50,000 at ZoukOut

For the super party troopers who lasted till daybreak, the annual ZoukOut ravefest was capped with a bang yesterday morning.

The two-day event at Sentosa's Siloso Beach attracted 50,000 partygoers, the largest turn-out in ZoukOut's 14-year history.

As they danced to the bombastic beats and hard-hitting anthems of Grammy award-winning DJ Skrillex, 120 giant green balloons, filled with Heineken shirts, were released into the crowd - souvenirs for those who had stayed on till the first light of the morning.

This year's edition was its best one yet, delivering a top-notch production with show-stopping pyrotechnics, visuals and confetti blasts to keep the energy high at both stages.

On the moon stage with his entire entourage behind him, Skrillex was in his element with a set that was a genre-defying mix of old-school hip-hop, electronic dance music (EDM), house, techno, dubstep, reggae and movie soundtrack samples. And over at the star stage, Russian tech-house wunderkind Nina Kraviz took the crowd to dawn's break with hypnotic grooves.

And, in Zouk's tradition of getting a local DJ to do the closing sets, DJs Formative and Hong brought the two-day event to an end at 8am yesterday.

Zoukettes young and old showed up for the annual event, considered one of the biggest and most prominent dance music festivals in the region.

This year's boasted a stellar line-up, with Dutch DJs Nicky Romero, Showtek and Martin Garrix, English trance trio Above & Beyond, Canadian DJ Richie Hawtin and British deep house DJ Maya Jane Coles among those who gave memorable performances.

On the festival grounds, dancers wearing LED-lit outfits, colourful stilt-walkers and aerial acrobatics added buzz to the performances by the DJs.

Dance music lovers and partygoers could not stop raving about the experience.

"The arrangement for ZoukOut this year is so fantastic, Above & Beyond offers a bit of ambient trance, followed by Nicky Romero to push people into the night, then Steve Aoki to bring it to the end. He's more funky and brings the party to a height before it ends," says Mr Jack Tan, 33, a DJ at 1-Altitude who was partying at ZoukOut on Friday night.

"It was very dynamic, the flow of the whole thing was great. It was better than I expected. Awesome DJ-ing," adds Mr Wyatt Ang, 34, a senior marketing executive.

ZoukOut also gave bigger play to local and regional mix-meisters this time around, with DJs such as Zouk's Ghetto and Jeremy Boon, and DJs Mr Has and Debbie Chia warming up festivalgoers early in the evening last Friday and Saturday.

Chia, 33, says the opportunity to spin at ZoukOut this year gives "local DJs a voice, especially at such an international event".

She played a selection of techno, electro, dub and house, and says: "I foresee more and more festivals coming to Singapore and I hope the organisers remember local DJs too, not just the international guests. Zouk is leading by example."

Veteran Zouk resident DJ Boon, 45, who gave a revival of 1990s house music a modern twist in his set last Saturday night, says: "I got the honour to play before the first international DJ at the Star stage this year. The best thing about this year is that people came really early and I got a good turn-out for my set."

First-timers to ZoukOut gave the event the thumbs-up and say they would return for the next instalment.

Miss Michelle Lee, 22, a final-year student at Singapore Management University, says: "We're just here to experience the festival. I came because of my friends but I've been to other dance music festivals and this one's better."

Mr Edwin Aw, 26, a commodity trading executive, says: "I think it's not bad, the music is good and so is the atmosphere. It's not as sleazy as I thought it would be. I love EDM and I love Martin Garrix, so that's why I'm here. I'll probably come back next year."

melk@sph.com.sg

venessal@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Dec 15, 2014.
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