Zoukout : Now you see it, now you don’t

By Cheryl Zhang• Urbanwire
• email reporter • email story • printer friendly version •

For those of you who bemoaned the $65 price of the Zoukout tickets while sitting at a club along the Mohamed Sultan stretch, here’re snippets of what you missed out on Jul 25 and 26.

The rain
The location
The crowd
The ladies’ tops
The guys’ togs
The action

The rain
Call it showers of blessing if you may, but there’s no denying that the rain on the first day of Zoukout put a damper on many a clubber. At 9:30 pm, the scene from atop the Benjamin Sheares Bridge resembled that of a ghost town. Many photographers who lugged their SLRs and tripods across the roads to climb up the bridge were left stumped at the lack of activity going on. But, as with all good parties, the night was just young.

The location
Situated in the middle of nowhere, the Marina Bay Waterfront became an Ibiza in its own right because of the many pains that Zouk had taken to transform the rarely-used venue. With numerous white tent tops rising up, the luminescent lights further brightening up the night sky and several white Zoukout blimps floating in the air, this new addition to the Singapore skyline was refreshing indeed. The angular outlines of the tall buildings in the Central Business District (CBD) were not alone on these 2 nights.

From left to right : Singapore's night skyline and the tents put up in Zoukout
picture courtesy of http://www.frontallabs.com

The crowd
Ahh, you must have been wondering when we were going to get to this part, right? Though the sale of advance tickets to Zoukout were on the lower end of expectations, the 1st night still saw a substantial number, approximately 3,000 people. Zouk marketing manager Tracy Phillips said, “Zouk had expected about “3,000 to 4,000 people”.

The 2nd night was the honey that drew bees to it, because of the better-liked mainstream acts that were scheduled for the night. “I prefer the music on the 2nd night; the 1st night was boring!” exclaims avid clubber Patty Xie, who recently-graduated from the National University of Singapore. The turnout was about 2 to 3 times more than that of the 1st night.

The Zoukout crowd just warming up to the music
picture courtesy of http://www.frontallabs.com

Most clubbers started boarding the feeder bus from Marina Bay MRT station only after 10 pm, and this was when all the eye exercises began. Body language was flying all over the place. Thank goodness that’s something you can’t hear it, else I’d have been deafened. Seems like Zoukout was not only an opportunity to dance and tone those abdominal muscles, it was a large-scale turnout of the island’s most beautiful people.

The ladies’ tops
Someone must have written out “sleeveless tops” for dress code. This ultimate fashion winner of the night, was spotted on over 60% of the female population who wore spaghetti tops, y-back tops, tank tops, singlets or halter-tops. T-shirts were a close second, and there were the odd netted tops spotted here and there, presumably to allow for ventilation.

Though the majority of the ladies were dressed more conservatively than expected, there were still a fair number of bum-hugging bottoms that emphasised the oh-so-perfect hips. As always, jeans ruled the night, and most had probably anticipated the exercise that lay ahead, because many had opted to dress in loose-fitting bottoms.

Here's what you missed out guys!
picture courtesy of http://www.frontallabs.com

Now before you guys congratulate yourselves for not missing much eye candy, there were also the bikini-clad babes gyrating atop the many raised platforms all over the area. Bar-top mass dancing… now drool.

The guys’ togs
Hey, who said Singaporean guys are a conservative lot? Most of our male counterparts turned up in sleeveless tops as well, and as they partied the night away, many of them also started ditching their tops to reveal well-toned bods. A simple action to alleviate the heat they were feeling, or an attempt to attract the ladies/men depending on their orientation? It’s up to you to decide!

 

Now girls, don't drool over these bods

The action
Despite the hype, flown-in DJs Gus Gus, Dirty Vegas and Stereo MCs barely managed to get the frigid Singaporean crowd onto their feet, with many preferring to chill out on mats that they brought. It was only around 1 am that the party-goers finally managed to loosen up and get the beat moving.

Perhaps most of Singapore is still not ready to embrace alternative music. Air Force regular Ethan Chang, who is into this genre of music, said “Many of my friends don’t understand why I like this type of music, but I think it’s because we are so used to the commercial type of music that they play on air here, that we don’t venture further out and try to appreciate other types of music.”

So why exactly are these artistes, talented in their own right, playing to a bunch of people who do not fully grasp the beauty of their music?

“Zouk is about educating people,” said Tracy. “it would be so easy to book some big trance DJ and get the numbers in.”

“But it shouldn’t always be about giving something that everyone’s going to love. We want to open new avenues, new sounds to people,” concluded Tracy.

Stars from the 1st night: top down - Dirty Vegas, Gus Gus, and Stereo MCs
pictures courtesy of http://www.frontallabs.com

The 2nd night, with its traditional separation into 4 arenas, was what most clubbers had paid for. Being typical Singaporeans who have almost homogenous tastes, nearly everyone was grooving to these mainstream acts such as international superstar DJ Sasha, James Lavelle and our very own home grown talents like DJ Aldrin from phuture, and Gerald Ang from frontallabs.com that really got everyone on their feet.

Gerald Ang of frontallabs.com keeping the adrenaline pumping in everyone
Pictures courtesy of Chris Loy

This is what you'll see if you were there..
pictures courtesy of Chris Loy

With 4 areas to cater to almost everyone’s tastes, different beats could be felt thumping through the blood of everyone present. Wait, that could also be due to the alcohol that was flowing throughout the whole night.

At an unexpectedly low price of $6 per (plastic) cup for all types of alcohol, be it housepour or neats, the drinks were obviously a major attraction. The bartenders at the numerous bars kept the drinks flowing, just like the waves along the shoreline of the waterfront.

That might have been the cause of the rise in aspirin consumption the next morning, from those suffering from massive hangovers.

However, Zoukout provided more than these pink elephants as souvenirs. Besides a temporary loss of hearing, an added wrinkle or two, there’s always the muddy patch of grass stuck to the soles of your newly-acquired adidas shoes.

Pamela Yu, an avid 19-year-old clubber, took away more than memories of the event. “I twisted my knee because I was jumping so much!” she grinned cheekily.

Judging by the look of satisfaction on her face, she probably won’t mind hobbling around for the next few days.

23-year-old Chris Loy, winner of the recent SuperStar DJ contest, who is now an operations executive with frontallabs.com summed up everyone’s sentiments with just one word. “Rocking!”

For many, many more photographs of what went on during Zoukout, please visit frontallabs.com

Many thanks to Gerald Ang and Chris Loy for providing pictures of the event.