Whether as a DJ, programmer, promoter, or raver, there are few dancefloors that Dave Harvey hasn’t graced.
Since cutting his teeth DJing in the 90s, Dave has built an inimitable sound that traverses house, techno, breaks and electro, EBM, wonky chuggers and disco infused oddities – often all in the same set.
His prolific enthusiasm for electronic music drew him out from behind the decks – in the daytime at least – and following a move to Bristol in the early 2000s, he co-founded the legendary Team Love collective and set about curating some of the scene’s most loved festivals and events.
From the artist-acclaimed Love International, where he still sits at the heart of programming, to Love Saves the Day, Forwards, Waterworks, and the prodigious Silver Hayes area at Glastonbury, Dave has earned a reputation as a transformative figure for UK dance music.
Between the era-defining festivals and celebrated sets at Houghton, Block 9’s Meat Rack and fabric, Dave is hard to pin down to any one thing and that probably explains how he can sit as comfortably in a back to back with Ivan Smagghe, Midland, or Palms Trax as he has done in this season’s 2025 run, as holding it down on his own. Instead, he is probably best summed up in his own words: “first and foremost, just a lifelong music enthusiast”.
Ahead of his show at Waterworks in September, Dave Harvey joins us on the FMB mixtape series with a recording of his sunrise set at this years’ Love International Festival in Croatia.
It has been a pretty lively summer so far! Notable action and gigs at Love International, Dekmantel, Peep and Houghton plus plenty of running around in between including warming up for the legend that is DJ Milo in St Pauls. We’ve also opened a bowls club and I have become somewhat addicted to the beautiful game.
So this mix is actually a ‘rework’ of my recent Barbarella’s closing set this year at Love International in Tisno. It was an emotionally charged edition this year and I closed out the Friday in my favourite club in the world, after close fam Dresden and Ellie Stokes who both smashed it. I was extremely enthusiastic and as I got increasingly more so, so did my sound levels so unfortunately the second half of the recording has verged into unlistenable – so when the opportunity to have it shared on the illustrious FMB came up, I thought I better sort it out – so long story short this is a much more sober, less redlining madness mix (including the same tunes in the same order but missing the last bit as it was getting late when I was doing the recording), from my new shed at home in Bristol.
We have Forwards festival this week in Bristol but after that I will be getting some practise in for my b2b with Ellie as part of the Love International takeover at Waterworks at the Cause on Sept 12th. We are playing as part of a super heavy line up in our room: Craig Richards b2b Christian AB, Dresden, Erol Alkan b2b Bradley Zero, DJ Subaru and Free Zing. The rest of the 36hr bill is also rather ridiculous so I’m really looking forward to it. After that I’ll be having a lie down.