FROM IBIZA.
FOR THE
DANCEFLOOR.

01 / HOW WE GOT HERE

WE BROUGHT
IT HOME.

Fresh began with free parties in Ibiza. The old Viva Ibiza artwork takes us back to those Sundays: Natalie Roache, Paul Newman, Deep Ink, Parvis Fedelis and Scott Anderson on the launch bill, then battle-night pairings that put the DJs side by side. Get people together, put good DJs on and let the music do its thing.

When we brought Fresh to Coventry, that stayed with us. A new room meant another chance to bring the regular faces together, introduce a few new ones and give local DJs somewhere to play alongside our guests.

By September 2021, the Fratelli’s posters were advertising Fresh on the last Saturday of every month. Tony Jay and Brad Smith in September; Luke Sissons and Kayne Lynas in October; Si Kelly, A.D.H and Joe Massey in November. So-Lo & Jay and Paul Brennan run through those bills. Those early Coventry nights are part of the story too. So are the nights at FOMO, the Catch Twenty Two residency, Cobra and the Sunday sessions at Samoan Joe’s. The Davey Asprey presents Chimera album adds another chapter, with the original booth and crowd photos now in the collection. The flyers tell it in their own way: changing colours, different names across the top, and familiar names coming back through the line-ups.

Some nights were free. Some needed a ticket. There have been monthly club dates, birthday parties, Boxing Day get-togethers and bank holiday sessions. At The Jag, we’ve taken Fresh into the daytime too, with summer parties and afterparties giving us room to do both.

It takes more than a headline name to keep a night going. The residents, the early sets, the DJs who stay for each other’s music, the people setting up and packing down—and everyone who buys a ticket, brings a mate or comes back for another one. That’s the part of Fresh we want this archive to hold onto.