Homelands (festival)
# Homelands (festival)

Homelands was a music festival run by Mean Fiddler Music Group (now known as Festival Republic) which consisted mainly of dance music, both live acts and DJs. The festival was held in locations in England, Scotland and Ireland in the period 1999 to 2005. The organisers of Homelands were also behind the Home Nightclubs chain including Home Nightclub in London and Sydney.

The English festivals were held at Cheesefoot Head near Winchester, Hampshire, and was one of the most popular British festivals of this genre.

The Scottish festivals were held in Royal Highland Showground near Edinburgh in 1999, and was held close to New Cumnock in the south of Scotland in 2000.

The Irish festivals were held at the Mosney Holiday Center in County Meath in both 1999 and 2000.

## Yearly editions

### 1999

Homelands festival was on 29 and 30 May 1999. It took place in 'The Bowl', Matterley Estate near Winchester, Hampshire – the site of the 'Creamfields' festival the previous year.

There were nine themed arenas, as follows, with an amazing mix of performers. There are a few acts [Roni Size, Basement Jaxx, Jungle Brothers] that I cannot recall where they performed.

The Home Arena – had the first live Chemical Brothers plus Asian Dub Foundation, Monkey Mafia, Paul Oakenfold, Fatboy Slim, DJ Shadow and Paul Van Dyke.

The MixMag Arena – had a live set from Underworld, plus Faithless, Red Snapper, Dope Smugglaz, DJs Carl Cox, Deep Dish, Gilles Peterson and Darren Price.

The Essential Mix Arena – featuring Radio 1 DJs Pete Tong, plus Paul Oakenfold, Sasha & John Digweed. Radio 1 did a live broadcast from this tent featuring Judge Jules, Danny Rampling and a 4-hour Essential Mix.

The End – hosted by the London club – had two arenas.

The End 01 – a deep house tent, featuring Terry Francis and The End Sound System (Mr C, Layo and Mathew B) plus Darren Emerson, Dave Angel, Stacey Pullen, Laurent Garnier and Carl Cox.

The End 02 – a drum’n’bass arena with DJ Hype, Andy C, Krust, Bryan Gee, Fabio & Grooverider.

Slinky - Bournemouth's "superclub"

US house club Lyall - featuring New York DJ Danny Tenaglia playing a 10-hour set

There were also two arenas hosted by alcohol sponsors

### 2000

The 2000 festival took place on a very wet Saturday 27 May 2000. The line included BT, Moby, Public Enemy and Leftfield.

**Tents**

**Ericsson @ Home Arena**


    Leftfield
    Ian Brown
    Moby
    Public Enemy
    BT
    Paul Oakenfold
    Armand Van Helden
    Paul Van Dyk
    Scratch Perverts
    David Holmes
    Dope Smugglaz
    Dave Seaman
    Meeker
    Jeremy Healy
    Johnny Moy
    Adam Freeland
    Dan & Jon Kahuna
    Jason Bye
    Alfie Costa
    Manchild

**Tents**

**Radio 1 Essential Mix Arena**


    Pete Tong
    Sasha
    John Digweed
    Nick Warren
    Lee Burridge
    Craig Richards
    Parks & Wilson
    Col Hamilton
    Stewart Rowell
    Alex Taylor

**Tents**

**Slinky & MTV Dancefloor Chart Show Arena**


    Judge Jules
    Paul Van Dyk
    Brandon Block
    Alex P
    Graham Gold
    Hybrid feat. Chrissie Hynde
    Ferry Corsten
    Luke Neville
    Lisa Lashes
    Garry White
    Tim Lyall
    Gordon Kaye
    Guy Ornadel

**Tents**

**Subterrain & Ultimate Base Arena**


    Carl Cox
    Sven Vath
    Mr. C
    Darren Emerson
    Layo & Bushwacka!
    DJ Sneak
    Jim Masters
    Trevor Rockcliffe

**Tents**

**The End's Drum & Bass Arena**


    Reprazent
    Fabio
    Grooverider
    Andy C.
    Ed Rush
    Optical
    DJ Hype
    Razor
    Zinc
    Pascall
    Randall
    MCs Fats, Dynamite, Moose & Rage

**Tents**

**Back2Basics/Deep South/Highrise Arena**


    Romanthony
    Danny Rampling
    Jon Carter
    Justin Robertson
    Junior Sanchez
    Steve Lawler
    Ralph Lawson
    Adam Freeland
    Jacques Lu Cont
    Rebel Crew (Scott & Robbie Hardkiss)
    Tayo
    Jenga Heads
    James Holroyd

**Tents**

**Ministry House Party**


    Darren Emerson
    Davie Reid
    Nick Warren
    Danny Howells
    Lottie
    Gareth Cooke
    Yousef
    Future Shock
    Bent
    Barry Ashworth

**Tents**

**Ericsson MYH Arena**


    Robert Owens
    Juan Atkins
    Kevin Saunderson
    Sister Bliss
    Groove Amada (DJ set)
    L.E. Bass
    Evil Eddie Richards
    Dave Mothersole
    T Joy
    Richard Grey
    J Jeff
    DJ Vee

**Tents**

**Bud Ice Bus**


    Richard Fearless
    Norman Jay
    Jon Carter
    Bob Jones & Justin Robertson
    Tim Carbutt (Utah Saints)
    Jools Butterfield
    J. Swinscoe & Tom Chant
    Robin Lurie (percussion)

**Tents**

**Bacardi B-Bar**


    Gilles Peterson
    Faze Action
    Patrick Forge
    Ross Allen
    Stuart Patterson

**Tents**

**Radio 1 Outdoor Sound Stage**


    Judge Jules
    Danny Rampling
    Seb Fontaine
    Dave Pearce
    Daniel Bailey

### 2005

Officially called "We Love... Homelands" it took place on 28 May 2005 from 1pm to 5am, and had a capacity of 50,000. Headliners included The Streets, Beck, Roots Manuva, Mylo, The Bravery, Audio Bullys, Babyshambles, John Digweed and Dimitri from Paris. Medicine 8 performed in the festival's 'Strongbow Rooms'.

