A friend and I have flown into Singapore just to attend the ZoukOut festival this weekend. It’s the biggest turnout out of its 13 year history with 41,000 people attendence and a relatively strong line up. Also with the cancellation of Alesso for the Stereosonic Australian Music Festival shows, it would be a great opportunity to see him. So let’s put on some onesies and see how it is!
ZoukOut Music Festival 2013 @ Silosa Beach, Sentosa Island, Singapore
ZoukOut Festival
Essentials:
Opening Hours:
Friday: 8PM? – 5AM
Saturday: 8PM? – 8AM
The times suit the climate of Singapore, as it often rains during the daytime, while at night there is a lesser chance of rain occurring. Both nights the weather at night turned out clear.
Address:
It’s held on Silosa Beach, Sentosa Island
Parking:
Pretty much everyone caught a taxi here or caught a shuttle bus from a nearby MRT station. If you were lucky you could have booked a hotel on Sentosa.
Venue Website:
http://www.sentosa.com.sg
Event Website:
http://www.zoukout.com
Promoters:
http://www.zoukclub.com
Occurrence:
Every year since 2000
Dress Code / Door Policy:
Pretty much anything is allowed, bar being nude. A guy even brought in a blow up doll without any troubles. I wore my bumblebee onesie, which turned out to be one of the worst decisions made in a humid place such as Singapore.
Beach pre drinks
Entry Fee / Cover Charge:
Two Day Festival Pass: $168 SGD
Day 1 Happy Hour (entry before 10PM): $88
Day 1 Advance [1st release]: $98
Day 1 Standard [2nd release]: $108
Day 1 Tickets at the event: $118
Day 2 Happy Hour (entry before 10PM): $98
Day 2 Advance [1st release]: $108
Day 2 Standard [2nd release]: $118
Day 2 Tickets at the event: $128
Each day is assigned a separate wristband. My friend got caught out and we assumed the wristband applied for both days (as per Stereosonic). He didn’t bring his ticket for Day 2 and the guys at the counter would not accept a wristband and online receipt as official acceptance of payment – he had to sit out Day 2.
Passouts:
So long as you had a wristband you were able to go in and out of the beach as you please.
Cloak Room:
Yes. $20 SGD
Tonight:
Outside Line:
Day 1: Quite fast
Day 2: Quite slow. Loads more people attended Day 2 and a lot of cutting the line was involved.
Inside:
Entrance is on the East Side of Silosa beach. Various bars and stalls are scattered around the beach. The Star Stage is the first big stage on the right, while the Main Stage is on the West Side of the beach. There are other smaller areas with swimming pools and ‘VIP’ areas to hang out which have views of the stages. The best VIP area would probably be the Citibank area, with well a lit decor and front Pool, while being near the Main Stage on the Western side.
Strawberry
Bar Prices / Line:
The wait was about 10-15 minutes for a drink on average. This year saw the introduction of the pre-paid card system for drinks, which is becoming the standard for most music festivals.
$10 for all Mixed Vodkas, Gins, Bourbons, Whiskeys [Mixed with Green Tea, Coke, Sprite or Soda]
$5 for Redbull, Soft Drinks, Green Tea.
Tip: As in most Asian countries, the cheapies (including myself) pretty much got their pre-drinks from 7-Eleven and drank outside on the beach before going in. There was only one 7-Eleven on the way to Silosa beach and it was packed. The 7-Eleven employees were just dishing out the alcohol and beers, while people queued for drinks.
DJs: (Internationals listed here, but there were also many other local acts)
Day 1: 12th Planet (US), Benga (UK), Afrojack (NED), Example & DJ Wire (UK), Ferry Corsten (NED), Krewella (US), NERVO (AUS) ,Otto Knows (SWE)
Day 2: Teal / Nitelist Music (WOMB, TOKYO), Alesso (SWE), Danny Avila (SPA), Dash Berlin (NED), Kölsch (DEN), Lee Foss & Anabel Englund (US), Martin Solveig (FRA), Seth Troxler (US), Solomun (GER), Zedd (GER), Cyberjapan Dancers (JPN)
Continue reading »
Friends are at Pontoon Bar tonight, so this should be a good chance to see how it has progressed since opening night. Here we go!
