DJ Hannah Laing announces Dundee Doof dance festival

DJ Hannah Laing, wearing sunglasses and smiling as she performs at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in Luton in 2024
Hannah Laing has performed to huge crowds at festivals across the world [BBC]

Dundee DJ Hannah Laing is to hold a one-day dance music festival in her home city next year.

Doof in the Park will take place at Camperdown Park on 5 July, with three stages and around 25 acts performing.

Hannah told BBC Scotland News that it would be "really special" to headline a show of that size in Dundee, which she feels is often eclipsed by Glasgow and Edinburgh for music shows.

The 29-year-old started her career by DJing at friends parties and in bars across the city, before finding fame when her track Good Love cracked the top 10 in the charts last year.

Hannah Laing holds her arms out to the crowd at Radio 1's Big Weekend in 2024 in Luton
Hannah said she would be happy with a crowd of about 10,000 next year [BBC]

Hannah said her initial hope was for the festival to attract a crowd of about 10,000 people, but that around 20,000 applications of interest had already been registered online, before any other acts have been announced.

She said: "I wanted to do something bigger in Dundee, because I did two shows at the Caird Hall this year and sold them both out. Unfortunately there isn’t really any bigger venues in Dundee [than the Caird Hall].

"There’s always stuff going on in Glasgow or Edinburgh but we don’t have that range here, so to be able to bring something like this to Dundee is really special.

"I’ve still got loads of support here because I used to DJ here for years and years. It’s going to be an emotional day for sure. I feel like I’ve climbed up the ladder to get to this point. It’s crazy."

The bash is named after her own record label, called Doof - the term Hannah uses to describe her sound, which mixes techno, trance and hard house and often has a doof doof beat to it.

Hannah Djing at the decks
Hannah juggles her DJ role with her job as a dental nurse [BBC]

Hannah added that she hoped to announce more details about other performers soon, and that she intended "to work with local artists and local bars" to ensure the one-day event retained a flavour of the city.

It will mark a return to Camperdown Park, which she performed at during Radio 1's Big Weekend in 2023.

"That was just when things were starting to blow up for me," she said.

"I was on the middle-sized stage and the amount of people that came to see me, that really opened my eyes up to how big things were getting at that time.

"To go back and play there again with my own event is just insane."

In recent years Hannah - who previously juggled her music with a job as a dental nurse - has been able to DJ full-time, travelling the world and performing in Ibiza, as well as at Scotland's TRNSMT music festival.

Earlier this year, a BBC documentary filmed her preparing for her Caird Hall shows, which were the biggest of her career to that date.