Including this years pending festival, (and presented here without editorial comment!) here’s a list of performers who (will) have played DEMF more than three times, in descending order based on number of appearances.
10 Kevin Saunderson
8 Kenny Larkin (2002 and 2006 are the years he didn’t play)
7 Stacey Pullen
6 Mike Huckaby
5 Carl Craig
5 Clark Warner
5 Dan Bell
5 Michael Geiger
5 Mike “Agent X” Clark
5 Mike Grant
5 Richie Hawtin
4 Buzz Goree
4 Delano Smith
4 DJ Godfather
4 Juan Atkins
4 Magda
4 Marco Carola
4 Matt Clarke
4 Minx
4 Norm Talley
4 Anthony “Shake” Shakir
134 of the 572 unique performers have played more than once. Stay tuned for more stats from past festivals.
While the above performers certainly deserve their bookings, it’s a crime that Terrence Dixon and Omar S have never played the festival. T-1000 has only played once, Eddie Fowlkes only twice. Perhaps they were invited but declined. Derrick May is notoriously uninterested in performing, from what I understand.
Image of the poster showing the full lineup for the first DEMF in 2000
You may want to verify your numbers. I know Geiger has actually played the fest 5 times. Some of the people that play this event frequently are pillars of the music community in Detroit. Therefore, they play it regularly.
The Detroit Jazz Festival, which has been in existence for many years, books quite a few of the same local acts every year since they are staples in the Detroit jazz scene.
[Reply]
Count Zero reply on April 20, 2009 7:44 am:
By no stretch of the imagination was this meant to disrespect the people who have been booked often! Not my intention at all. I don’t even know how you could read that into it.
According to the lineups I was able to find, Geiger played in 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2008. What year am I missing?
[Reply]
Comment by Anonymous — April 20, 2009 @ 12:55 am
Ok, I apologize for my misinterpretation.
He played also in 2006, on the Organic Dance Culture stage (aka pyramid stage), with Carl Craig, Louie Vega, Mr. V, Blaze, and Mike Huckaby.
http://remixmag.com/transmissions/demf-performance-schedule-051906/
Sometimes the lineups from past years floating around the net at this point are incomplete and do not reflect the final lineup. For example, I know the wikipedia listings are incomplete.
[Reply]
Count Zero reply on April 20, 2009 7:02 pm:
No apology necessary, friend. I appreciate the feedback, and I’ll change my stats accordingly.
I have to admit, it does irk me a little that Magda and Marco Carola are so far up the list, because they’ve really got nothing to do with Detroit techno as far as I’ve heard. But other than that honestly I don’t begrudge anybody’s repeat performance, and ESPECIALLY the Detroit heads.
By the way, thanks for reading, I only wish you weren’t anonymous.
[Reply]
Comment by Anonymous — April 20, 2009 @ 11:42 am
re: magda having “nothing to do with detroit techno as far as i’ve heard”… magda, with the aforementioned geiger, derek plaslaiko, keith kemp, and a laundry list of others, were staples of detroit’s mid- to late-90’s party scene. sure, none of the above has releases on transmat or metroplex, but that doesn’t make their contributions to electronic music in detroit any less significant.
[Reply]
Comment by Anonymous — May 11, 2009 @ 11:07 am