Set in Crans Montana, atop the Swiss Alps, I challenge you to find a better location for a festival. Caprices festival was other-worldly and this time last week we were returning from one of the most unbelievable parties we’ve been to. We arrived in Crans Montana a few days early to whet the appetite with some skiing on their lush spring snow. With a fresh dump a few days prior, it made the resorts 140km of pistes perfect for skiing. Not the ideal prep for your legs prior to a weekend of dancing, but so be it. It had to be done. And trust me, better to get the skiing out of the way before the festival kicks off. Caprices opened on Thursday evening and proceedings kicked off in their new Satellite stage. A welcomed addition for 2019, the Satellite played host to x on Thursday evening. When we walked in shortly after opening, we arrived to the tune of Steve Bug’s Chordwalk Empire being played by Madnax. This banger was closely followed by a friend of WWD, Mark Alow’s ‘Trip to the lonely Planet’.
These lovely numbers set the tone for the weekend to follow. What was to follow was a selection of carefully curated DJs/Acts who carefully selected their tunes to push the limits of the party.
With a big weekend ahead of us, and a morning’s skiing still to get out of the way, we left as the opening party was really kicking in to gear. Acid Pauli and Nico Stojan were still to take to the helm and be all accounts, had the Satellite stage swinging.
Heading up in the gondola on Friday, the excitement was palpable. Lots of people were only arriving and experiencing their first taste of Caprices. To be fair, it’s pretty cool, travelling up a gondola for 15 minutes to get to the stage. Not least when you know Ricardo Villalobos is waiting at the top! From talk of previous years, Villalobos’ set was one not to be missed. Ricardo is Ricardo after all, and you never know what you’re going to get. That is exciting. We arrived to the sound of Ricardo banging out Floorplan ‘Never Grow Old’ (Re – Plant). A rather unexpected number.
The unpredictability continued as Ricardo churned out a quality 3hr set at the top of the mountain. While at times it may not have flowed as smoothly as others, it was regarded as one of the better regarded sets we’ve heard and set the tone nicely for Margaret Dygas to follow We made our way back down the mountain to catch the one and only, Peggy Gou. We’ve been meaning to catch her for a while now so there was no better reason to go down and check out the opening night of the Moon stage. MDRNTY resident Giorgio Maulini set the stage for Peggy and she started as she meant to go on. In the opening couple of tunes Peggy dropped the recent Skream & Melody’s Enemy banger ‘This Is It’ and the very appropriate, ‘Full Moon’ by Gehringer. The dark mood was set and the tone for the evening recognised. With Seth Troxler, Black Coffee and Jamie Jones all to follow, you knew you’d come to the right festival.
Saturday arrived with much anticipation from the WWD team. When we saw the lineup, Saturday was always the one for us – Audiofly, Bedouin and Behrouz atop of the MDRNTY stage? Doesn’t get much better! Or does it? Pan-Pot, DVS1, Marcel Dettmann, Len Faki – yes please! You’ll know we are long time supporters of that deep, tribal house sound. But we love some dark techno. Boy did that day tick all the boxes. Caprices really does have that much to offer.
Bedouin absolutely smashed it out the park and then Behrouz took over for a special birthday set. To let you know how good it was, we went down the mountain in a Gondola with someone professing their love for Bedouin… However, the night was for us. One after the other, the lads smashed it. From DVS1, Dettmann entertained the crowd for the last 30 mins of his set with what was seemingly the same bassline, then Len Faki followed suit. Never before have I heard such a loud sound system. Hats off to the MDRNTY crew and their team. So enjoyable. Often is the case a good line up is ruined by poor sound. Not at Caprices.
To top it all off, we got to go up the mountain once more to dust off the cobwebs and see Sven in all his glory to close it all out. We had vinyls, we had sit downs, we had fun. Sven knew how to play the crowd. Peak of it all for us was a heavy Dub edit of Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’. If you were following our Instagram story, you know. We questioned the logistics of it all beforehand. But having seen it all unfold in the days prior and throughout, not to mention we felt so much love that weekend, we’ll be back.
Photo credit: David Holderbach @davidholderbach
Website: http://www.caprices.ch/