12:40AM Upper Level Bar Line
Perfect @ Pontoon Bar (Ground Level and Upper Level: Wallaby Bar)
Assessment Time: 12:05AM – 2:45AM
Opening Hours: The bars are open throughout the day, but the event opens 9:30PM. Tonight it closes at 4:00AM
Lockout: Around 2:30AM, but definitely no re-entry after 3:00AM
Address: Cockle Bay Wharf (201 Sussex St from the other side)
Venue Website: http://www.pontoonbar.com
Promoter Website: http://www.facebook.com/perfectnights or http://www.theperfectnight.com.au
Occurrence: Every Friday since April 2011. Note that this is the event that succeeded Flow Fridays @ World Square Pub, after it closed.
Outside Line: Arriving just after midnight, there was a huge massive line outside the downstairs entrance. A good 70+ people waiting, which is ridiculous. So I went to the second, lesser known entrance upstairs. There was a pretty long line here too, but only about 30 people or so. It took 30 minutes to get in. This was including some folk who joined the line and got sick of waiting, and left. This was also the first week off for pretty much every tertiary school student in Sydney, so people were out clubbing in their droves.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Hats allowed. Most guys are casual in jackets jeans, pants due to the winter. It is encouraged by promoters to go ‘dressy’, but I did spot a friend dressed in sweatpants and a jumper, so there you go. Again due to winter, many girls have leggings on but most brave the cold and wear their clubbing dresses on. I actually paid attention to the dresses tonight and there were a number of questionable leopard print designs tonight. Tonight I wore a blazer, jeans, collared shirt, white sneakers and my ‘bad hair day’ cap.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 full charge. $20 on guestlist before 11:30PM , $15 if it is a birthday guestlist.
Guestlist: Ends at 11:30PM. Email info@theperfectnight.com.au
Continue reading »
Greenwood Hotel Thursdays Dance area. DJ on the right. (12:50AM)
Finally, I have a Friday off work. I have decided to spend Thursday night visiting Greenwood Hotel, which apparently gets pretty busy. C was free as well, so off we went to check it out .. here we go!
Lining up: Thursdays @ Greenwood Hotel
Assessment Time: Midnight- 00:45AM
Address: 36 Blue St, North Sydney, NSW.
Venue Website: http://www.greenwoodhotel.com
Promoter Website: Appears to be self promoted.
Occurrence: Every Thursday
Outside Line: We waited for 45 minutes before giving up. For the poor souls who arrived here at around the midnight or just before midnight (i.e. Me and C), we are hoarded like cows to the line. The lining up area is a down sloping ramp which begins wide at about 8 people and narrows down to about 4 people wide. Being a special type of lining area that it is, without rope or restrictions on how the people flow, it kind of became a moshpit, where little pushy bitches of girls push in and the guys silently complain. More details below.
Dress Code / Door Policy:
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free all night.
Guestlist: No guestlists are taken here. It’s one shared line, and free entry all night.
Inside: I didn’t get to go inside tonight, but based on previous encounters during the day and from what C told me tonight: Walk straight into the front courtyard where a DJ stand is setup in the middle, with people. The building itself is in a C shape formation, with 3 bars inside. The dance area is enclosed by the three sides of the hotel. DJ is inside as well. Out back is the courtyard for smoking, relaxing, chatting, whatever.
Music Style: Dominantly Commercial / Contemporary House. There are some RnB mashups as well, but are ony short samples taken. There is also a second DJ inside the chapel playing RnB, according to the website.
Crowd & Ratio: “I’m getting my L plates next week”… “You need 86 UAI to get into commerce, I hope I get in” … these were the lines overheard while lining up. Its become clear that you are amongst a dominantly young teenage crowd. For tonight, most are local Aussie teenagers. I saw one young Asian guy lining up but that was it really, in terms of the ethnic make up in line.
Atmosphere: Didn’t go inside, but from what I could see from outside, people were dancing away in the courtyard, but not too vigorously. They look like they are just swaying their arms and bodies around. Ok, so they can’t dance so well, but we clubbers all were once like that. C (who went inside) reports that the bars on the inside were not that packed at all, and that everyone could have been easily let in without problem. It was just the outside courtyard dance area at the front and drinking areas at the back that were busy. It is possible the venue isn’t licensed to hold more patrons, but I’ve seen other regular drinking nights where it has been packed out.
Video: 180 of the DJ area. Taken from the back of the crowd: 
Continue reading »