Managing Editor
This weekend technic-coloured party starters elrow will descend on London for the second edition of their flagship Elrow Town festival. Taking over London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, elrow will be bringing thousands of inflatables, characters and costumes along with a heavyweight lineup of dance music's best DJs. After Saturday's festivities, we're keeping the party going with the official after party at Ministry of Sound. We've lined up Richy Ahmed, wAFF, Toni Varga and Waze & Odyssey plus a whole heap of elrow madness.
In honour of elrow's debut at Ministry of Sound we caught up with Victora De La Serna, elrow's booking director to learn about how a small Spanish party became the biggest event in the world.
Hey Victor! Let's go from the beginning - how did elrow start? I've heard it's a family business?
Victor: Yes, it’s a family run business, it’s six generations. It’s six generations. It all started in a little village in the North East of Spain called Fragga. They started with a small bar then moved into a dancehall, then an old cinema, and finally into a bigger club. That club, to this day, is the longest running techno club in Europe. It’s called Florida 135. From there the family put on their first festival, which was known as The Monegros Party. Then the family moved to Barcelona they started a club in that city called Row, that ran for about seven years on Rosellón Street, before they found a venue outside the city, near the airport and turned it into Row14. The opening party had Laurent Garnier on the decks. The 'elrow' party moved around a little, Friday, Saturday nights, before settling on Sunday, which is what it is today. So the party in its current form has been running for about eight and a half years.
What was the inspiration behind elrow?
The club wasn’t really working, so we thought ‘why don’t we play with the customers?’ We started playing games with them, giving them water guns and inflatables and things like that. It started to click with the people. From there it became better, bigger and more professional until it became what it is now.
There was nothing really like it back then - or even now - how did people first react to it?
I think people just want to have fun, you know. It's just toys for adults I guess. People liked it, it was something different and was a change from just looking at the DJ booth and watching the DJ.
What was the music policy in the early days?
In the beginning, it was a bit all over the place. It started in a techno club so we would book anyone from Vitalic to Crookers to Laurent Garnier. Marcel Dettmann has even played there before. We were just trying to find its place really. About four years ago we decided to focus on mainly house. We have a bit of techno, but it's mainly house and tech house. At the end of the day, the music policy is just fun music. It needs to be uplifting and entertaining because elrow is a fun party. We don't want moody, dark music because it wouldn't work with all the colour at the party.
You tend to work with a lot of the same DJs these days.
Yes, we work with Eats Everything, wAFF, Richy Ahmed, Illario Alicante and Joris Voorn. They are DJs that are very close to us, both on and off the decks. Their music works for elrow and we have a really great friendship, so we keep working with them. They love coming to play elrow, they understand the party and the concept. We want to surround ourselves with people like that.
Elrow Town debuted last year, was that the biggest party you've done?
Yeah. The biggest to date. We did the street party in Zurich, which had 1.1 million people in the street, but not all of them were just coming to see elrow. This is the biggest show we've done. it's our take on festivals. It's a bigger elrow with two stages and lots of hidden stages and surprises. We like to create our own town full of fun and confetti.
How many characters do you line up for something as big as Elrow Town?
Oh, that would be way over 100. At Amnesia we have 100 people working and that's just a club show. We'll have a lot more than that at Elrow Town. We've also got thousands of inflatables and performers.
Something I've always wondered - where do you keep all these props and costumes?
We have a couple of warehouses in Barcelona and another one in Ibiza. All year round there are people there working to create new costumes and fixing the old ones and coming up with new themes. Everything is handmade in Barcelona, so it's all year long people working on elrow. Then for something like Elrow Town everything gets shipped over from Barcelona. It's a pretty big operation to get over here, it takes everything about a week.
Can you talk me through a few of the areas in Elrow Town?
We have the main stage which is the psychedelic stage. It's a brand new stage which we premiered in Belgium and it's going to be amazing. It's a hippy, LSD kind of vibe. It's very fun and one of our most famous themes. The second stage is the town square. Then we have another one called The Cave, which is brand new and I haven't even seen it myself, so I can't tell you much about it. It's going to be very immersive, that's all I know. Then we'll have the Pink Cathedral which will be a stage in collaboration with Absolute. If you went last year you will see a big change in the festival. This year it's a lot more immersive and a much more 'festival' experience.
Something I've always wondered - where do you keep all these props and costumes?
We have a couple of warehouses in Barcelona and another one in Ibiza. All year round there are people there working to create new costumes and fixing the old ones and coming up with new themes. Everything is handmade in Barcelona, so it's all year long people working on elrow. Then for something like Elrow Town everything gets shipped over from Barcelona. It's a pretty big operation to get over here, it takes everything about a week.
You'll be carrying on the party at Ministry of Sound, what do you have in store?
We'll be doing the official after party at Ministry. We've got Richy Ahmed, wAFF, Waze & Odyssey and our residents playing. Ministry is a great club and I think it's going to be a great party.
What's been the elrow event that you're most proud of?
I think it has to be Carnaby Street. It was a huge honour. Carnaby Street is not like a club night, it's a much bigger, broader event. Usually, they have pop stars or something to turn on the lights. When they asked me, they called me up and I thought I was being punk'd. I said "yeah, whatever" and hung up. They called me back and said, "no we actually want you to do it." Of course, we couldn't announce anything until the day of it, but when we did it was completely road blocked. Turning on the Christmas lights is so important to London and to recognised and invited to do it, for me it was one of our greatest achievements.
What do you have planned for the rest of 2018?
We've still got Ibiza, every Saturday night at Amnesia until October 6th. The on October 6th we have probably our most important show of the year because we go to Vegas for the first time. The whole team is working really hard on that one!
The Elrow Town After Party is on Sat 18th August, get tickets & more info here.
In Pictures: Elrow Town
Inflatables, chickens and confetti galore.
Elrow Is Coming To Ministry of Sound!
The biggest party on the planet is coming to SE1.
Elrow Is Building A Whole Town In london
Elrow are the Spanish party starters who burn through tonnes of confetti and inflatables.