Ewan McVicar says bringing a music festival to Ayr is the proudest moment of his career

Ewan McVicar has revealed that bringing a dance music festival to Ayr is the ‘proudest moment’ of his career.

The globetrotting star has played in the US, all over Europe and is just back from a stint in Asia. But he admits he's counting down the days to this weekend when he can return to the stage on the Low Green as Pavilion Festival returns to his home town.

The renowned DJ is gearing up for the second coming of the two-day beach party, which he says will be bigger and better. Last year Ewan headlined to a crowd of 7,500 fans, with 5,000 more festival goers flocking for STREETrave’s first shows at the site of the Ayr Pavilion in decades.

Ayrshire Live sat down with Ewan and STREETrave boss Ricky Magowan ahead of their return on May Day Bank Holiday, with the new rebranded Pavilion Festival, raring to go again.

Reflecting on last year, Ewan said: “That was a 10 year dream for me. There was no one I wanted to do it with other than Ricky after everything he’s done in the town.

“My muse was StreetRave, they’ve been around since 1989 and still going strong and to bring STREETrave back home for me was just as important as me doing my own dream festival on the Low Green.

“I play all over the world now, I play in America, Asia and Europe and still the thing I’m most proud of in my career is what we’ve done in Pavilion.

“It’s for my people, it’s for our people and that’s pretty much where our tag line came from, ‘for the people, for the music’.

“When you look at the line-up, it’s household names that would never come to Ayr. But we’ve managed to get them here, it’s just pure happiness for us. Ayr’s a 50,000 population town. We had more than 10 per cent of the population there last year. I just feel so proud and happy with what we’ve achieved so far and there’s much more to come.”

For Ricky last year’s festival was a return to the spiritual grounds of STREETrave with the Ayr Pavilion, where it all started. STREETrave will also celebrate 35 years with the ultimate throwback line-up on the Sunday including David Morales, 808 State and Heather Small (The Voice of M People).

Ricky said: “We always imagined for the Saturday to be the 18-30 year olds and then the mum and dads on the Sunday. We wanted to give everybody in Ayrshire something to go to and pulled it off and credit to the council for letting us to do it. There’s not very many people in the industry still doing it 35 years on and still doing it to the success we do.

“It is great we’re celebrating it where it all began. Jim McKay one of our original promoters is from Ayr. We’re taking everyone back to their youth to a time when they were just happy and care free, that’s what its all about.”

Along with more household names pitching up in Ayr, Scotland’s most iconic dance venue, Sub Club has also got fans buzzing. The Glasgow nightclub will have its own stage on the Saturday which Ewan hopes will inspire the younger generation

Ricky said: “Sub Club was like a marriage made in heaven, Ewan loves playing there, STREETrave has got a night there. They were really happy to support Ewan and the festival. To bring the Sub Club down to Ayr is unheard of.”

Ewan added: “We can’t say much about the stage the Sub Club acts are going to be on, it’s going to be next level and a totally new structure. Sub Club has given us a chance to inspire a younger generation. I’m wanting to give them the sort of experiences I’ve had throughout my whole life that made me do what I do.

“It’s household names that they might not know, but they’ll get their mind blown by them, that’s what we’re all about.”

Ricky says the festival has received positive feedback from the community and is delighted with the ‘happy vibes’ that are being brought back to the town. And he’s praised the behaviour of revellers last year as he hopes the good spirits can continue.

He added: “We’ve been speaking to local people, make sure they were happy with what we’ve done and to be fair everybody was really happy with that last year. Everyone behaved themselves and we want the same again.

“After the festival on the Sunday the traffic management firm we used told us that not one cone had been kicked over, they said that’s never happened at any event they’ve been part of. It just shows that people respected Ayr. We can’t rest on our laurels, we have to make sure this year is just as good to make sure we don’t have any issues for Year three.”

Ewan added: “I don’t want to appear arrogant or cocky, I’m not like that. I just feel like what we do at Pavilion is streets ahead of what everyone else is doing. We’re different in the right ways, we’re not trying to be anything, we’re trying to fit in anything, we’re trying to do what we love. We hope that transcends onto everyone.

“Everyone was there for the love of the music and a good time. That’s all we want every year we want folk to enjoy themselves. It’s escapism, it’s escaping this life because obviously the world is not a nice place now and hasn’t been for a while. If we can give folk two days of euphoria and having a blast in Ayr again, then we’ve achieved what we set out to do.”

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