Grammy winners for ZoukOut

Nightclub Zouk has beefed up its annual ZoukOut festival line-up with two Grammy-winning music producers - American dubstep producer Skrillex and American techno and progressive house DJ Dubfire. Dubfire is also one-half of Grammy- winning DJ and production duo Deep Dish.

The annual dusk till dawn rave-fest will be held on Dec 12 and 13 at Siloso Beach, Sentosa.

The line-up will include British-Japanese house music producer Maya Jane Coles, revered Canadian techno DJ Richie Hawtin and Polish-born minimal tech-house DJ Magda.

For the first time in the festival's 14-year history, the annual event will also give more play to home-grown DJs.

Fifteen local and regional DJs, including all of Zouk's resident DJs and popular local DJs KFC and Debbie Chia, will be playing alongside the international acts at the festival's two main stages.

Previously, local DJs performed at the smaller local tent. This year, a local DJ will do the closing set at the main stage after the last international DJ performs.

Ms Sofie Chandra, 31, Zouk's head of business development and public relations, says this is "in line with one of Zouk's core focuses in supporting the local creative, music, design and arts industries".

She adds, "It is also our way of giving back to our music community for all the years of support to Zouk and their contributions to the industry as a whole."

Zouk resident DJ Byden Lian, 38, who performs under the name DJB, says, "We're trying to do something different to complement what's happening on the main stages. It's also a platform to give local DJs a chance to perform at such a festival."

ZoukOut typically draws more than 40,000 revellers over the two days.

This year, Lian says there are plans for a collaborative project to come up with an official ZoukOut track that he is likely to play at the main stage.

In all, more than 20 local and international dance music acts will perform at this year's ZoukOut.

Among the crowd-pulling acts are English trance trio Above And Beyond, and Dutch DJ Nicky Romero, who is ranked No. 7 in DJ Magazine's most recent annual Top 100 DJs poll, and Greek-Swedish DJ Steve Angello of famed dance music trio Swedish House Mafia.

Long-serving Zouk resident DJ Jeremy Boon, 45, says of his set for the event, "I always try to play the most current tunes and, at the same time, bring in some of the classics. "Every year, we always try to improve on what we did the previous year."

This article was first published on October 3, 2014.
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