Carl Cox on PURE: 'All you’re going to get is a raw soundsystem, some lighting and great DJs'

Carl Cox might have taken a step back from Ibiza, but he's ramping up his projects on another island on the opposite side of the world. The dance music legend hits 56 this year but is full of energy for his events at home in Australia, which are cementing themselves as go-to parties.

The dust has just settled on the second instalment of his three-day camping festival Babylon, which featured Pan Pot, Laurent Garnier and Deborah De Luca, and PURE's third year is about to tour with Nastia, Paco Osuna and more next month.

Speaking of Australia's 'bush doof' rave scene, which the former has slotted into at the end of summer, the dance music legend said: "I think it’s amazing you have all this room to do all these events and are now starting to utilise it. And the fact people are getting in their cars and making the exodus to travel to be at these events is amazing. It’s really refreshing to see we're not just using the Sidney Myer Bowl or Flemington Racecourse, we’re not just using the normal places anymore, we’re outdoors creating something, that’s fantastic to see what we can basically create and what we can do outside your normal events."

His one-day event series, PURE, which delivers what the name suggests through a stripped-back, unadulterated house and techno ethos, expands to Brisbane this year, as well as taking in Perth and Auckland for the second time alongside Sydney and Melbourne. On the concept, Cox said: "When I first mentioned the fact this is what we were going to do it was kind of like almost like a backlash to the EDM thing.

"You’re not going to get LED walls, you’re not going to get CO2, you’re not going to get fireworks, you’re not going to get confetti cannons, you’re not going to get any of those niceties. All you’re going to get is a raw soundsystem, some lighting, of course, and great DJs playing this type of music. And I always said 'If you’re not into it, then don’t come. Don’t come down.' Because there’s plenty of people who are into it who will be the ones that will come down because they know why they’re there and I think once you’ve got a crowd of people who basically are all in it together, that’s the best kind of crowd you can basically play to and therefore there’s no boundaries to what the DJs can play, they can feel free without having to play all the big hit records to make the party work."