Kappa FuturFestival - 13th & 14th July - Torino, Italy - Review

This summer's edition of Kappa FuturFestival took place over the weekend of the 13th and 14th July at Parco Dora, Torino. The setting is a suitably decaying old industrial area and the main stage was in the spare innards of an old factory. The sun was out, as were thousands of ravers all of Europe, so the scene was perfectly set from the get go.

Day One offered many delights, the first of them being inimitable and enduing techno presence Carl Cox. His typically quick paced selection was tight and taught, skipping through techno, some vocal beat big stuff and was all stitched together with lots of energy and beaming smiles from Cox. Even at this early stage there are people climbing on each others shoulders, punching the air and wooing all throughout the set.

At the same time on the smaller second stage, New Jersey house legend Kerri Chandler did the thing that has made him so famous – bumping house laced with plenty of real instruments, genuine soul and a smattering of vocal cuts. Chants of Keeee-rri, Keee-rri’ rang out as soon as he finished, and rightly so.

Recent fabric mix stars Apollonia aka Dyed Soundorom, Dan Ghenacia and Shonky then stepped up and stayed true to their back to back to back ideals playing plenty of groovy house old and new.

And so to one of the biggest and best moments – Luciano. Cadenza boss Luciano has not played in Torino since 2009 when he played an incredible back to back set with Derrick May but tonight’s efforts will likely go down just as historically. It was a tightly woven selection of Latin house, stringy minimal and tougher techno that went down a storm with the crowd.

Day two of the festival started in fine style with Music On main man and Italian national techno hero Marco Carola banging out his funktechno. Probbaly because of his set, the place was ram packed from the off. BPitch Control’s Ellen Allien then took things down a notch for her set, playing darkened deep house, weird indie licked stuff of the sort you’d find on her label and, eventually, much to the delight of the crowd, some tougher techno. There were also plenty of local acts playing across the weekend, all of whom more than held their own with bigger names like Zombie Nation and Erol Alkan playing their own esoteric selections.

For techno fans this festival is a real delight – well organised and with killer light and sound throughout, highlights for them included Matador’s live techno show, Parco Dora’s rugged offerings and of course, Minus boss Richie Hawtin. His set segued from deep loopy minimal to more full-blooded techno fare and was a perfect end to what was a perfect festival.