| Homelands | |
| Location: | Matterley Bowl, England Royal Highland Showground, Scotland New Cumnock, Scotland County Meath, Ireland |
| Founders: | Mean Fiddler |
| Dates: | 1999 – 2005 |
| Genre: | Electronic music, dance music |
| Capacity: | 50,000 |
Homelands was a music festival run by Mean Fiddler Music Group (now known as Festival Republic) which consisted mainly of dance music, both live acts and DJs. The festival was held in locations in England, Scotland and Ireland in the period 1999 to 2005. The organisers of Homelands were also behind the Home Nightclubs chain including Home nightclub in London and Sydney.
The English festivals were held at Cheesefoot Head near Winchester, Hampshire, and was one of the most popular British festivals of this genre.
The Scottish festivals were held in Royal Highland Showground near Edinburgh in 1999, and was held close to New Cumnock in the south of Scotland in 2000.
The Irish festivals were held at the Mosney Holiday Center in County Meath in both 1999 and 2000.
Homelands festival was on 29 and 30 May 1999. It took place in 'The Bowl', Matterley Estate near Winchester, Hampshire – the site of the 'Creamfields' festival the previous year.
There were nine themed arenas, as follows, with an amazing mix of performers. There are a few acts [Roni Size, Basement Jaxx, Jungle Brothers] that I cannot recall where they performed. (Edit to add Roni Size performed on The End 02, Basement Jaxx on Mixmag Arena and Jungle Brothers on Home Arena)
The Home Arena – had the first live Chemical Brothers plus Asian Dub Foundation, Monkey Mafia, Paul Oakenfold, Fatboy Slim, DJ Shadow and Paul Van Dyke.
The MixMag Arena – had a live set from Underworld, plus Faithless, Red Snapper, Dope Smugglaz, DJs Carl Cox, Deep Dish, Gilles Peterson and Darren Price.
The Essential Mix Arena – featuring Radio 1 DJs Pete Tong, plus Paul Oakenfold, Sasha & John Digweed. Radio 1 did a live broadcast from this tent featuring Judge Jules, Danny Rampling and a 4-hour Essential Mix.
The End – hosted by the London club – had two arenas.
The End 01 – a deep house tent, featuring Terry Francis and The End Sound System (Mr C, Layo and Mathew B) plus Darren Emerson, Dave Angel, Stacey Pullen, Laurent Garnier and Carl Cox.
The End 02 – a drum’n’bass arena with DJ Hype, Andy C, Krust, Bryan Gee, Fabio & Grooverider.
Slinky - Bournemouth's "superclub"
US house club Lyall - featuring New York DJ Danny Tenaglia playing a 10-hour set
There were also two arenas hosted by alcohol sponsors
The 2000 festival took place on a very wet Saturday 27 May 2000. The line included BT, Moby, Public Enemy and Leftfield.
Ian Brown
Moby
Meeker
Johnny Moy
Dan & Jon Kahuna
Jason Bye
Alfie Costa
Manchild
Parks & Wilson
Col Hamilton
Stewart Rowell
Alex Taylor
Hybrid feat. Chrissie Hynde
Luke Neville
Garry White
Tim Lyall
Gordon Kaye
Guy Ornadel
Layo & Bushwacka!
Jim Masters
Reprazent
Andy C.
Zinc
Pascall
Randall
MCs Fats, Dynamite, Moose & Rage
Ralph Lawson
Rebel Crew (Scott & Robbie Hardkiss)
Tayo
Jenga Heads
James Holroyd
Davie Reid
Lottie
Gareth Cooke
Yousef
Barry Ashworth
Groove Armada (DJ set)
L.E. Bass
Dave Mothersole
T Joy
J Jeff
DJ Vee
Bob Jones & Justin Robertson
Tim Carbutt (Utah Saints)
Jools Butterfield
J. Swinscoe & Tom Chant
Robin Lurie (percussion)
Ross Allen
Stuart Patterson
Officially called "We Love... Homelands" it took place on 28 May 2005 from 1pm to 5am, and had a capacity of 50,000. Headliners included The Streets, Beck, Roots Manuva, Mylo, The Bravery, Audio Bullys, Babyshambles, John Digweed and Dimitri from Paris. Medicine 8 performed in the festival's 'Strongbow Rooms'.[1] [2]