Igloofest is back for its seventh successful year, as Montrealers brave the cold weather to get down to some hot beats in the Old Port, celebrating what is easily one of the world’s best open-air winter electronic music festivals. Every year, Igloo gets bigger and better, featuring strong line ups of local and international electronic artists – this year, Igloofest will be home to the likes of CLR’S Chris Liebing and Tommy Four Seven, Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard, DJ Sneak, Joy Orbison, Mathias Kaden and Magda, alongside Montreal’s own Stephen Beaupre, Moody Jones, HEAR, The Gulf Stream and Milton Clark.

I took to the dance floor at Quai Jacques-Cartier in Old Montreal for Igloofest’s second weekend of events, starting out with a chilly night of minimal, electro and techno from an unstoppable all-female bill.

Photo: courtesy of Igloofest.ca

Thursday February 24th was easily the coldest night of the year so far. As temperatures dropped below -35 with wind chill, after the short walk from the metro, I was frozen to the bone despite wearing six pairs of leggings and three sweaters. An Igloofest veteran myself, I’ve learned that the key to staying warm at the festival is a combination of layers, dancing and a few stiff drinks – luckily the bouncy min-tech of local hero Alicia Hush on the main stage was more than energetic enough to keep us warm as she opened the evening’s festivities.

Photo: Alicia Hush. Courtesy of Igloofest.ca

A Toronto-native now living in Montreal, the Hushlamb co-founder kept us moving with her first ever live set, dropping some of her infamous quirk, and bassy, dynamic minimal. Though the set was comprised almost entirely of brand new material, including some unreleased remixes and a new track from Yes Ma’am – her project with fellow Montrealer ana+one – a few old favourites found their way into the mix: goodies like Bottle Nose Blues and Dirty Dozen kept up that classic Hush vibe.

Listen to her Soundcloud.

Next up, French electro-clash DJ and femme fatale, Miss Kittin took over – her sound is a little intense for my taste, but her huge drops and, at times, aggressive bass gave the crowd what it wanted – so I stopped by the Virgin Mobile Igloo-dome to warm up with Nymra & Sofisticated’s all-night-long set, dubbed High Heels Prohibited. The girls, Montreal natives who have been playing together for almost a decade, provided a fresh dose of warmth with their deep, soulful tech-house and cheerful on-stage demeanor in such an intimate venue.

Photo: Miss Kittin. Courtesy of Igloofest.ca

I decided to head back to the main stage just in time to see Berlin’s Ellen Allien take the stage. After a bit of a rocky start with a couple tracks that leaned a bit too far on the commercial side of electronica, Miss Allien found her groove with some rolling techno numbers and her signature upbeat spirit. It was a solid set, though not entirely what I was hoping for.

Photo: Ellen Allien. Courtesy of Igloofest.ca

Friday night proved to be just as cold as Thursday, so I layered up even more (so much so that it was hard to move) and made my way to the Old Port for the last hour of Nina Kraviz’s set. Montreal loves Nina. She played Piknic Electronik over the summer, and it was indisputably one of the festival’s best events of 2012 – one lucky Piknic-er actually proposed to her with a ring pop (she said yes!) – so it was no surprise that the city was out in full force for her set at Igloofest. Of course, the crowd loved it (even the Igloostaff was dancing), and her raw, uninhibited take on techno and tech-house was the perfect warm-up to Danish duo, Pan-Pot.

Photo: Nina Kravitz. Courtesy of Igloofest.ca

Thomas Tassilo and Benedix Ippenberger are acclaimed for their dark, chugging techno and inimitable performances together as Pan-Pot. They did not disappoint, opening with Uto Karem’s heavy, techno killer (and a personal favourite of mine) Taking Me, released under Agile Recordings last month. The pair continued on that note, delivering a bass-driven techno rollers and a ton of dance moves behind the decks, a fun end to the night.

Review by Emma Robertson