Yes. We waited all year for it and like a deluge of aural and visual goodness, it came. And it came damn hard. While pundits and some hardcore ZoukOuters may have lamented at the lacklustre line-up of jocks that may have headlined this years party, they duly ate up their words (especially when Tiesto and David Guetta became headliners) and danced the night through from the word go. Well, who wouldn’t?
While last year’s outing saw a record-breaking turnout of 30,000 revellers, this year organizers say that a staggering 27,000 revelers turned up this year. But not all were able to join in on the fun as tickets were sold out early.
Both the ‘Early Bird’ and ‘Advanced’ tickets are priced at $68 and $78 respectively, and they were sold out weeks before the event. So the last resort for party-goers is to purchase ‘Event Day’ tickets worth $88, at the door, from 6pm onwards. But alas, these too were snapped up within hours.
“This is the very first time that tickets were sold out quickly. I think it’s great for us but it’s also a bit sad that everyone couldn’t come in. I wish we could let everyone in but the beach can only hold so many people,” says Timothy Chia, Zouk’s head of marketing and events.
“Lineup-wise, I think this is the best we’ve ever had. While normally we have one headliner, this year we have two—Tiesto and David Guetta,” Chia adds. Besides the 26 foreign and local DJs and acts performing, there was also a fireworks display at the height of the party.
From as early as 3pm, there was a steady stream of people waiting for their turn to step foot on the hallowed sands of the party, scout out the various stalls, fringe activities and there’s also no shortage of sponsors and partners tents everywhere. Just look around and you’ll see sponsor or ‘hospitality’ tents by Heineken, Bacardi and even SingTel which one-upped everyone with a big-assed kaleidoscope tent that tripped everyone’s minds with its psychedelic visuals.
Let’s just skip the formalities and go straight to what’s most important here—the music. The man of the moment—Tiesto came on at the main stage at about 3am and from the moment he cued the first track after Laidback Luke faded out his last track (“Get Ready for the Amsterdam Connection!!!” shouted Luke on the mic moments before), it was pure acid and dancefloor skulduggery.
Tiesto churned out a sickeningly good set without breaking a sweat (ok he did), running the gamut from euphoric trance, electro and deep trance numbers. Everyone (trance fans mostly) was singing along when he dropped tracks from his Kaleidoscope album as well as his remix of Gui Boratto’s “No Turning Back”.
Messrs David Guetta came on next and he didn’t waste any time to keep the crowd going right after Tiesto’s rousing set. Guetta gave the crowd what they paid to hear—a banging mix of electro, house and pop—dropping tracks such as “Sexy Chick” and “Getting Over You”. “I can guarantee you one thing. This is the best party on the planet right now,” Guetta shouts. Indeed it was.
Over at the Velvet arena, Dennis Ferrer, the man behind seminal anthems such as “Son of Raw”, “Touched The Sky” and “Sandcastles” brought the crowd to an intoxicating high with his explosive techno and house beats. Everyone had their hands in the air, playing conductor to his range.
We didn’t fail to notice the shrinking crowd on the beach though. It’s after all way past 7am and several must’ve been ready to fall over after almost 12 hours of crazy partying, before Ferrer dropped another bomb of a track after another like Henrik Schwarz’s re-rub of Emmanuel Jal’s
“Kuar”—an apt soundtrack for sunrise, with its addictive afrobeat, percussions and hypnotic vocals. And THAT definitely kept the crowd yearning for more.
Big props have to be given to Lincoln, Timothy, Mari and the whole ZoukOut crew for making this party the highlight of the year and probably took people’s mind off of the series of unfortunate events that had happened in recent months.
Our verdict: ZoukOut 2010 rocks and we certainly can’t wait for the next one … wherever it may be.
