Holly Lester

Holly Lester is an electronic dance music disc jockey from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, who performs techno live sets. Lester is co-founder of the Free The Night advocacy organisation aimed at boosting the night-time economy in Northern Ireland.

Career
Lester first started to beat-match at age 14, while growing up in Hamiltonsbawn, County Armagh. She first came to prominence working as a disc jockey in dance venues in the north-west of England, has been a regular "homegrown" performer at the AVA Festival in Belfast, and was in the top 50 of the Guardians pick of the best new music for 2019. Lester has gone on to achieve wider recognition, playing sets across Europe, and in Australia and Indonesia.

In 2019 Amy Fielding of DJ Magazine called Lester "one of Northern Irelands' most exciting selectors". She was also nominated for a DJ Mag award in 2021 in the Underground Hero category. Lester has been featured on BBC Radio a number of times, including performing mixes in both 2021 and 2022. Her sound has been described by Resident Advisor as "raw analogue jams" that "rub shoulders with dreamy trance tinged melodies and swirling breakbeats".

Lester set up the Duality Trax record label, which has released music for artists including Abdul Raeva and Tifra. In August 2021 the label released a compilation, "Visions Vol. 1", in aid of Doctors Without Borders, which was described by DJ Magazine as a "globetrotting, genre-hopping affair". In 2023 Duality released the follow-up compilation, "Visions Vol. 2", with all proceeds aiding the Palestine Children's Relief Fund.

Free The Night
Lester, along with Dublin-based Sunil Sharpe, is the founder of Free the Night, a non-profit organisation which started in 2021 with the aim of improving the night-time economy in Northern Ireland, including making it more "safe, progressive and culturally diverse" and campaigning for improved public transport.