The Goo 1
JUNE/JULY '25 And how did you select the DJ’s? It
’s always just people we have on our radar in the community. A lot of us attend raves, we’re avid fans of those other collectives. Are there any collectives you look up to in terms of how they run their stuff? Absolutely, it goes all the way back to Keep Her Lit, the original raves that were done at some of the locations we have used ten years ago. Around us we have Crush Collective, Injector Sound, Hostile Takeover… there’s a whole host of others. That’s just to name a few. Maybe we attend one of those raves, the DJ knocks our socks off and when we’re sitting down preparing for the next rave that’s where the lineup comes from. We’re always pouring over it, trying to find a line up that has synergy. One that we think is gonna take us from the start of the night to the end of the night. Do you think there’s a difference between a club dj and a rave dj? Obviously a club dj can be a rave dj and vice versa. Personally, I would play totally differently in the club than I would at a rave. I was blessed to get to play the éirí na gréine rave at the octagon. I played a lot of big ravey synthy techno, whereas in the club I’d even gravitate towards house music. I remember the set I made for the night, and I wanted to play these songs in a festival tent. Eugene McCawley is playing the event, a big donk DJ. Do you think a rave allows subgenres like donk to have their own standing? Yeah, definitely. I think it’s a lot harder to do that in a club. You could 100% possible to throw a donk night in Wigwam and I’m sure everyone would have a great time, but I definitely think that there’s a different energy to the rave that in some ways emulates the vibe you get at a festival.That where those really high energy subgenres thrive. 31 How do you stagger your acts throughout the night to keep people dancing till dawn? I can speak for éirí na gréine. We started with a bit of breaks and a bit of slower techno, ramped it up next with Bronwyn with some really nice hardgroove, then I jumped on and played my dream festival set haha, then we moved on to NSULT who played his industrial sounds and the DKOXY, industrial again right in the depths of the night. Towards the end of his set the sun began to come up and he passed over to Ayolxi. She then played a three deck groovy techno mix layering the production which brought it down from the industrial tone but also kept it going. Then we had Shane O’Neill wrap it up with more minimal stuff. We tried to craft that line up to have a bit of a bell curve, to create a really high energy with a soft landing. How are you upping the ante for the next event? So as well as crafting our hard dance line up, we wanted to improve our production. That means an improved sound system. We’ve acquired two new bass bins. Are you funding that yourselves? We have been funding it all ourselves and, generally for each event, we have a donations page. This time round we’ll be selling t-shirts. We’re improving our lighting, with strip lights and a raised installation. Again it all takes form in this really phrenetic way on the night where we have our plans on paper, and then you have to figure it all out an hour or two before. You can’t throw all of your equipment in a bush and hope for the best. It’s a lot of money’s worth of equipment and it draws a lot of attention. There’s a certain level of covert ability required. What does Toirneach mean? Toirneach is Thunder in Irish. That’s in relation to bass. Make what you will of that haha.