Houghton Festival 2017 review: A utopic retreat like no other

In the middle of the Norfolk countryside and detached from the outside world, Craig Richards curates a spellbinding weekend

The illuminated trees above the lakeside Pavilion stage at Houghton (Carolina Faruolo)

The sun never sets on Houghton – or at least that’s what it feels like. When the music starts at 9am on Friday morning, it doesn’t stop until dawn breaks on Monday. Wherever you go on this site – the looming, misty Warehouse stage, the subterranean cocoon of the Quarry or the effortlessly beautiful lakeside Pavilion – the music follows you.

Curated by Fabric resident Craig Richards and produced by the same team behind Gottwood, there are a lot of things that make this festival feel like no other, but the 24-hour music license is a major one. It’s set within the idyllic grounds of Houghton Hall in Norfolk, but that great Palladian house is the last reminder we have of a world outside before entering the festival. With barely any phone signal across the site, this is a place that feels truly detached – and so it seems natural that the music doesn’t cease.

Ben UFO plays the Giant Steps yurt (Giles Smith)

And that interminability is achieved with a huge, eclectic range of DJs and artists on the Houghton line-up. A large number play multiple sets across the weekend, covering everything from tech house to dubby jazz, and it’s fascinating to see how the performances morph in different environments. We first catch Ben UFO on Friday evening, playing within the tiny Giant Steps yurt, run as a collaboration between east London music spot Brilliant Corners and the Analogue Foundation. Beneath the glowing moon-like decorations that hang from the roof, he weaves a tapestry of power pop, funk, reggae and more. Hours later, down in the Quarry, he delivers a thudding set rooted in techno. It’s a fine example both of the festival’s organisational skill, and the musical dexterity we’re consistently treated to.

As night falls on Saturday evening, Nicolas Jaar takes to the Derren Smart stage, and makes the disparate seem kindred: a vocal sample of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” works its way between stark, eerie pianos; later, Aphex Twin’s ambient work “Rhubarb” is a melancholic ocean upon which a verse from Nas’ “Ain’t Hard to Tell” serenely floats. Christ, there’s even a solemn nod to Godspeed You! Black Emperor at one point. It all comes together sublimely, and is wholly affecting. The sound system here, and across the festival, is world-class, as is the lighting – too often the latter can seem like a distraction, but at Houghton, it’s vitally mesmeric.

Ricardo Villalobos and Craig Richards during their back-to-back set (Carolina Faruolo)

The headline attraction is the mammoth, eight-hour, back-to-back set between Ricardo Villalobos and Craig Richards (from 3am to 11am on a Sunday morning, of course). It’s a Fabric staple, but it’s dressed in an entirely different skin in the utopic woodland setting of the Pavilion stage. Meditative, exultant, cathartic – it all happens here, with two artists at the top of their game.

Sunday evening and we’re back in the yurt for an encyclopaedic DJ set from Floating Points, as he drops gems from afrobeat, disco, psychedelic rock and even a luscious Arthur Russell remix (not the only artist to doff his hat to Russell over the weekend). As 4am crawls into sight on Monday morning, Roman Flügel is seeing things out on the Pavilion stage. When the music does stop – silence, finally, after what feels like forever – it seems clear. There’s nothing else quite like this in the UK scene.