This August, Silverstone had a lot more on show than Formula One. On the 24th, I headed to the racetrack for the annual Silverstone Festival, where sports cars were on display as expected – but this time, they played second fiddle to the Ministry of Sound Classical orchestra.

All of your favourite club classics from the nineties and noughties (think Sandstorm by Daruda or Insomnia by Faithless) were blasted through festival speakers and embellished with a wide variety of live classical instruments ranging from a glistening harp to a bassline of trombones. As music trends are experiencing a classical revival, I thought this gig created a unique space wherein different generations with starkly contrasting music tastes could dance to the same beat.

During the car journey to the gig, my dad, Steve Geere, was telling me about his summer touring with this unique orchestra, giving me a rare perspective on the show: a contrast between my view from the crowd and his from the stage. He has played countless festival gigs over the years with tribute acts ranging from Robbie Williams to Adele. Yet, as he told me about this gig, his whole expression shifted. “I knew as soon as I got the call that this gig would be special,” he told me, describing the thrill of hearing strings, brass, and percussion crashing into the heavy beat of dance music. I was struck by how animated he became.

“A rare perspective on the show: a contrast between my view from the crowd and his from the stage”

The thought of ‘club classical’ felt so unusual to me at first, almost impossible, yet once I had seen this musical concoction unfold before my own eyes, I was instantly curious for him to tell me how those two generational genres could collide at a world-famous F1 circuit. Geere said he relished playing iconic dance music hooks that sent the crowd into ecstasy within just a few notes. By fusing two distinct genres, the performance channelled the universal urge to dance into a revival of orchestral music. The arrangements paired dance tracks with classical pieces of matching tempos and relative keys, creating a surreal yet exhilarating contrast: a moshing festival crowd set against the elegance of brass, woodwind and strings.

Usually, Geere plays West End musicals like Wicked, Priscilla Queen of the Desert or even Shrek; so he found it a great privilege to collaborate with dance music singer Tara McDonald, whose vocals feature on Armand van Helden’s MyMyMy. In the place of an opera singer you’d expect to accompany an orchestra, we have McDonald’s powerful tones (and leather trousers!) conducting an intense aesthetic contrast on stage between the two genres. Far from the serious seats of stuffy theatres, Geere noted that large festival stages not only allow room for a full orchestra, but also amplify the contrast of genres, as the crowd’s energy flows back to the musicians. On stage and in the crowd, I could tell that energy is crucial for everyone’s enjoyment of the music. From Geere's position gazing out from the stage, the sight and energy of the crowd vibing on the shoulders of their friends was infectious. And I, too, felt far more inclined to dance while noticing the orchestra’s smiles and enthusiastic grooves to the beat.

I thought the members of this orchestra truly delivered, despite being under more pressure than usual. While the largest West End theatres hold around 2,000 people, there were reportedly 30,000 partygoers at Silverstone that Sunday. For Geere in particular, many of the hooks everyone dances to in clubs and remembers (think Insomnia again) fall to the keyboard – meaning that a single wrong note would be obvious to thousands. Playing to a crowd up to fifteen times larger than usual allowed me and the rest of the audience to feel fully immersed in the rhythms and blasting sounds. With every instrument amplified to reach the back rows and the lighting scaled up to match, searchlight strobes pulsed with the bassline and carried the spectacle across the crowd.

“Searchlight strobes pulsed with the bassline and carried the spectacle to the back of the crowd”

It was also easy for me to realise that the orchestra had been extensively trained, tweaked and polished to be able to deliver this fusion in the most precise and entertaining way possible. Classical orchestras are used to playing collectively behind the timing of the conductor, whereas club music requires a tight beat to create a rhythm worth dancing to. Therefore, Ministry of Sound meticulously selected instrumentalists who could adapt to this faster and stricter pace.

I also asked Geere what he hopes people will take away from experiencing Ministry of Sound Classical. “I think it’s just nice that an orchestra is being used in this way,’ he responded, ’and getting back in fashion”. I believe this fusion carves a new path forward in a music world full of purists across the generations who predicate that their favourite genre, whether it be EDM or classical, should never merge with sounds so different to what they know. Geere explained that, “back in the day”, classical music was popular music. Ever since popular music started to revolve more around DJs and electronic playable beats, fewer people have gone out to see an orchestra. Yet, many who weren’t on board with this change cling onto whatever remains of a once-thriving classical genre. He described Ministry of Sound Classical as a full-circle moment. It provides the newer generations with access to the music that came before them, while still allowing them to dance to the music they enjoy now.

The surprising power of this fusion is what makes Ministry of Sound Classical so special. It challenges the traditional boundaries of both genres and makes a compelling case for a future in which classical instruments boom through the speakers in Wevs or Skikis, and dance music takes its rightful place on the grand stage. This is a sound for our generation: a revival of yesterday that lets us dance into tomorrow.