Homelands (festival)


Homelands was a British music festival which consisted mainly of dance music, both live acts and famous DJs. The event was held at Cheesefoot Head near Winchester, Hampshire, and was one of the most popular British festivals of this genre. It was run by the Mean Fiddler. The organisers of Homelands were also behind the Home Nightclubs chain including Home Nightclub in London and Sydney.
A Scottish edition of the Homelands festival also existed. In 1999 a Homelands Scotland occurred at the Royal Highland Showground near Edinburgh. In 2000 a similar event occurred close to New Cumnock in the south of Scotland.

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 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 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











2005

Officially called "We Love Homelands" it took place on 28 May 2005 from 1pm to 5am. 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'.