For many, GALA marks the official start of festival season, a three-dayer taking over Peckham Rye Park for a celebration of the capital’s club culture. The theme for this year is The Floor Is Ours, exploring the dancefloor as a space of identity, community, and collective euphoria. As always, it’s an eclectic line-up: Friday is a bass-driven itinerary, featuring the likes of Giggs, Mala and Conducta; Saturday prioritises electronica from DJ Seinfeld and Call Super; and Sunday rounds things out with disco-infused sets from Chaos In The CBD and Palms Trax.

Irish-born DJ Saoirse is now a GALA regular, returning to the festival this year for the third time to deliver an A/V [audiovisual] show with a top spot on Saturday’s bill. A revered figure in dance music and a pioneer of clubbing inclusivity, her two-decade spanning career has seen her become a producer, trUst label founder and Body Movements festival co-director. She’s also become a steadfast fixture on the world’s most hotly-tipped festival bills, refining her live show into something that looks and feels as good as it sounds. Ahead of this weekend, we caught up with Saoirse to discuss the shifting energy of club culture and the acts she’ll be watching at GALA when she isn’t taking over the Pleasuredome.

Ella Joyce: This year will be your third time playing at GALA. What is it that makes it such a special one in the festival calendar?
Saoirse: I love that it still feels human in scale. Even though it’s grown massively, it hasn’t lost that sense of intimacy and community that made people fall in love with it originally. London festival culture can sometimes feel quite transactional now, so events that still feel emotionally connected to the scene stand out even more and every time I have played it’s been one of my faves of the summer.

EJ: You’re playing an A/V show at the festival this year, how does it differ from a regular DJ set? What can people expect?
S: The A/V show is a very different experience for me creatively, trying to add to the experience by adding something that’s visually stimulating. With DJing, you’re reacting constantly to the crowd and the energy in the room in real time. The A/V show is designed much more intentionally from the ground up, musically and visually together. The music should sound like the visual aspect. This show is heavily centred around lasers, light and atmosphere. I’ve become quite obsessed with the emotional and physical power of laser technology recently, the precision of it, the tension, the beauty, the feeling of something so controlled cutting through darkness.

EJ: When you aren’t performing, which other artists are you looking forward to seeing on the lineup?
S: Honestly, the line-up is ridiculously good this year. I’m excited to see CK as I’m a big fan of his music. Kia and Priori also have some mind-bending music in store, and then Tikiman for some proper festival dub skanking.

“I’ve become quite obsessed with the emotional and physical power of laser technology recently, the precision of it, the tension, the beauty, the feeling of something so controlled cutting through darkness.”

EJ: Can you tell us a little about your work to build inclusive spaces in music?
S: For me, inclusivity isn’t just about line-ups or optics, it’s about the entire infrastructure. It’s about how security interacts with people, how accessible spaces are, how artists are treated, who gets opportunities, and whether people actually feel able to fully be themselves when they enter a space. I think nightlife can be incredibly transformative for people when those conditions exist.

EJ: You’ve been DJing since the early 2000s, how have you seen club and dance culture change over the years?
S: Music travels faster now, trends move faster, artists break through and fall faster. But I think one downside is that nightlife can sometimes feel more performative now, too. There’s a lot more pressure around visibility, branding and content creation in spaces that historically existed partly as an escape from that kind of external pressure. Also, people go to bed earlier! [laughs] But one thing that hasn’t changed is that there is still really incredible music being made, sometimes it’s just a bit hard to sift through the amount. So I think it’s a mixture of gains and losses, like most cultural shifts.

EJ: What does the rest of the summer have in store for you?
S: I’m releasing more music through trUst recordings and continuing to develop the A/V show, which has opened up a completely different creative world for me beyond traditional DJing. I’m also working with vocalists and musicians for my own music, which has really given me a newfound motivation and excitement for writing. And somewhere in between all of that, hopefully finding at least a few moments to actually enjoy summer properly rather than just seeing airports and backstage areas.

Saoirse will play at the festival on Saturday 23rd May. Check out the full GALA lineup here.