So it’s official. The Movement Electronic Music Festival in Detroit has announced its full lineup. In a shiny poster which went out this week – going against the grain this year by having a design which is at least mildly legible – they’ve revealed how they’re going to represent the city of Detroit this May.
In short, they’re not. They’ve decided to represent the rest of the world instead – booking Belgian Charlotte De Witte, Masters At Work from New York, Chicago’s John Summit, and Britain’s Basement Jaxx. And to avoid the heads in Detroit from accusing them of racism, they’ve stuck on Carl Craig and a special performance from Juan Atkins out of Cybotron.
Quite whether anyone will finally manage to catch the elusive footage of Juan Atkins actually playing keys remains to be seen. Michael James has a prize pot of $4000 waiting for anyone who finds it – but here’s the lineup in all its eye-wateringly expensive glory…

It’s all gone a bit business techno, hasn’t it? Ears To The House recently commented on the fact that 2023 appears to be the year when festivals have decided to splurge ridiculous amounts of money on the talent – indeed, we’re reliably told at least two of the names above are getting over $125,000 for their appearance alone.
But back to the appearance of Carl Craig, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and his son Dantiez – who likes to pee on dancefloors, apparently – Eddie Fowlkes, Moodymann and so on. Their inclusion on this lineup if greed makes it look as if they were added on as an afterthought – and we wonder if their pay is as high as everyone else’s?
And we’re not the only ones asking questions – a number of our Detroit techno sources are also feeling a little ruffled by the news. One even went so far as to say the lineup “feels really white this year. I understand trends change and Movement has to evolve with the times, but what the f*** do Basement Jaxx have to do with Detroit? It’s not like they’ve put out any decent s*** in the past decade.”.
Expect such murmurs of discontent to grow – and us to be there to tell you about it…