Babylon Uprising is Glastonbury’s best kept secret for heavyweight dance music

Even now, it’s all hands on deck for the Babylon Uprising team. Comprising a much larger crew today than its original fivesome, the stage still relies on its community to pull off such a feat of production and programming every year. “Everything is run super democratically,” explains Dean. “We’re completely non-profit, non-commercial, and no one here gets paid. We don’t get any budget for artists so it’s always a bit of a blag to try and get people to play, which I know can be a bit of a red flag in the industry, but people know we’re not making any profit off of this.”

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What that means, Dean explains, is that the DJs who play at Babylon Uprising each year do so out of pure love for the music. “Artists play because they just love playing, and that’s really reflected in the vibe,” Dean says. Since it doesn’t receive a budget, Babylon Uprising relies on the artists already booked to play at Glastonbury, meaning they have to consult the festival line-up after its release. “We have to wait to see who’s already on site, which is why our line-up always tends to be pretty late in release,” Ed says.

This year’s Babylon bill features a wall-to-wall selection of dance music’s latest stars right down to new, emerging talent. Over the weekend, you could expect to see a cross-continental back-to-back from Atlanta’s Nikki Nair and London’s DJ ADHD, a set from Kurupt FM’s Danny Rankin, or an all-day takeover from Jeremiah Asiamah featuring the likes of L-Vis 1990, Charlotte Plank, and p-rallel. From 140 heaters and head-rolling jungle to heavy dub and dembow riddims, Babylon Uprising never fails to supply hot and heavy dance music on even the most blistering of days.