Music preview: '˜We Love Jungle' awards at The Mint Warehouse, Leeds

Artists from across the globe will descend on The Mint Warehouse In Leeds on Saturday February 4 to create an 11-hour indoor jungle festival of a scale that has never been seen before.

Appearing at the event will be General Levy, DJ Hype, Top Cat, DJ Brockie, Benny Page, Ray Keith, The Ragga Twins, Kenny Ken, Bryan Gee, Aries, Potential Bad Boy, Demolition Man, Navigator, Cheshire Cat, Storm, Bladerunner, Serum, Remarc, Marvellous Cain, DJ Stretch, Fearless, Jumping Jack Frost, Uncle Dugs and many more with a 50-plus strong line-up of jungle veterans and newcomers. Limited tickets are still available from £25 including booking fee.

The performers, nominees and industry guests will be joined by over a 1,000 dedicated jungle supporters to create a truly unique event. Spread across three rooms, the event will also include stage dancers, roaming performers and mouth-watering Caribbean street food.

This is not a conventional ‘sit-down’ style awards event. Presentations will be made throughout the night, interspersed with DJ and MC sets from the scene’s top artists.

‘We Love Jungle’ is much more than an annual awards event. Through the website and social media platforms, WLJ is a permanent celebration of jungle music, curating and creating exclusive content for an ever-growing online community.

Whilst the passion for jungle music has never diminished in many pockets, the last few years have seen a massive resurgence with a new generation discovering and reinterpreting the sound of the 90s. A global music scene now sees 20+ year old tracks rubbing shoulders with contemporary productions and new artists joining the ‘old guard’ of DJs and producers.

Proof of this shift come in the form of comments made by top Drum and Bass artist Andy C who announced a return to the underground at his new XOYO residency and British institutions such Goldie, Grooverider and Shy FX all playing exclusive jungle sets at events around the world.

The renewed interest and enthusiasm for jungle music mirrors the new interest in UK garage and the grime revival that has propelled artists like Big Narstie, Skepta and Wiley into the charts.

With the success of Leeds very own ‘Jungle Jam’ flying the flag loud and proud, Jungle Jam in conjunction with We Love Jungle have also been asked to positively represent the scene with Stage takeovers at large scale events such as Hospitality In the Dock (London), Hospitality Bristol, Outlook Festival (Croatia) among many others.

Aman Nagra, co-founder of We Love Jungle describes the awards and the We Love Jungle Project: “We’re amazed by the reception for our second awards event. The international jungle music community is absolutely buzzing and we can’t wait to deliver an event that will celebrate a hugely important part of the UK’s vast musical output. There’s a huge amount of momentum in the scene right now, our awards party will also help behind the scenes, strengthening bonds and building bridges.

“We started We Love Jungle as a response to the fans who were desperate for a place to connect with each other and share their passion for jungle music.”

The awards are exclusively voted for by the public, voting is now in the final stage with a shortlist of 10 nominees in each category. Voting can be done via the website, www.welovejungle.com

Full line-up

General Levy / Top Cat ft Don Ceaser / Brockie and MC Det / Benny Page / Ray Keith / Ragga Twins / Deekline / Serial Killaz / Kenny Ken / Storm / Bryan Gee / Jumping Jack Frost / Potential Bad Boy / Serum / Bladerunner / Aries b2b Kelvin b2b Gold Dubs ft. Gardna / Remarc / Uncle Dugs / T>I / Hybrid / Marvellous Cain / Stretch / MissRepresent / Dazee b2b K-Jah b2b Jinx / Kid Lib / Junglist Alliance / Jamie G b2b Merrix / Luke EP / Shock / David Boomah / Demolition Man / Navigator / Fearless / Bassman / Moose / Cheshire Cat / Bellyman / Deanie Rankin / Virgo Don / Junior Dangerous / Cowboy Ras Ranger / Double Gee / Rude Boy Keith

Location: The Mint Warehouse, Leeds

Date: Saturday February 4

Time: 7pm–6am

Tickets: From £25