Both, the anticipation and the line-up were huge for this years ZoukOut 2007 music festival. For the sixth time the popular Zouk Club had their yearly open-air event and the DJ list contained the mighty Carl Cox, DJ Mag No. 1 Armin van Buuren, live specialists Booka Shade, Gilles Peterson & Earl Zinger, ÂME, DJ Craze and many others.

The kick-off to the event was local hero Tony Tay who hosts the SIRENS parties at Zouk. He played a deep set including some juicy electro house tracks which got the crowd moving.
The next highlight was Steve Aoki (Kid Millionaire) who played a very good selection of 10 year old party smashers, present Beatport Top 10 hits and everything between. The crowd went nuts. Really! He wasn’t only DJ’ing but interacted with the crowd, jumping and dancing he gave them his energy and they gave it back to him. He rocked!!

Booka Shade performed live, what for me as a musician of course is an extra pleasure. Their sound is pretty unique and I wouldn’t throw them in the electro house box – it’s a bit like Synth Pop meets Deeep House. Performing live, Arno Kammermeier plays electronic drums and Walter Merzinger runs the loops and plays the keys. Highly entertaining!

They gave the stage to the headliner: Carl Cox. I don’t know if you ever asked yourself why a specific DJ is hyped that much and exactly what gave him the key to DJ Superstar-Heaven. Well, with Carl there is no question. Who ever had the chance to see him at Space/Ibiza or at his night at Astra knows that he is just great. Fullstop. Analyzing why, I think it’s because no one understands it better to play the routine of an absolute burner, an average tune, a monotone tune and then an ever bigger burner better than him. Amazing!

When ZoukOut was announced and all material was printed Armin van Buuren held position No. 2 in the all so important DJ Mag DJ List. Well, when Armin took over the decks this morning, one could see that constant eagerness and the will to give the crowd the best time possible payed out, since he was just recently voted by thousands of clubbers worldwide to the Top DJ No. 1. You can say about the DJ List many diversified things but getting on top of it is like winning the Oscar for the best actor. And that is what he delivered – a perfect set.

So much for the DJ highlights. But ZoukOut actually is not only about great music but much more about the atmosphere. And that is singulary there. Last year there were around 18.000 – 20.000 party people on the beach and this year I think it’s a similar number. People came from all over the world – we met people from Brazil, Toronto, Munich, South Africa, Tokyo, Melbourne and New Zealand who came extra for this event to Singapore. Not because they were touring Asia and thought that’s a nice stop-over - no – they came to ZoukOut because for them it’s worth the travel and expenses. I think that says a lot.

From the organisational side an event this size is a years work and from experience in a much small scale I know a bit about the million things that need to be thought of and which can go wrong in some way. So I give my highest respect to the Zouk team who manage to organise a smooth running, fun and at any time in-control party year to year. Friendly staff at the bars, the securities. Props!

If you couldn’t make it down this year, you should consider it for the next time! For us in Thailand we also have an open air event coming up: Culture One, organised by the Club Culture Team. It’s going to happen on Saturday, 19th January at the Heliport of the BITEC Bangna Convention and Event Center. Since the organisers of Culture One are ZoukOut traditionals as well, I’m sure it’s going to be a good event. For more info check our Blog section.

Pictures of ZoukOut 2007 are in our GALLERY

Also check out past zoukout coverage and pictures:

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