Video: Lukas Wigflex speaks to Owen Shipton about Wigflex City Festival on Ey Up Notts
Lukas Wigflex, organiser of the first ever Wigflex City Festival, is hoping the first festival of its kind in the city ‘will put Nottingham on the map’.
Wigflex City Festival takes over Nottingham this bank holiday weekend, with talks, workshops and creative drop-ins on the music industry on Saturday (May 4).
Then, on Sunday (May 5), fourteen different venues host live music and DJ sets across Nottingham, including NG One, Brickworks and Metronome.
Headliners of the lineup include Honey Dijon, an American DJ making her Nottingham debut, Gilles Peterson, a French DJ and Radio 6 presenter, and British DJ Midland.
On the Thursday May 2 episode of Ey Up Notts, Lukas spoke to presenter Owen Shipton about organising it all, what keeps him going and the scene here in Nottingham.
“I‘ve never organised anything on this scale before – it’s the same as organising one party but on a much bigger scale!
That feeling of putting it altogether and having everyone smiling and forgetting about what nonsense they’ve got going on in their lives is great; to see them let loose and have a drink.
Every person I’ve booked is amazing in their own right and could fill a venue by themselves.
Some of my heroes are on there – I’ve looked up to James Holden my whole life so to be able to book him with his live band and to do a separate ambient set in the ambient chill-out room we’ve got is pretty special.
He hasn’t DJed for about five years so I’m pretty chuffed he’s coming to do that.
I’ve been meticulously planning this since June – that’s when I booked the first act and I’ve been working on it since then.
The music has kept me going – DJing, and just making people happy by bringing experiences and artists to Nottingham that no-one else in the city will do.
It’s vital for the city as we’ve got such a great scene, such a great culture and sometimes I feel as though we are stranded in the middle.
Sometimes I feel we aren’t taken as seriously as London or Manchester and it’s a shame because there are some really great things happening here.
Nottingham’s quite small compared to some other cities; I feel every year you’ve got a new scene coming through because it is quite a student-orientated city.
People are leaving and going back down to London and the student potential isn’t quite as good as it could be here, so hopefully stuff like this will help put us on the map.”
