Meet Big Weekend DJ who traded helmet for headphones
GW ImagesA woman who played American football for Great Britain before becoming a DJ has said she is "nervous and excited" to have been chosen to perform at Radio 1's Big Weekend.
Emma Harbs, from Hartlepool, had been training for the sport six days a week when she had to stop playing in 2019 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Her partner bought her a set of DJ decks to give her something to do and she said "she never looked back".
She will perform on the Introducing Stage in Sunderland's Herrington Country Park on Saturday 23 May.
Harbs discovered American football by chance when she watched a documentary about the sport and began playing for the Teesside Steelers, based in Billingham, in 2016 before being selected for the national side.
But alongside her love of sport was a passion for music.
Emma Harbs"I'd always gone to festivals and I loved it but never had time really because I was training six days a week," she told BBC Radio Tees.
"If it wasn't for lockdown I don't think I'd ever have become a DJ."
Harbs used videos posted by other artists on social media to learn how to perform.
"I'm very hands-on, and I'd go into the spare room and just practice what I'd seen online and that's how I got comfortable."
But she said being a DJ was much more difficult than it looked.
"You want to make it look effortless, but there's so much more than the physical part you see on stage," she added.
Radio 1's Big Weekend takes place between 22-24 May and there is a focus on championing talent from Sunderland and other parts of the North East.
Harbs said she could "hardly believe it" when she read the email inviting her to perform.
"Every year I set a target and the Big Weekend was one of them so it is just amazing that it's happening," she said.
