As always, Dimensions was a party to be reckoned with once again this year, featuring a top lineup situated in a truly stunning setting.
The sun shone relentlessly in the mornings, with festival goers enjoying the coast with the cool sea breeze or together under tree-caste shade. Camping Brioni is the perfect setting for an exquisite camping experience because of the frequent tall trees, ideal for putting up hammocks and clotheslines and attaching tents and tarps. The site is scattered with taps flowing with clean drinking water and ideally situated bins (including recycling ones) in order to facilitating the cleanliness of the camps. The availability of warm, clean showers is a huge bonus too, although some did prefer a dip in the sea to wake up in the morning. The beach was lined with people from morning till sundown, swimming in the water, just chilling out and catching a tan, or boogying in the sand by the dub smugglers stage. The vibes at the beach stage were incredibly relaxed, but several of the performances had the crowd showing off some of their grooviest moves. The sensuous combination of seeing the approaching sunset, feeling the sand shifting between toes, and hearing great music, well... it's very moving, especially to the feet. Some standout boogies on the beach were courtesy of 'Cosmic Slop',' Mo Kolours', 'Afriquoi', Canadian trio 'Badbadnotgood', and Brooklyn singer 'Gabriel Garzon Montano'; last but not least was the DJ set from Jeremy Underground that rocked the beach with soul and disco slammers which left the crowd chanting his name for one more song. Another rewarding and important aspect of the festival is that had a lot of choice of brilliant food, suitable for a wide range of dietary needs and wants, from vegan cuisine to big beef burgers! Conveniently there was also a regular shuttle bus to a supermarket in Pula for those who wanted to save some money and cook their own food!
The festival ground itself is by far one of the most magical and atmospheric set ups I have been lucky enough to experience. The effort that went in to setting up the stages and artwork is apparent, all done in order to ensure that the festival goers are able to witness incredible acts within the perfect setting!
The Clearing hosts many of the biggest names at the festival. It is one of the most spacious dancing grounds. This year the stage took the form of a tall metallic pyramid structure fitted with lights and screens; quite spectacular. I had the pleasure of seeing outstanding shows from Moodymann, Dorian Concept, Mount Kimbie, Surgeon and George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic who gave the crowd everything they had: all the old classics with some new school theatrics; and they didn’t forget to bring the funk!
The Moat features the loudest and clearest soundsystem on site and it is no surprise that this space played host to some of the more experimental sounds in electronica, house, and techno. Geographically, The Moat is just that, a long narrow ditch excavated into the land. Complete with speakers lining the high walls, as well as lights and smoke machines, and of course the top-notch selectors, the mood here was really something special. The first night as hosted by Hessle Audio, with Anthony Parasole closing the night; and the second night featured incredible sets from Objekt and Daniel Avery. Other standout sets include a back-to-back from Rush Hour's Antal and Hunee, a live set from synth wizard Legowelt, and blistering techno from Truncate and Ben Klock.
The appearance and spacious atmosphere of the Fort Arena 1 stage makes this a favourite. This year the walls were colourfully painted again but with some intricate sacred geometry patterns. The music played there is quite varied in genres but always top quality. The DJ set from Horse Meat Disco was full of disco and soulful house bangers, and the legendary Kon who followed them did not disappoint, bringing his signature flavour of vocal house edits, soul, and funk. Over the following days this stage hosted great shows from Steve Cobby, Loefah (playing old-to-new chicago house bangers), Dusky, and Miss Sunshine. Unfortunately Moodymann cancelled his "tribute to J Dilla set" on the Tuesday night, but Gilla took over and did a great job of keeping the space bumping.
Mungo's Arena was of course the perfect setting for all dub, reggae, and jungle centered acts at Dimensions. It features the legendary Mungo's Hifi sound-system, lots of space to jump around and lots of great people happily skunking out. The stage was graced by the likes of Mala, Loefah, Kutmah, Seven Davis Jr, Randall, Doc Scott, Deadbeat & Tikiman; and a takeover from Meatalheadz featuring Goldie, SP:MC, Jubei, and Ulterior Motive
In addition to these four stages, there are another four at the site. The Void, another spacious outside stage, ideally hosts some of the current top artists and was honoured this year by DJs including Alexander Nut, Floating Points, Lil & Louis and DJ Deep. Likewise, Noah’s Ballroom, The Garden and Arija Stage where able to offer beautiful spaces for people to enjoy varied music by lesser-known artists.
Overall, Dimensions never fails to disappoint and offers a truly remarkable and unique experience where festival goers are able to meet fantastic people from all over the world due to the community vibe at the campsite and relish in high-quality sound performed by the flawlessly selected artists.
