A Fat Tuesday During Indian Summer - PRINT VERSION

Fat Tuesday events are always wildly original, taking cues from New Orleans, and are renowned for their amazing line-ups.

Article by Frazer Cardow | 14 Aug 2006
Indian Summer, an innovative new two-day extravaganza that brings together the best pieces of the festival experience while leaving out some of the most despised (like camping and Paul Weller) is happening over the weekend of September 2nd and 3rd in the prettiest little park in Glasgow. Want to know more?

The event is a shift away from the intense big festivals of the likes of Glastonbury and T in the Park, opting for a more mellow, luxurious style with a smaller capacity, better facilities and a meticulously selected line-up. Keeping to that theme, the Southern Comfort Fat Tuesday tent will be creating an oasis for the weekend, offering an alternative to the frenetic atmosphere which usually dominates dance tents at festivals.
Taking its cue from the infamous New Orleans Mardi Gras, the tent will be knee-deep with dancers and dramatists smouldering with French sexiness and a languid, deep-south attitude. It's the same tent that was used recently in Ibiza for a Fat Tuesday event, and will no doubt feature the same lavish décor, creating a similarly surreal experience.

At the Ibiza event, laidback partying was the order of the night, as actors danced and weaved through the crowd in their New Orleans-themed dresses and lingerie. A half-man, half-goat on roller-skates cajoled and danced around while a crazed, beautiful Greek nymph put a confused smile on everyone's face. It was the attention to detail through decoration and performance that kept the crowd enthralled for the entire night.

While the trimmings were superb, the musicians were the true highlight and the line up that starred Alice Russell, Rob Da Bank, The Idjut Boys, Coldcut and TM Duke played a mixture of vibrant classics and fat, heavy grooves that gelled perfectly with the ambience of the evening.

At the Indian Summer in Glasgow the tent will be taking on more of a disco and soul persona, and the amazing line-up will no doubt put a twist on their sound to ensure it's another memorable Fat Tuesday event.

Mr Scruff, on the Ninja Tunes label with Coldcut, has just been announced as the headliner. Anyone who has experienced the crate-digging, genre-spanning madness of his sets at traveling club night 'Keep It Unreal' will tell you that his will be a set to drool over, as he builds from dub and hip-hop classics to frenetically pitched-up french house and heavy dancefloor jazz (not to mention the odd fish or two).

Mr Scruff will be joined by the self-proclaimed 'superhero of house' Maurice Fulton, who has revived the flagging funk edges of the genre. Also along will be Amp Fiddler, with some sweet sounds from soul's heyday, while the Butch Cassidy Sound System provide gritty and harmonious reggae. Accompanying that amazing line-up Bill Brewster and Quiet Village, with their cosmic disco, along with a host of others represent some of the most eclectic and skilled DJs and electronic live acts around. They'll be pushing out disco, reggae, funk, jazz, and rare breaks in the cosy confines of the idyllic Fat Tuesday tent. See our Preview in Sounds for the full line-up on the main stage.

The event is being held in the West End's Victoria Park, a setting that's a world away from the big festivals and their rubbish-strewn fields, skyscraper speaker stacks and unmentionable toilet facilities. There are still some tickets left, but don't expect them to last long - get on it before your only option is a triple-price ticket from eBay that most likely doesn't even exist. See you there!
Tickets are on sale now from www.ticketweb.co.uk or www.indiansummerglasgow.com and phone 08700 600 100 for credit card bookings.
Tickets are available in person from Tickets Scotland (Glasgow and Edinburgh), Ripping (Edinburgh) and Monorail (Glasgow) http://www.indiansummerglasgow.com