For The Terraces: Patrick Topping Chats Cocoon In The Park

Geordie dance mainstay on his summer plans...

Reeling off Patrick Topping’s CV is an exhausting task. Having dropped ubiquitous Ibiza banger in the form of ‘Forget’ on Hot Creations back in ’14, and a series of tech-house floorfillers and remixes at an envying rate, the Geordie dance mainstay has rapidly become one of the world’s most in-demand dance producers ever since, scoring residencies at some of the finest dark rooms.

With a packed festival schedule scribbled in his diary, Patrick will be hitting up Cocoon in the Park in Leeds on July 9th for a go on the wheels. We grabbed a rare five minutes with the DJ, producer and promoter to ask him a few questions about what he’s got planned.

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Hey Patrick! What can we expect from your set at CITP this year?
I’m playing b2b with Eats Everything, and that is always so much fun! We have a good connection when playing together, so I hope everyone watching can see that and buzz off that, and then have a mint time too! I would say our set would be very much the usual style of what we play normally, but maybe a little tougher as it’s Cocoon.

What’s the best thing about being on stage at a festival for you?
I love having such a huge platform to share the music I love with so many people. That’s the best thing about festivals — usually you’re playing to bigger crowd than clubs. Also festivals often have really good atmospheres, especially in the sun.

Will you get the chance to stick around and watch anyone else’s set? Who would you most like to catch from the bill?
I will get to stay about to see Green Velvet and The Martinez Brothers play, but I think I’m going to miss all of Sven [Väth]’s set unfortunately, which I’m gutted about! I’ve got over 20 mates coming down with me too for this, so I really really wanted to stay and rave to Sven with all them, like we have all done together so many times, but I had to take the Elrow show in Ibiza that night. Although staying at Cocoon sounds amazing, at the time of the decision it was the only Elrow date that worked for me. So I couldn’t give up that opportunity to play for them at their last year at Space, even though I really tried to make other dates work instead.

Can you remember your very first time you hit up Cocoon Ibiza? What was that like?
Yeah I can remember it quite vividly, actually. It was the very first one in 2009. I had just started getting into proper house and techno music and going there was a moment of realisation for me. I’d say that from that day onwards I really started to get seriously into the music and away from other forms of electronic dance music. It was my second time seeing Luciano and he was amazing, but it was seeing Sven for the first time that truly blew me away. Michael Jackson had died just two nights before and I can still picture Sven dancing about to ‘Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough’.

Have you had any particularly mindblowing party moments recently?
The last party I promoted in Newcastle was like that. I’ve been putting them on for the last five years with some of my closest mates and for this one we brought Elrow over and I played b2b with Green Velvet. It was amazing to see how they transformed the club (Digital) into a Brazilian jungle-themed rave. Also Green Velvet got on the microphone, which added to it and the night felt really special for all of us involved. Taking my mam to New York last week was also an amazing but different experience. She’d never been to America before and we hadn’t been away just us two for about 14 years. She literally had the time of her life, so that’s something I’ll always treasure.

Can you recount your greatest festival memory?
I’ve got so many now, but playing the main stage at Movement Festival in Detroit is something that jumps out! It was my first time in Detroit, too, and with the musical history of the city and the stature of Movement it just felt unreal.

Finally, what projects have you got in the pipeline for 2016?
I’m releasing so much music this year. I’ve already had a three-track EP out [the ‘Baddie’ EP on Lee Foss’ newly launched Repopulate Mars imprint], got two remixes coming, maybe two more, another three-track EP and also two other tracks going out on various artist releases.

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Patrick joins Sven Väth, The Martinez Brothers, Green Velvet, Eats Everything, Enzo Siragusa and Rossko at Cocoon in the Park, which takes place on the 9th July at Temple Newsam, Leeds. Tickets can be found here

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