Few things beat a London rooftop in the middle of a heatwave. Cold beer, a Red Bull tequila cocktail in hand (what better occasion to be double parked?), the city skyline glittering beneath a cloudless sky and DJs providing the soundtrack to one of the year’s longest days. Red Bull Midsummer couldn’t have asked for a better setting as Wagtail played host to the London leg of its ambitious global celebration of electronic music.
Spanning seven cities across three continents over 28 hours, Red Bull Midsummer connected dancefloors in London, Mumbai, Tokyo, Berlin, Vienna, New York and Los Angeles in one continuous relay following the sun around the world. Giant screens dotted around the venue offered glimpses into the celebrations happening elsewhere, and as someone who grew up in Mumbai, there was something genuinely special about looking up between sets and catching the city’s event unfolding in real time.
The rooftop buzzed from the moment guests arrived. People drifted between bars, soaking up the sunshine with drinks in hand before the music gradually took centre stage. Lancey Foux delivered one of the standout performances of the day, bringing huge energy behind the decks, while Keyrah kept the momentum building with an effortlessly smooth set that perfectly matched the golden evening light. Then came Jyoty, whose extended sunset set felt like the moment everything clicked into place.
Speaking to Noctis shortly before taking to the stage, Jyoty reflected on the idea of dancefloors as communities, though she’s become wary of how casually the word is used.
Dancefloors were always the gathering of communities anyway. I try not to use the word ‘community’ too much anymore because what really is a community nowadays? There’s only a handful of people in London that really live up to that term.
For her, the perfect dancefloor is almost invisible. “My favourite parties are where it’s just pitch black, super dark, smoke everywhere. You can’t see the person next to you.” Rather than focusing on who’s around you, it’s about losing yourself in the music.
That openness is reflected in her sets too. Asked whether there’s a song she’d been obsessed with recently that might surprise fans, she laughs at the suggestion.
“I don’t think there’s anything I play that surprises people anymore,” she says. “You hear Slipknot in my sets, you hear Linkin Park, I play jazz, I play bossa nova.” Instead, what excites her most is digging out forgotten gems.
I love a good old forgotten B-side of an album.
With Wagtail’s rooftop bathed in sunshine, she already knew exactly what kind of mood she wanted to create.
“It’s rooftop, it’s a free party, it’s summertime, so I’m not going to go serious. I’m going to keep it light, I’m going to keep it cute, I’m going to keep it very flirty because it’s hot as fuck.”
Then, grinning, she delivers what is perhaps the quote of the day.
I want everyone to walk away feeling sexy, texting their exes. I texted mine literally a couple of hours ago. I’m not too good for it, neither are you.
Asked who she’d most love to play a back-to-back set with, her answer is immediate. “Prince,” she says. “I think he’d have some really sexy, smooth cuts. I feel like Prince would be in his electro bag.”
While London was preparing for Red Bull Midsummer, Jyoty had arrived fresh from Athens, where she’d played what she describes as one of the best crowds of her career. “It was supposed to just be a radio broadcast,” she recalls. “The whole park got shut down because there were so many people.”
Athens crowds, she explains, have a reputation for standing back and observing, but this one was different. “They were going feral. They were jumping. Even the people running the station were saying they’d never seen crowds like this in Athens.”
When asked to describe her music taste using food, her answer is as eclectic as her record collection: “A dosa, because it’s comfort food and you can mix it up however you like. Then an ice-cold popsicle on a hot summer’s day… and finally an ice-cold Guarana Zero.” She laughs. “That’s a meal deal.”
She also has one musical hill she’s prepared to die on.
“I don’t need every fucking track ID. Bring back the chase. If I hear a song and you’re the only person playing it, that gives me a reason to come back to your sets.”
Given the chance to jump through one of Red Bull Midsummer’s live portals after finishing in London, her destination is obvious.
“Mumbai,” she says without hesitation. “I love Bombay. I miss it so much. Then we can go and have lunch in Bandra.”
Later in the evening, Jarreau Vandal closed proceedings with a set full of warmth, groove and effortless genre-hopping, something that’s become a hallmark of his career.
Travel, he tells Noctis, has always been central to the way he understands music.
“My dad used to listen to a lot of Brazilian jazz, and that made me connect with Brazilian culture before I’d even been there,” he explains. “Then there are places like Morocco where I knew the music already, but it wasn’t until I visited that I really understood it. It inspired me so much that I started working with Moroccan genres.”
When preparing for festivals, though, he isn’t quite as spontaneous as audiences might imagine.
I love to freestyle, but I care too much about my set. Sometimes I prepare every transition, sometimes I prepare different blocks and blend them together. For big shows it’s important to customise the set to the crowd, the city and the country you’re in.
Although he’s travelled extensively, he doesn’t believe there’s one city that’s completely transformed his understanding of club culture.
“Every country is different,” he says. “I’m pretty spoiled because I come from Amsterdam and we have great clubs and a great scene. But travelling as a whole has shaped who I am.”
One of his biggest creative lessons came during a writing camp in Las Vegas, where he was unexpectedly asked to make country music.
“I thought, ‘Fuck… I don’t know,'” he laughs.
The session eventually blended country with club music and became one of his most valuable experiences. “It taught me not to jump straight into making music. First understand where people are mentally and what they actually want to create.”
His biggest challenge as an artist, however, has nothing to do with genre.
There’s this whole separation between being an actual human being and being an artist. Sometimes I’m Jarreau Vandal and sometimes I’m Elroy.
Balancing public perception, social media and an industry that’s constantly changing through algorithms and AI is something he admits can be exhausting. “It’s a challenge a lot of people deal with now.”
The best advice he’s ever received is refreshingly simple.
When you want to touch people’s hearts, don’t perfect it. Don’t leave a project unfinished for too long because you’ll overproduce it and take away the initial spark.
And if he had to DJ music from just one decade forever?
“The ’90s,” he says. “Electronic music had really developed by then, hip-hop was incredible, house was everywhere, Caribbean music was bubbling, even Moroccan cassette culture was doing amazing things with synthesisers. Maybe I’m biased because I was born then.”
As darkness settled over the city, Jarreau’s closing set felt like the perfect ending to a day built around musical discovery. Around the rooftop, strangers danced together with drinks in hand while screens continued to connect London with dancefloors thousands of miles away.
For all the impressive production behind Red Bull Midsummer, the most memorable moments were the simplest: watching the sunset over the London skyline, catching a glimpse of my hometown of Mumbai celebrating the very same event, and hearing artists like Jyoty and Jarreau Vandal remind everyone that great DJing isn’t about sticking to one sound, but rather about creating a feeling. Judging by the smiles on the rooftop long after the music stopped, Red Bull Midsummer managed exactly that.
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Words: Tara Choudhary
Imagery courtesy of Red Bull Music