Pull up your boot straps: Bloc is a-coming

The tight jeans and scruffy beard chinstrokers have ATP and the house and soul wusses have Southport, so finally last year a techno festival for those who’d rather sleep in-doors arrived on the scene. And this Paddy’s weekend coming, all hell is about to break loose again up the east coast of England in the shape of Bloc Weekend. On the strength of only one year not many festivals have managed to garner the hype and respect that Bloc has, and with good reason too. Last year and again this year it’s managed to gather together line-ups of jaw dropping excellence with the finest messrs in underground techno (and eh, Dave Clarke), electro and other random bassbin rattling electronica all showing their wares. This year, Detroit’s Underground Resistance label, Rephlex Records and other such luminaries as Juan Atkins, Phuture, Monolake, Skream, Ben Sims, Red Snapper, Claro Intelecto, Legowelt and ex Man Machine (that’s Kraftwerk, kids) Karl Bartos are going to fill the ballrooms of East Anglia’s version of Mosney with music that’s sure to keep even the hardest to please dance music fan smiling for 3 long, sweat filled days. A capacity of just 2,500 suggests an intimacy and friendliness that is at complete odds with large scale European techno festivals like I Love Coca-Cola, 10 Days off and Timewarp. Its line up also doesn’t bother trying to be a who’s who of ubercool 'now' techno either, with Bloc just opting for seriously quality acts from the last 30yrs of electronic music. And going on the fact that revelers are coming from all over Europe and as far a field as the US you get the idea that Bloc provides something pretty special. One would be hard pressed to find even one bad report from last year’s festival and with this in mind it’s no surprise to find that the place is going to be swarmed with legions of Irish troublemakers too. Throw in go-karting, commando zip lines, techno bingo (in yer Sunday best), a 24hr pub, arenas that open till 6am and a closing night of acid house mc’d by Tyree Cooper on top of god knows what sort of chalet based chaos and you can be sure it isn’t going to be pretty. But then, like Yorkies, techno doesn’t come in pink, does it? Full line-up and info on last remaining tickets can be found at www.blocweekend.com <b>Kenny Hanlon </b>