An Edinburgh events organiser is celebrating ten years of club nights hosted in the city alongside that a music festival that he argues is possibly the most scenic location for a festival.
Tom Ketley is celebrating a decade of club nights by hosting ten parties which will be held at home, in Edinburgh and away in some of Europe’s most well-established cities for dance music.
The 33-year-old, originally from the Bridge of Weir, moved to Edinburgh to study business at the University of Edinburgh and was soon on the scene of organising nights out for students and young people.
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Tom started by running his own club nights all over the city in many different venues some of which failed.
Mr Ketley has lived in Edinburgh since 2009 and in his fourth and final year of university, he launched the Fly club night in none other than Fly’s ancestral home, Cabaret Voltaire on Blair Street.
The club night started in 2013 and is now celebrating a decade and started by showcasing local, home grown talent who have gone onto be some of the most prevalent DJs in the world such as Jasper James and Denis Sulta.
The club night was a roaring success and soon became the festival, which is called, Fly Open Air.
The festival is now being annually, held twice a year, which thousands of people attend at the Ross Band Stand in Princes Street and at Hopetoun House just off of South Queensferry.
Tom chatted to Edinburgh Live at the he offices of Fly which is situated at the Watchtower at the west end of Princes Street Gardens.
Tom said: “We are honoured that we are able to do events in such amazing locations.”
“To be able to throw a dance music event under the castle, on our own territories site, especially considering our office is a stone throw from where that is, is something that is really special.”
"I have spring in my step as I walk past the bandstand to come into work. Recently we worked with the council to plant 50 new trees in the gardens as upholding its beauty is of the utmost importance to us.''
“I would argue that it’s maybe one of the best dance music festival locations in the world.”
Tom also describes Fly festivals other venue, Hopetoun House, the 17th century stately home that looks onto the bridges on the firth of forth as an “amazing spot.”
He says the use of those venues for the music festival has played into events success and allowed Fly to run for so long as being a music promoter usually is a short-lived career due to the risks being involved.
The club night at Cabaret Voltaire on a Friday night alongside the two festivals has become a movement that begun in Edinburgh, which has now spread all over Scotland for young people.
Tom went onto say: "However our flagship shows have became our two FLY Open Air Festivals which take place in May at Hopetoun House and in September at The Ross Bandstand, Princes Street Gardens."
"For me it's been really special to have been pushing dance music in the city for over a decade. This was never something I thought I would have been able to do for so long. We've been lucky to have had so many amazing DJs come through at the club and to now see Edinburgh punch above its weight for dance music as a city is great.''
Tom claims that since the start of the festival in Edinburgh this has led to other music events popping up in the city leading to a rich culture of music culture for young people to enjoy in Scotland’s capital city.
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He went onto say: “I think, Fly in Edinburgh gives young people that lives here an access to youth music culture, not just in nightclubs which sometimes people don’t want to go to.” “There was a lot of illustrious festival brands in Scotland that were stopping so there was a bit of a void were people were thinking, where are all these young people going to go?”
“It’s almost like a rite of passage going to a music festival when you leave school, so I think it gives young people something exciting to put on their calendar to go to that’s fun, outdoors, in a bountiful location, good music with friends.”
Going into the future, Tom has some very ambitious plans with stages at some of Europe’s biggest festivals, alongside launching Other Lands, last year which is located just outside of Perth at Scone Palace.
Fly Open Air will soon host their latest addition at Hopetoun House in May with Denis Sulta, the resident who was there from the very beginning make a return to DJ the very special stage, Boiler Room.
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