10 Questions with... Hutte
Welcome to '10 Questions with...' where we ask people 10 questions about the cool stuff they are doing. For this edition, we are asking Goub (DJ, artist and co-founder of ESR Collective) about Hutte, one of Europe's hottest new festivals run by ESR Collective.
1. What is Hutte?
Goub: Hutte is a pan-European collective and festival project bringing together underground electronic music, DIY culture, and rural community-building. It centres on Hutte in the Forest, a small, intimate gathering where artists, friends, and collaborators meet in nature to share music, build stages, and experiment with different ways of living together.
2. Why did you start Hutte?
Goub: Hutte began as a way for a scattered group of friends to have a shared project and reason to reunite each year somewhere beautiful. The idea was to move from just meeting in cities to co-creating something in nature, combining our skills in music, carpentry, building, and organising into a small event we could genuinely call our own.
3. What is the Hutte Lore?
Goub: The Hutte Lore is the ongoing story of a tiny gathering that slowly transforms into a festival and, eventually, a rural commune. It is structured in “levels”: first the yearly micro-festival, then medium-term bases and partnerships, and finally a permanent community. Underneath it all is the recurring image of a forest refuge where friends test future ways of living, organising, and thinking together.
4. What’s the hardest thing about putting on Hutte?
Goub: The hardest part is that everyone involved lives in different cities and balances Hutte with work, studies, and life. Almost all planning happens online, unpaid, and across time zones, which makes coordination, decision-making, and maintaining momentum a constant challenge on top of permits, logistics, and dealing with authorities.
5. What’s your favourite Hutte moment?
Goub: A favourite moment was opening the third stage this year with a three-hour set that moved from club music to R&B and rap. Being surrounded by close friends from London, France, Amsterdam, and beyond on the first evening—after a stressful day dealing with police pressure on a fully legal event—made it feel like a quiet, collective victory.
6. Who was the first person you told about Hutte?
Goub: The first person I told was my original collaborator that I organised the first edition with, when it was just an idea for a small nature weekend for 50–60 friends. There was no name yet, no long-term plan; just a shared desire to host something intimate outside the city, which later grew into the Hutte project.
7. What’s surprised you most about Hutte?
Goub: It is surprising how strongly people across Europe connect to the idea and atmosphere of Hutte. Despite being entirely DIY and volunteer-run, the festival has become meaningful enough that some attendees describe it as one of the best moments of their lives, or something that shifted their path.
8. When is Hutte usually?
Goub: Hutte usually takes place in August, over several days. The scale is kept deliberately small to maintain an intimate feel and to work smoothly with rural partners and neighbours.
9. What did a normal weekend look like for you 10 years ago?
Goub: Ten years ago, weekends meant travelling around France for rugby matches as a teenager, focused on sport rather than culture or organising. The shift from rugby away days to building a festival in the forest maps how your priorities and communities have changed over time.
10. What do you hope Hutte will be in 10 years?
Goub: In ten years, the aim is for Hutte to have its own piece of land in a rural community and to function as a living hub: part commune, part cultural centre, part school for new ways of living. The goal is for the collective to sustain itself through the festival, an agency helping others build similar projects, and on-site activities, while offering a concrete example of a more social, ecological, and cooperative way of life.
We would like to thank Goub for answering the call and hope to see him at Hutte soon. Hutte has an event this week in London if you want a taste of what the festival is like. You can follow the Hutte, ESR and Goub journey here:
Reporting for SIBLING RADIO,
Bubbler B