
They aren’t quite so lucky. No one else is due to appear at any other event for the rest of 2022 – although we must point out a few of the events towards the end of the year have not yet announced their lineups. However, plenty of names appear from Chicago in comparison – such as Honey Dijon, Derrick Carter and the accidentally magic mushroom munching John Summit.
Will Defected be having another love-in with Detroit in 2023, or has Simon Dunmore decided there’s no more money to be made out of it? Only time will tell…
