No Weekender Without Optimo: Melting Pot on curating with Keith McIvor in Mind

As everyone with any interest in Scottish electronic music knows, last year Optimo co-founder, Keith McIvor (aka JD Twitch), passed away after being diagnosed with an untreatable brain tumour. The outpouring of grief and love was colossal – ‘NO DFA WITHOUT OPTIMO,’ went the inimitable New York label’s T-shirt, released to raise funds for McIvor's treatment. 

For the co-organisers of the Queen's Park Weekender, Optimo and Melting Pot, putting on one of the biggest events in Glasgow’s musical calendar in the aftermath of McIvor's passing was an emotional challenge. “He was very much in our minds for every booking,” says Mark Mackechnie, Director of Melting Pot. “At the end of a discussion, it almost always ended with, ‘Keith was into them, so that’s good.’ So, he still had a massive influence on the programme – maybe more so than in any other year, despite his absence.” 

Inspired by underground disco via New York clubs of the 70s and 80s, like The Loft and Paradise Garage, Melting Pot began in 2001. Its vision was especially steered by one specific Manhattan club night called Body & Soul. “It was so unique,” Mackechnie says, “we wanted to try and do something like this in Glasgow.” A quarter-century later, Melting Pot has done just that – opening up a consistent space for DJs to play what they feel fits the moment, or crowd, from techno to soul, post-punk to house. 

In hindsight, it isn’t a surprise Melting Pot teamed up with Optimo: similar reference points, the same taste for eclecticism, and a shared impulse for razor-sharp, innovative and open-minded curation. Mackechnie knew of McIvor from his seminal Edinburgh night Pure and Jonnie Wilkes from Glasgow Art School, but it was inconspicuous Sunday nights at Sub Club where it all came together. “It wasn’t busy at all, but it was really good. You’d go there and leave knowing a few things about music and the music scene that you never knew a few hours earlier.” 

Initial collaborations included parties held on a paddle steamer and nights held in the early days of SWG3. “We would generally collaborate on events that were pretty unique and unusual. That was where our collective minds aligned, whether it was the venue or the lineups we came up with.” 

With the Weekender, the same ethos is still at work, just on a magnified scale. Mackechnie mentions three important elements for the acts that play the no-holds-barred festival: “we want to showcase acts we love, put on acts that we respect creatively and ones that really bring the party.” Take one glance at the roster and you can see that in play. The lineup features ridiculously varied approaches to dance music, as it exists in all its jumbled genres in the 2020s – Hercules & Love Affair’s queer nu-disco, the bright house of Daphni, Mr Scruff’s electro swing, and even the worldwide debut of a collaboration between Norwegian space-disco titan Todd Terje and Running Back label-head Gerd Janson. 

In memory of McIvor, this year also sees the debut of the JD Twitch stage. Optimo being Optimo, their curation includes everything from the futuristic euphoria of HAAi, the thundering industrial-techno of Factory Floor, Edinburgh ‘post-gutter-skunk-funk’-ers Bikini Body, and renowned selector Ribeka (who, with fellow Glaswegian Sofay, runs one of NTS’ most distinct shows).

Mackechnie describes this curation, and the Weekender overall, as a reflection of “the creative vibe of the area,” i.e. Glasgow Southside. What exactly is that? “The Southside of Glasgow feels like where the West End was maybe 30 years ago,” he says. “There are so many groups, shops, venues all in a small area. So many different communities and cultures, activism, art – it’s all here and it feels very grassroots.”

Not quite Godshot and hour-long queues for brunch, then. As always with Melting Pot and Optimo, authenticity is at the fore – the sense of a good time, no bullshit. The affectation and pretension you can easily find in contemporary clubbing (Top 40 hits circa 2011 sped up to a chipmunk-high pitch, post-ironically; tracks clipped through with the pace of a TikTok doomscroll) isn’t what’s on offer here; it’s set to be a refreshing antidote, something earnest and done with love. 

“Melting Pot and Optimo have been very much about developing communities over the years,” Mackechnie emphasises – they run events for “people who trust us to stay true to what we’ve always been about.” At the heart of this approach was – and still is – Keith McIvor. If the Weekender is anything to go by, his anarchic, playful and forward-facing legacy for what dance music could be lives on. 

“He was a champion of new music,” Mackechnie surmises. “Someone whose music taste knew no boundaries, a humanitarian, a philanthropist, someone who was politically and culturally astute. His time on the Earth was short-lived, but he shone so brightly for every minute of it.”

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The Queen's Park Spring Weekender from Melting Pot and Optimo takes place at Glasgow Queen's Park Recreation Ground, Glasgow, 2 & 3 May
Follow Melting Pot and Optimo on IG @meltingpotglasgow and @optimoespacio