The sound of drum and bass will be echoing round Finsbury Park this Saturday for the first ever Hospitality In The Park festival.
Organised by Hospital Records, based in south London, under the renowned Hospitality events banner, the day will be packed with dance music from artists and 300 DJs including Tim Westwood, The Prototypes, The Upbeats, Need For Mirros and Keeno among others.
DJ and electronic musician Tony Colman, who uses the stage name London Elektricity and is the CEO of Hospital Records, reveals there will be six tents full of surprises, plus a hot air balloon and the London electricity big band, which will include 20 people playing bass and a full 14-piece horn section.
The 56-year-old says: "It is the first time we have done this festival and we are slightly gobsmacked how popular it has become already.
"We have put so much variety in the festival in terms of the artists and also the food and drink. It goes beyond drum and bass and into connected genres likes reggae, with the Reggae Roast collective and the Dub Phizix and Strategy's Well Good Do, who are bringing their whole Manchester estate vibe down.
"Tim Westwood is headlining in our food area, so people should expect to run around the different areas trying to catch all the artists that they want to see."
Tony set up the record label 20 years ago and has kick-started the careers of drum and bass artists including Netsky, Danny Byrd, Camo & Krooked and High Contrast.
Tony says the music industry has changed immeasurably over the years but he enjoys the challenge of adapting to the changes.
"The industry changes phenomenally year on year but the good thing about being a label our size is that we are quick to adapt and we're very happy to change the way we work in every area depending on the way the things go.
"The only thing that never changes is the quality of the music we put out and the events that we put on have to get better with each year. We pay such a huge amount of attention to detail to our fans, as well as to our artists and the music that they make. We know every single detail and try and tweak it to make it better every year."
Tony's taste in music has changed a lot over the years and he didn't start listening to drum and bass until he was an adult.
He says: "Growing up, I listened to a lot of different genres. The first music I really got into was glam rock, when I was about nine or 10-years-old. In the early '70s, I was into a lot of the bands of that time such as Slade. Then I got into heavy rock as my sister had all the Led Zeppelin albums and I borrowed those as I thought they were amazing and still do.
"At university, where I was studying music, I discovered a whole world of contemporary classical music that I didn't know about and got into that quite heavily.
"So my music taste has been very eclectic over the years. It has been a big journey for me along the way and the music I listened to growing up has definitely influenced me now."
Tony admits he wanted to set up Hospital Records in 1996 with his London Elektricity sidekick Chris Goss after experiencing his first taste of chart success.
He says: "I got into the music industry slowly and with one or two false starts. My first proper band was a band called Izit and our first single called Stories, which was self-released, got picked up by Pete Tong and charted top 30 in 1988.
"The song was a one-off with a major label and that experience taught me a lot about what it was like to work on major labels and it prompted me to always want to have my own label.
"I quickly started one called Pig And Trumpet and then another called Tongue and Groove, which kind of morphed into Hospital Records eventually.
"Once you get bitten by the bug of running your own label, it is very hard to stop doing that, as you can have more freedom to be creative. We've been going for 20 years but hopefully there will be many more years to come."
Hospitality In The Park, Finsbury Park, Seven Sisters Road, N4 1EE, Saturday, September 24. Details: hospitalityinthepark.london
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here