'We're meant to dance': Radio 1's Big Weekend has one focus on its first day

"Music is 1 of the champion ways to bring everyone together," says BBC Radio 1's Charlie Hedges.

The Dance Anthems DJ "cannot wait" to execute connected the main signifier during the dance-focused archetypal time of the station's Big Weekend successful Sunderland, she tells BBC Newsbeat.

"I deliberation that's what we request close now, right? Good music, bully times."

Tens of thousands of fans are expected to be this year's three-day event, with popular stars Zara Larsson and Olivia Dean headlining connected Saturday and Sunday.

But Friday volition beryllium the archetypal clip the festival volition beryllium utilizing each of its stages to big a "huge creation party" crossed the opening day, Radio 1 says.

It volition spot seasoned DJ Fatboy Slim, Australian producers Fisher and Sonny Fodera, Birmingham-born vocalist Clementine Douglas and American DJ MK connected the decks astatine Herrington Country Park.

Dance euphony has a affluent past successful the UK, with disco, acerb location and techno among the genres which drew crowds to dancefloors successful the 1970s and 1980s.

Things ramped up further successful the 1990s, with jungle, store and drum & bass fuelling underground raves and clubs.

The 21st Century saw creation euphony splinter into adjacent much sub-genres, providing thing for everyone to determination to.

But successful caller years determination appears to person been a renaissance of physics creation euphony (EDM), with the likes of Fred Again and Sammy Virji headlining UK festivals.

And artists including Charli XCX, SOPHIE and PinkPantheress person helped to revitalise hyperpop.

Big Weekend's dance-focused Friday is acceptable to bespeak the diverseness of the genre - spanning styles and generations, with bassline DJ Notion, trance-focused Marlon Hoffstadt and German hardcore DJ HorsegiirL each connected the measure arsenic well.

Clementine Douglas, who volition beryllium performing connected the main signifier with a unrecorded band, tells Newsbeat she has seen creation euphony look "out of the underground and spell much mainstream".

"You person a batch of pop-dance crossover acts present that are truly smashing it," she says.

While it has remained fashionable implicit the years, Spotify says depletion of creation euphony for under-25s has grown 73% crossed the satellite since 2020.

Whether it's hyping yourself up astatine home, connected a dancefloor oregon successful a field, creation euphony has often been seen arsenic a mode for radical to flight momentarily from what is going connected successful their lives.

Douglas says determination is thing astir the "repetitive beat" and everyone "gathering to merchandise immoderate pent-up energy" which feels similar a mode to link to our ancestral roots.

Radio 1 DJ Hedges agrees that it doesn't substance if you're with a large radical oregon connected your own, determination is thing peculiar astir "being contiguous and experiencing thing together".

"I don't deliberation there's thing other successful the satellite that gives that to you," she says.

And it's a akin feeling for her erstwhile she is DJing.

"When I'm lasting connected that signifier and playing to thousands and thousands of people, the magnitude of times I get [emotional]... due to the fact that it's conscionable incredible," Hedges says.

British DJ Cassö was among those to adhd to creation music's surge erstwhile his breakout deed Prada, which turned Raye and D-Block Europe's Ferrari Horses into a creation banger, soared to fig 2 successful the UK singles illustration successful 2023.

He tells Newsbeat helium finds creating and attending creation events "just changes thing successful your encephalon due to the fact that you're conscionable determination grooving non-stop".

"It conscionable feels truly good, to enactment it plainly.

"You tin determination around, you tin shingle your body. What much bash you want? We're meant to dance," helium says.

And technological studies suggest dancing tin amended your intelligence wellness and memory, arsenic good arsenic helping with symptom owed to the endorphins it releases.

The 23-year-old euphony shaper created his way Prada astatine location and released it connected Soundcloud earlier it went connected to unafraid much than a cardinal streams.

There has been large maturation successful physics euphony contented connected societal apps similar TikTok, according to the platform, which saw a 50% summation successful videos utilizing the hashtag #ElectronicMusic successful 2024.

Cassö says being capable to present make and merchandise your ain creation euphony from your chamber has been the "best thing" for the genre arsenic helium feels antecedently grounds labels "would beryllium a small spot much cliquey".

"Now, if you're talented, you person a overmuch higher accidental of shining through."

Listen to Newsbeat live astatine 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - oregon perceive backmost here.