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Fresh from headlining City Sounds at the Glacis in Luxembourg City, Dimitri Vegas spoke to Today Radio's Tom Einarsson about how his sound has evolved and why today’s audiences are more open than ever to high-energy, genre-blending sets.
The Belgian DJ and producer performed to a packed crowd at one of the summer’s biggest free outdoor concerts. “This is what we do. Big crowds, big energy,” he said backstage. “And I always try to play something that speaks to everyone, whether they’re eight or eighty.”
The set he delivered in Luxembourg looked very different from what he was playing ten years ago. “The slowest track in my set right now is 145 BPM,” he explained. “That would have been unthinkable for me back then.”
He sees this shift as part of a wider return to the harder-edged sounds he grew up with. “There’s a new wave of hard techno that reminds me of the music I started out playing. I’ve just put my own spin on it and taken it a bit further.”
That adaptability is key to his approach. His summer residency at Ushuaïa in Ibiza gives him space for longer, more layered sets. “In Ibiza you take the crowd on a journey. At City Sounds it’s 60 to 75 minutes, so you go straight in. Full power.”
The days of everyone playing the same tracks on the main stage are long gone. Dimitri sees today’s festival lineups as more eclectic, and the crowds as more open. “At a festival now you might have us, Black Coffee, and Kölsch all on the same stage. That would never have happened in 2010.”
Touring may be relentless, but Dimitri clearly enjoys this moment in dance music. “Sometimes I’m on stage, playing hard music, and I see the baggy pants and think, we’re back in the nineties. But in a good way.”
For fans of electronic music, be sure to check out The Weekend Warmup and Beyond Music every weekend on Today Radio and catch our exlusive mixes on RTL Play.
