Love to be...: Behind the historic house music brand that started in Leeds and Yorkshire and has become a worldwide force
The founders of a house music brand that has gone global after starting in Leeds an Yorkshire have spoken ahead of a landmark festival.
Love to be... Festival on Saturday, September 6, is set to be bigger and better after being held at The Stray in Harrogate for the first time last year to mark the company’s 30th anniversary.
The attendance will be larger, the names will be bigger and the beats will go harder as the event comes back to God’s Own County, where Love to be... first made waves.
Love to be... was founded by Marc Dennis and Tony Walker and after establishing itself as a go-to night in Yorkshire during the 1990s and 2000s - with nights held at Mint Warehouse and Space in Leeds - it is now a renowned dance music name worldwide.
The company dates back to 1994, when Tony was running the ‘Happy Tuesday’ night in Leeds, which saw DJs from all round the world playing “happy and uplifting music”.
Tony said: “We’d come out of the rave scene by then and it was all about playing more cultured house music.
“That did really well. We’d get around 1,300 people in every Tuesday and off the back of that night in Leeds we got offered the Saturday night slot at The Music Factory in Sheffield when it was taken over.”
Within two years ‘Love to be...’ was voted Club Of The Year in MixMag, a electronic music magazine, and was “flying”, with big name DJs from around the world including Frankie Knuckles and Roger Sanchez performing.
After three years Tony took ‘Love to be...’ on the airwaves, hosting a show on Kiss FM in Leeds for a few years. The ‘Love to be...’ brand changed hands over the years but Tony and Marc reclaimed it in the early 2000s and continued holding landmark nights across Yorkshire.
Marc said: “We had a Friday residency at Mint Club in Leeds which is when I came onboard. We had a multi-residency at Space for a few years to the back-end of the noughties and we’ve always done one-offs and pop-ups in Leeds, where the brand’s always had a really strong following.”
Tony added: “I’ve got a strong base in Leeds. We used to ship some of them down to Sheffield in the early days so it was good when we came back in the later years because they’d all come to Mint and Space.
“This is why we’ve targeted Harrogate, because we knew that we’ve got a strong fanbase from back in the day and in the years leading up to it.”
After the success of the original festival last year, Love to be... is increasing its capacity at this year’s event from 4,000 to 6,000 and is hoping to sell out for a second year running.
The set up will see a mainstage dedicated to new music, which will be headlined by Armand van Helden, as well as the Music Factory Classics Big Top, which pays homage to the company’s South Yorkshire roots.
Marc said: “The setting’s a lovely place to go and the long term plan is to keep growing it.
“It’s our flagship event now and we can grow it up to 10,000 as and when we need to. We started sensibly to test the waters.”
In recent years, during the Covid pandemic the Love to be... brand has expanded further by launching a record label and radio show, the latter of which is broadcast to as many as seven million people worldwide. It’s why they are now holding nights around the world, including the USA, Australia and East Asia.
Marc said: “We really repositioned what we were doing as a brand to be for people who were really searching out good house music.
“The plan is to keep building that international part of the brand and gaining a new audience, but also keeping a nod to our history and heritage and the audience that were there from the start.
“It’s a really nice mix and we’ve got big plans for the brand in the coming years.”
Asked what it is about ‘Love to be...’ that has made it so popular over the years, Tony said: “I think it’s always been about the music. Myself and Marc are both DJs and back in the day we were working in record shops and heavily invested in that side of things.
“That really came through in the events because what we were doing was pretty cutting edge. We were bringing DJs over from America for the first time and we’ve done that ever since. Even now it’s not just about big names it’s about breaking through new talent locally and internationally.
“That’s what drives people to the events. People know that the music is going to be consistently really good, energetic and uplifting. It’s all about making people want to dance and come back to the next event. And I think we’ve always done that really well.”
Marc added: “One of the most consistent things people comment on is the atmosphere at Love to be... events. Everyone’s got a smile on their face and more so in the recent years it’s been about getting younger people so we’ve got crowds of all ages.
“The younger generation are coming and discovering Love to be... as this new brand like their parents did, not something that’s been around for 30 years. And the older crowd are still enjoying because they were educated on new music back in the day and they’re still getting that.”
The duo said they also intend to hold more events in Leeds in the coming months. For more information and for tickets to upcoming events, including the festival, visit the Love to be... website or their Instagram page.