Festival season is here again; longer evenings, skimpier fashions on the streets and wistful thoughts about tents, festivals and sound systems. However, it’s still muddy out in them there fields. Thankfully, in the NG, we get started early with a selection of kick-arse indoor fezzies - and in Notts, it's not officially summer until Detonate say so...

Detonate’s annual bass-fest on the bank holiday weekend is now fully established as one of the key events in the UK dance calendar, and one year we'll have to stop saying that this year's bash is bigger and better than ever - but that will only probably happen when every house in the city has its own DJ set.

All the Rock City venues clustered around Goldsmith Street represented again - the addition of EQ (the former and extremely unlamented Jumpin' Jaks) meant that ten hours of drum and bass, beats and breaks, dubstep, reggae, rap, electro and dance was spread out even further than before. All complete with proper toilets, running water and not a tent in sight.

This year's bash brought together eight different club nights working under the Detonate umbrella, each with a range of different genres to tickle your beat-related fancy. I kicked off the evening with a tasty and rather jazzy set from LTJ Bukem with MC Conrad in the massive Detonate-hosted main room. As you’d expect, it was chocker with appreciative folk, doing their best to stomp a hole in this particular part of the world and making folk from New Zealand bang broomsticks on the floor in despair.

Next up, a prompt scamper over to the Rescue Rooms, where Spectrum were holding court. The Scratch Perverts were in fine fettle on six decks on the main stage, blending signature tunes alongside classic crowd pleasers to a crowd who reacted like the floor was electrified. Great stuff.

The rest of the night - and morning - was spent ambling from room to room sampling the dizzying array of tunage on offer, including my first grounding in dubstep in the cavernous EQ. Despite dubstep's somewhat moody reputation, I was amazed how upbeat and friendly it was, largely due to jovial banter from MC Stamina who was doing the mic work for prominent dubstepper Skream.

Other highlights included Dollop’s lively electro-indie upstairs at Stealth, and the ever-outstanding Highness Soundsystem throwing in some tasty reggae at the steamy Red Room. And when I say steamy, I'm talking top floor tropical. One of the downsides of having a festival indoors is it gets pretty hot in the smaller venues when big names were playing, with all those smiley folk dancing like there was no tomorrow and all. The solution it seems is simple; skimpy clothing! Mmmmm.

The only disappointment on the night was the no-show of veteran Wu-Tang rapper Ghostface Killah! Many of the local hip-hop heads were looking forward to seeing the New-York lyricist in action, but unfortunately for reasons only he knows he just didn't turn up. Not even the promoters were informed about this having had conversations with his people just hours before the event started.

I found myself drawn back to the classic drum and bass on offer in the main room as the night drew on and rounded off the evening with some roof-raising belters from Ed Rush & Optical, followed by the first part of Andy C’s set. By then I’d been at it for over seven hours. Whoa there, Nelly. Time for shower and bed.

As always, Detonate delivered a proper night's entertainment. All the boxes were ticked: amiable and friendly crowd, good atmosphere, a wide range of music and definitely no mud. With this and Dot To Dot coming up, Nottingham has to be the indoor festival capital of the UK. Roll on next year.

Detonate Indoor Festival took place on Sunday 3 May 2009.

All photos by Dom Henry (c)

Detonate website