A CUMBRIAN DJ is looking ahead to a summer of festivals and is showing no sign of slowing down after a quarter-century behind the decks.

DJ Helen, or Helen Thompson, was originally from Beckermet but has lived in Manchester for decades. 

She has spent 25 years playing at clubs and festivals and is set to perform at Kendal Calling later this year. 

Helen has been passionate about music since she was a teenager and developed her passion for music into a career when she discovered a love for DJing in Manchester. 

Ms Thompson said: "I moved to Manchester in 1998 and from there learned how to DJ on vinyl decks at the time as I did a course. 

"I started to pick up gigs and over the years I've played at lots of venues across Manchester, I also play at festivals in the summer months. 

"Blue Dot Festival was a big one for me and I'm a resident at Space Cassette which is a Manchester nightclub. 

"I'm also a resident at Mundus Mundus and R Kid's Social which is a big family event where I'm playing to a thousand people at a time. 

"This year I'm playing at Kendal Calling and Just So Festival in Staffordshire, I'm also hoping to play at Solfest but I need to get that sorted first."

Helen recently collaborated with dance legends Orbital and a poet called Michael Garry. 

After releasing the track in February, the song has been streamed thousands of times on Spotify. 

Helen continued: "Over the years the style of music I perform has changed, I'll perform everything from disco and house to rave and jungle. It just depends on what I'm being booked for to what I play. 

"I learned the piano at a very young age. I went to Wyndham School in Egremont and did a lot of music there like playing classical, being involved in musicals, wind bands, and that sort of thing. 

"But when I moved to Manchester the scene has always been an electronic, dance music scene. 

"I just found that my passion moved from classical to electronic and for me being a DJ allowed me to be creative with music I was enjoying dancing too. 

"But I think that with me being a musician I wanted to be able to play to people."