Terminal V: The Edinburgh techno festival heads to Croatia

This summer marks the launch of Terminal V Croatia, a new annual techno excursion set to sail the electric energy of Edinburgh’s Royal Highland Centre into Tisno’s summer sunset (18-22 Jul). As EE Live’s biannual bank holiday party, recently awarded DJ Mag’s 2023 Best British Festival, approaches ten editions this April, we sit down with founders Derek Martin and Simon McGrath, together with long-time collaborator Fraz.ier, to explore the harmonic rise of the two musical outlets.

Having previously tested Terminal V Berlin, a pandemic-affected project, aimed at providing UK audiences with a European home from home, McGrath stresses the overdue nature of a Scottish destination festival. “Being on the verge of selling out 40,000 tickets seemed like the perfect opportunity to dip our feet in the water somewhere else.” Docking at The Garden, an established home to Dimensions, Dekmantel Selectors and Outlook Origins, "there’s nothing that really crosses over with Terminal V,” says Martin, “as much as there’s techno there in many shapes and forms… the range of techno and contemporary sounds you get at Terminal V is not something being done on the resort currently." Besides offering Scots an alternative to Edinburgh’s inconsistently tepid temperatures, the advent of a novel techno-centric summer festival has pricked ears throughout Central and Eastern Europe.

Curated across four open-air stages, B2B boat parties, and an after-hours at Barbarella's Discotheque, Terminal V Croatia boasts a stacked lineup of local faces – including Aisha, FRANCK, Hannah Laing – alongside international names like Kobosil, FJAAK and Rødhåd – a techno heavyweight returning for the first time in six years. “That was the first time you played for us?” McGrath asks Fraz.ier. “Yeah, 2018," the Scottish DJ and producer replies. "Derek and I had been chatting as I had an EP coming out on Pan Pot’s label, so it was quite a natural connection.” Martin recalls: “The timing was good. We were launching Terminal V as a new brand, and looking for younger Scottish artists pushing boundaries… We’ve never looked back – he’s played almost every Terminal V since then.”

Fraz.ier. Image: Kyle Henry.

On remembering 2019's freak April heatwave which lined up with that year's event, Martin tells us: “It was the best day of the year! Everyone was taps aff on the grass," set to the backdrop of Andrew Weatherall and Richie Hawtin, while Fraz.ier closed The Ambulance stage. “Someone recently sent me a video of that," Fraz.ier add, "it looked like I was playing a burger van or something!”

In the five years since, both Terminal V and Fraz.ier have matured, amidst a fruitful techno scene, ever-growing in popular accessibility and event capacities. Albeit physically adjourned by COVID, lockdown accelerated a digital revolution enabling artists and events to reach new heights of recognition through virality. In hindsight, for Fraz.ier “those two years were at least five of musical transition… everything happened so quick. So many legends [were forgotten], and it became a whole new market. It should be fully focused on the music, but in a digital world, it doesn’t work like that.” Entering an economically plagued post-pandemic world, “the main problem is the cost of living… people are picking and choosing instead of clubbing every weekend,” he theorises, in discussing the unfortunate closure of his club SYMBØL that he opened in 2022 – a venue venture that sought to “bring focus back on artists and not ticket sales. It was the right idea at the wrong time," he says, "I don’t regret trying it.”

Behind the scenes, the temporary cessation of parties provided Terminal V “breathing space to pull things together and nail the development of production.” Being perfectionists at heart, McGrath admits that “before the pandemic, we’d never been able to emulate the high levels envisioned due to the speed at which we were growing.” Fraz.ier relates: “Once you do one big production, you don’t want to drop the standard, it’s a never-ending cycle of trying to push the limitations of what you can do.” Though, in contrast to the large lighting rigs and LED screens, “Croatia is a boutique festival compared to what we do in [the empty warehouse spaces of the Royal Highland Centre in] Edinburgh,” Martin explains, offering travel plans and onsite accommodation to 6000 ticketholders. “With Tisno, it’s such a scenic place, right on the waterfront – we approach the production to complement the space, the site sells itself really.”

Ever passionate about platforming upcoming Scottish artists and scenes, Terminal V’s record label is set to return over the next few months with releases to reflect the various stages of the festival, both from local and international artists. “There’s a lot of new talent that’s been [overlooked],” citing Glasgow’s Outflight and young vinyl selectors Liam Capello and Eubo, alongside Edinburgh’s E.DN – an early proprietor of the hardgroove sound, “so hopefully we can give back some opportunities,” adds Fraz.ier, who's also just launched his own label Parallel Visions, with an inaugural four-track EP due from himself on 4 May.

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Terminal V, Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh, 13-14 Apr; Terminal V Croatia, Tisno, Croatia, 18-22 Jul; Terminal V returns to the Royal Highland Centre in October, dates TBC

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