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In the centre of a dancefloor in a Dundee park, a group of athleisure-clad teens are dancing to a Crazy Frog remix with a middle-aged couple wearing head-to-toe smiley face print. They’re in a re-creation of the Highlander, a Scottish bar in Ibiza, complete with Saltire flags and Buckfast cocktails. Across the park, a crowd of thousands are hanging on for the drop in Ultrabeat’s Pretty Green Eyes as played by trance icon Judge Jules. It may be late afternoon in Dundee, but the vibe is pure late-night riviera hedonism.
This is last weekend’s Doof in the Park festival, curated by Hannah Laing in her home town. From Manchester to Ibiza, Amsterdam to Tokyo, the Scottish DJ and producer has brought her sets of hard house, trance and techno to every big club scene in the world, but the festival “had to be at home”, she says two days before it begins, fresh off a plane from Ibiza. “In Scotland, we’re lucky to have crazy crowds. The atmosphere here always hits different.”
While hard dance is often derided or ignored in the media and polite society, Laing’s music – insistent, almost aggressively euphoric – has a large and committed following: 2.7 million people listen to her each month on Spotify and Doof in the Park sold out its 15,000 tickets within a week. Across the festival site there are hundreds of fans in merch from her Doof record label, as well as bootleg efforts including handmade Doof earrings and customised Uniqlo crossbody bags; one man has “Doof” shaved into the side of his head.
Laing wryly describes her rise as “10 years of overnight success”. Even after landing her first Ibiza residency in 2014, she was juggling DJing with her day job as a dental nurse. “I was playing at the weekend then going straight to work on a Monday,” she remembers. “There came a point when I was doing interviews with the BBC in my surgery. I was getting a lot of gigs but still doing lots for free, and I never thought I could make a living from it.” She eventually quit her job in 2022, after a breakthrough set at Creamfields. “I was on first on Sunday at 2pm and didn’t know if anyone would show up, but there were over 10,000 people there and tons of Scottish flags,” she says. “I’d been building up this reputation in Scotland, and when I got that big opportunity, everyone came out to support me.”
“She’s one of us,” says Lisa, who has travelled to the Doof in the Park from Aberdeen with her friend Shona. Like Laing, Lisa is in her early 30s and grew up going to raves. “She’s been brought up like us. She’s a normal girl who’s done well for herself.”
In 2024, Laing launched her label, named after the “doof doof” rhythm of her music. This summer, she’s playing a residency at one of Ibiza’s most sought-after clubs, Hï, and releasing her techno-influenced Into the Bounce EP.
She credits her taste – “hard house, trance, music that really makes me feel something” – to her parents, 90s ravers whose generation make up a significant part of her audience. “It’s a great feeling when people who properly know their stuff come and say: ‘You got me out of retirement!’” she says. “Also when my mum comes to see me, she doesn’t feel old.”
This is very much the case at Doof in the Park. “I’m 53 and I thought I’d be the oldest here, but I’m not,” says Claire from Johnstone, accompanied by her 20-year-old daughter. “I’m 51 and I’ve been doing this for years,” adds Natalie from Aberdeen. “There’s such a mix of ages and everyone’s so friendly.” Natalie’s niece Carla has been following Laing for years, and emphasises the inclusive community she is building, which extends to the access support at the festival. “Sometimes, if you’re sick like me, you can’t go to stuff, but the accessibility team have been fantastic,” she says. “They gave me a direct phone number if I needed anything on the day. It’s all been thought out.”
As well as hard dance legends such as Armin van Buuren and Lisa Lashes, Laing booked local DJs for the Highlander tent, styled after “the bar in Ibiza where I had my first residency, which I wanted to pay homage to. For most of the DJs, it’s their first ever festival.” Laing’s support of the local scene will continue with the in-construction Doof Studios, a DJ workshop in Dundee that she recently crowdfunded with non-profit Turn the Tables. It’s set to be a resource for up-and-coming DJs in the area, as well as people affected by homelessness, addiction and ill health. “It’s going to have loads of benefits,” she says, “not just for people who want to DJ full-time, but for people who just need that focus.”
Whether it’s building a community studio or creating music for intergenerational revelling, all of Laing’s work has genuine care for people at its heart: “Being able to give back, there’s no better feeling.”
