5 Things We Learned At Singapore’s Totally Bonkers ZoukOut Festival
At one point - for simply helping them carry a drink - someone hands us an entire bottle of Dom Perignon.
It’s 6am on Siloso Beach in Singapore, and 10,000 revellers are still partying hard. American producer KSHMR is on stage, leading the crowd through the sweltering sunrise with bone crushing bass.
Over the last 12 hours, producers and selectors like Galantis, Timmy Trumpet, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, and Jeffrey Sutorius have stepped up for sets at ZoukOut — Asia’s largest dusk-til-dawn dance festival.
Music Junkee was on the beach the whole night through — here’s what we learned from the wildest night on Asia’s music calendar.
Location, Location, Freaking Bloody Great Location
At a time when the NSW Government and NSW Police are running festivals out of the state with draconian measures, it seems almost unbelievable to witness an all-night festival taking place in the middle of a densely populated island.
Singapore’s Sentosa Island is crammed full of swish resorts — some just metres from the festival site — and yet the bass (which is so loud at times you can feel it rearranging your vertebrae) soldiers on, down to the last drop at 8am. The beach itself is postcard perfect: swaying palm trees and bright white sand and at the edge, the long view of water across the Singapore Strait.
A monstrous, animated eye swivels and stares down at the punters — giving an eerie feeling that Sauron has decided to come join the throng.
As for the stage….well ZoukOut definitely know how to bring the production. The stage is a 30-metre high castle-like structure, the DJs mere pinpricks in the middle. Confetti and streamer blasts punctuate every drop, and fireworks explode at seemingly random times from the top of the castle.
In the centre, a monstrous, animated eye swivels and stares down at the punters — giving an eerie feeling that Sauron from Lord Of The Rings has decided to come join the throng.
Make No Mistake: This Is Luxury Partying
If you like your dance music with a side of Dom Perignon, then you’ve come to the right place. The VIP area is as plush as any Vegas club, decked out with lit up bottles of Belvedere vodka and a crew of dancers that deliver your champagne with firecrackers and sparklers.
Buckets full of Dom Perignon (which retail at about $260, festival prices would be way more than that) dot every table. At one point — as a thank you for the fairly innocuous favour of helping carry their drinks to their table — a punter reaches into his ice bucket and gives us an entire bottle of Dom.
Galantis Are Worthy Headliners
With an arsenal full of festival-worthy bangers — ‘Runaway (U & I)’, ‘Peanut Butter Jelly, ‘No Money’ — Galantis’ set was always going to be one of the biggest of the evening. And it was: with four massive tom drums at their backs, they ran through every inch of their back catalogue, from Pharmacy cuts to the just-released single ‘Emoji’.
Plenty of festival favourites appeared, including A-Trak’s ‘Heads Will Roll’ remix (which was played at least five times over the entire festival), ‘Destination Calabria’, ‘One Kiss’, and Blur’s ‘Song 2’. At one point, they ambitiously twisted Red Hot Chili Pepper’s ‘Otherside’ into Rihanna’s ‘Bitch Better Have My Money’. They also gave an emotional tribute to the late Avicii, dropping his iconic 2011 track ‘Levels’ in full.
As for the closer, is there anything better than ‘Runaway’ being unleashed to a crowd of 10,000?
It Was The Battle Of The Drops
A few hours before Galantis, Dutch duo W&W with a performance that threatened to break the record for the most amount of drops in a single set.
They crammed in just about every dance classic they could find: There was the ubiquitous ‘Heads Will Roll’, Alice Deejay’s ‘Better Off Alone’, Cascada’s ‘Everytime We Touch’, an obligatory remix of ‘Seven Nation Army’, and Avicii’s ‘Levels’. It was near exhausting.
They also caused pandemonium in the crowd towards the end of their set when they asked every punter to link arms and jump eight steps from the right to the left, and back again. To the crowd’s credit, they (mostly) managed to remain upright, and the effect was 10,000 people moving like a raging, glowing, sea.
Asia Is Where The Dance Scene Is At
Over the last five years, the dance music scene has exploded across South East Asia.
Mega entertainment groups like Hakkasan are moving into the region to open up super clubs like Bali’s OMNIA, and Ultra Music Festival now hosts events from Mumbai to Shanghai. China’s Storm Festival remains one of the biggest dance events in the world, and Bali’s Djakarta Warehouse Project should be on every festival lover’s bucket list.
Singapore’s Zouk — the iconic club that lends ZoukOut its name — has been frequently named one of the hottest clubs in the world. As for ZoukOut…well, there are not many festivals where you can watch the sunrise, drink champagne, and party to some of dance’s A-list acts.
While Australia’s mega-festival scene is struggling against over-regulation, Asia’s scene is flourishing. Get amongst it.
Jules LeFevre is the Editor of Music Junkee. She was a guest of ZoukOut Festival. Follow her on Twitter.
Photos via ZoukOut Festival Facebook Page