This time around, the tiny festival Detour Discotheque is heading beneath the stone arches of a remote 16th-century Italian farmhouse in the Puglia region of southern Italy.
‘The world’s most remote disco’ is back again in another new location.
In 2024 tiny nightclub Detour Discotheque returned for its third outing, moving to a spot between the Birg and Schilthorn mountains 2,970m above sea level. In its first year party people schlepped out to Iceland for the far-flung festival.
In its second year the Mirror visited Detour Disco on Coll, Scotland where beat heads from across the country spent three heady days getting down and dirty in the community hall there. One woman had dragged two of her friends from London to stay in the cavernous, 14 person Breachacha Castle after impulsively booking it in the middle of the night. Two others brought relentless energy to the dancefloor despite having endured a horror journey of multiple trains, a cancelled ferry and ride aboard an expensive propeller plane which subsequently broke after landing on the island’s sheep strewn airstrip. In short, Detour Disco brings together dance-floor fiends to deliver a unique, small-scale, but hugely fun party to a different place each year.
This time, the tiny festival is heading beneath the stone arches of a remote 16th-century Italian farmhouse in the Puglia region of southern Italy. Running from 19–21 September, the experiential weekend will offer around 300 guests a taste of the sweet life, with parties at night and lazy days spent lounging by the largest pool in southern Italy.
The venue, Masseria La Restuccia, is a renovated fortified farmhouse set on five hectares of land, transformed by a disco-loving family into an exceptional LGBTQ-friendly retreat. It boasts a charming borgo (village) with cobblestone streets and boutique-style accommodations, a poolside pagoda adorned with mirror balls, a vibrant nightclub nestled within the Masseria’s ancient arches, and a spacious, stingray-shaped swimming pool surrounded by palm trees.
Located near Lecce in the Salento region of Puglia (also known as Apulia), the venue solidifies Puglia’s status as one of the top travel destinations for 2025. It is conveniently close to the picturesque port towns of Gallipoli, Otranto, and Santa Maria di Leuca, as well as the iconic whitewashed city of Ostuni, and is equally positioned between the Ionian and Adriatic coasts.
Jonny Ensall, the man behind the party, said: “So far, Detour Discotheque has appeared in a fjord, up a mountain and on a weather-beaten island. For 2025, we wanted warmth – and we found it in Puglia. This spot outside Lecce is Italy at its best, and we’re inviting guests to taste the true sweet life and experience a weekend of sunshine, beauty and togetherness. We’re connecting the dots between the simple pleasures of traditional countryside life and the euphoric highs of disco.”
Masseria La Restuccia takes its name from Luccio de Restuccia, the man who cared for the property until the 1950s, preserving its hidden charm. During the event, guests can feast on fresh-caught seafood, local salami, traditional orecchiette pasta and sun-kissed datterino tomatoes.
The masseria is easily reached by car from international airports at Brindisi (45 minutes) or Bari (2 hours), or by train and taxi via Lecce.
Weekend tickets start at £195, and early lineup announcements include Whodamanny – an Italo disco-loving producer and DJ representing the influential Naples label Periodica – and London-based Puerto Rican DJ Daisybelle, with many more to be announced.
Beyond the dance floor, attendees can enjoy fresh pasta-making classes, day trips to nearby beaches, feasts in the cobblestone courtyard and (new for 2025) disco karaoke.