Anton Lockwood talks to eFestivals

eFestivals spoke to Anton Lockwood, the Event Director of Dot to Dot Festival which this year takes place in Nottingham, Bristol and Manchester. Lockwood is the Promotions Director of DHP Group who are based in Nottingham and the owners of Rock City, Rescue Rooms, Stealth, and The Bodega Social Club in Nottingham as well as The Thekla in Bristol.

Where did the idea for Dot To Dot come from?
Our company, DHP, runs various venues – Rock City, Rescue Rooms, Stealth, The Bodega in Nottingham, and The Thekla in Bristol, and we also promote tours. We did The Flaming Lips, Imelda May and various things like that, and really that's where Dot To Dot came from.

The reason we started in Nottingham was that we realised we'd got all these venues, we'd been off to South By South West and other things like that, and thought it would be great to do something like that here, and use our venues. Then we brought in Trent Uni as well. Then, having done that, we'd taken over the Thekla, in Bristol, and we thought let's use that, and use some of the other venues in Bristol like The Academy, and The Fleece, and do something there. Having done that, and built that up, although we haven't got any Manchester venues, we thought we'd go there, we're now using The Academies, and The Deaf Institute there.

Is the plan to stay located in those three cities for the future?
Yes, definitely, we'll see about Manchester, it's the first time there, there's a lot of events that already go on there, so it's quite a challenge for us to go there and do it, but we're pretty confident and if that works out then the plan is to keep on doing it there.

Whether we'll look at other places, well, we've run out of days over the May Bank Holiday. We could double up something, we'll have the think. We'll get this one out the way first before we start worrying about next year. But yes, certainly the plan is to keep growing, and building it up each year.

Some of the acts you announced aren't playing all three events, is that because of other commitments?
It's just really because they're really busy. It's a great weekend to do because it's the end of the student term, and the first real weekend of the summer (May Bank Holiday). But there's other things going on at the same time, like Primavera in Spain, that's why Beach House can't do Bristol because they're over there. But the vast majority, ninety percent of the acts, are doing all three. It's only where, like in the case of Ellie Goulding, they're too hot, we couldn't turn her down for two out of the three.

You say you couldn't turn her down, does that mean that acts come to you asking to play the festival?
Yes, I've got a spread sheet that's got 200 acts on it that we've been offered, and only about 30 more spaces. We get loads of people coming to us, obviously we do our research and work on who we think is going to be hot. Some acts get really big in the year that we put them on, and some in the year after, like last year we had The Temper Trap playing in the middle of the afternoon, on a small stage. They took off afterwards.

Have you ever had an act become extremely popular between you programming them and them playing?
Oh yes, things like Santigold, we knew she was going to be a good act, but it just went crazy. Klaxons too was like that, and Gallows was like that. Although, to be fair we do try and manage that in a way. We try and balance venues, it's not like some other city based festivals where they are all about having a big band play in a small room, and having a big queue outside. We want the people who bought the tickets to see as many acts as possible. We try not to deliberately put acts in rooms that are too small for them, just to make it all 'cool' and sold out. Because, we want the people who come to actually get the most value for money out of their day out as they can, and see as many acts as they can. That's why we start at 2.00 in the afternoon, and finish at 5.00 in the morning, it's a big long day of seeing loads of stuff. You buy your ticket and you get a lot of entertainment for it.

To that end, do you stagger the bands' playing times or anything like that?
We try to, inevitably on a mutli-venue festival you're going to have clashes, and you're going to have some queues, we can't stop that happening altogether, but what we try and do is look at the whole festival holistically, what should go where and what people are likely to see. For instance you like Lighters you're likely to like Beach House, so we wouldn't put those two on at the same time. But you're probably not going to like Twisted Wheel so it doesn't matter if they're on at the same time. We think about things like that.

Am I right in thinking you've expanded Dot To Dot slowly?
The very first Dot To Dot was only a thousand people and we had people like The Rakes doing it, and we built up gradually, we didn't try and launch a huge event straight away, we just tried to repeat and develop it really. I think that's a mistake some festivals make, they think if they're doing a festival, they'll find a field or a few venues and book some bands and it'll be great, but actually, it's a case of building up your reputation, and your name. This year before we announced any acts we had sold over 1,200 tickets, people trust the brand now, and trust what Dot To Dot is about.

What's the capacity of the festival?
Nottingham's about 4,500, Bristol is about 4,000 and Manchester about 5,000 across the various venues.

Do you get to see the acts while they are playing?
We try and see as many as possible, yes. We have a production team who try and ensure everyone goes on and comes off at the right time, and deals with the inevitable things that come up through the day. We really try and go out and see as many of the bands as possible, and make sure they're all having a good time.

What have been your highlights over the last four years?
It's four years since the first one in Bristol, but I can't remember which year it started just now, it's lost in the mists of time, about six years ago in Nottingham. Feels like longer. It varies, things like Gallows in Rock City basement, literally bringing the house down, at the end of their set, which was probably the best live show you're ever going to see. Chromeo playing the Thekla and basically playing the best gig they had ever played with the crowd going insanely ballistic. A band I really like from San Francisco called Love Like Fire, who haven't got much of a profile in the UK, they played to an absolutely packed out room of people who had wandered in and were captivated bt them. That's always a great feeling when you see a band win people over. There's lots of different highlights every year.

Once a band achieves a certain level of popularity do you not consider booking them?
Yes, I mean we're about new music, well not exclusively, we do have a few bands that in the mix who have been around for a few years who we think are really interesting, but, primarily we hope you come to Dot To Dot and see your new favourite bands. If we were to get a huge act then that would just overshadow the whole festival , and it wouldn't really work. Plus, we would then hit the problem of selling 4,000 tickets and the headliners are playing a room that only holds 2,000 people, and you end up with thousands pissed off. It doesn't really fit. It's a case of catching bands at the right time really, that's what it's all about really. When we're booking that's what we're constantly juggling around.

Do you have bands back very often?
We do have a few bands back. Mystery Jets for instance are a band we're had back a couple of time. We tend not to have people play two years in a row, because I think that's really boring to see the same bands again. With the Mystery Jets, they're one of those bands who made their first record which was great, and then came back and completely re-invented themselves – everyone thought that was going to be that. Then they came back again with a better and even more interesting record, so it makes sense to have them back.

Thanks a lot Anton, have a good festival.
Thank you, bye.

The multi-city, multi-venue Dot to Dot festival takes place over the last bank holiday in May. The festival will take place from Saturday 29th May until Monday 31st May in various venues. Bristol hosts the event on the Saturday, with a similar event the day after in Nottingham, and the Monday night is the turn of Manchester to play host.

Tickets are £25 for each city. To buy tickets, click here.

NOTE: over-18s only.

For more information on the existing events, click here for the Bristol event, and here for the Nottingham event.

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