JOYnight

DJs, Events, Nightclubs

Hakkasan Gives Back … Could the DJs be Next?

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Around the holidays, people get into the giving spirit. Take, for example, Hakkasan restaurant, which donated $5 per dinner guest at the upscale restaurant in December to Three Square Food Bank. So that’s a whopping $50,636 to the hunger relief program in Southern Nevada as the first “Hakkasan Gives Back” initiative. For some bonus good mojo during the donation ceremony, Vice President of Restaurants for Hakkasan Limited, Omar Gutierrez, presented the donation to Three Square’s Chief Development Officer, Matt Muldoon, in a red envelope to symbolize good fortune, health and happiness. In all, the money provides over 150,000 meals to people in need.

The staff at Hakkasan’s restaurant and nightclub also rolled up their sleeves and donated their time at the Three Square warehouse in mid-December, packaging 10,000 meals-to-go for the Kids Café program (to ensure children without regular access to nutrition get a meal after school), 1,500 bags of food for Backpacks for Kids, and 130 Senior Share boxes.

Omar Gutierrez addresses the crowd during dinner at Hakkasan (photos by Al Powers)

Omar Gutierrez addresses the crowd during dinner at Hakkasan (photos by Al Powers)

“We are so pleased with the results of this fundraising and volunteer effort,” said Gutierrez at the donation ceremony. “Three Square has been a wonderful and deserving partner and we are excited to continue our community efforts during many more ‘Hakkasan Gives Back’ projects.”

Warms your heart, right? But that got us thinking: If dinner guests and employees are helping out, maybe the superstar DJs could, too? We bet that if any of the headlining Hakkasan residents donated the money they make in just one night, 300,000 meals could be provided. We also haven’t forgotten that Tiësto initially said he’d be interested in starting a Vegas outpost of his Club Life Foundation.

Just sayin’…

All Hail Hakkasan New King of Las Vegas Nightclubs!

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Attention club goers! There’s a new club in town that’s set to take the Las Vegas experience to the next level. Termed as the new Mecca of Las Vegas nightlife, Hakkasan nightclub and lounge at the MGM Grand made its entrance on the strip on the 18th of April 2013, marking one of the biggest club openings in Las Vegas to date, with A-list celebrities and headlining athletes in attendance for it’s opening ceremony and week-long inaugural celebrations.

Hakkasan Ltd. is an internationally celebrated dining group with a world class chain of Cantonese-cuisine restaurants in London, Mumbai, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Miami, San Francisco and NYC. To add to its splendor, the owners of Hakkasan Ltd. collaborated with leading entertainment and nightlife company Angel Management Group to bring you the lavish Hakkasan lounge and night club, marking the restaurant’s first venture into nightlife entertainment.

Operating from Thursdays to Mondays from 9pm till closing time, the club has a standard 21 and above age policy. Given its recent opening and all the surrounding hype, hoards of people can be seen queuing up outside the club, and although it can accommodate up to 7000 people, it is advisable to make a reservation if you don’t plan on spending half your night making small talk with strangers and trying to bribe the bouncer for admission.

Atmosphere:

With a beautifully designed five story, 80,000 square feet structure covered in shades of blue complemented by an interior that provides the perfect mix of eastern and western elements, the owners have spared no expense in it’s construction cost of approximately $100-$200 million. Clearly, it’s not just another Las Vegas nightclub.

Some of the salient features of the Hakkasan (main room and pavilion) on the fourth floor include a DJ booth facing the main, high energy dance floor surrounded by VIP booths and ceiling length LED screens, Cirque du Soleil-like dancers all over as well as a performance area suspended from above in a manner so it’s visible from practically everywhere on the floor; after all, its only right the club owners show off their investments and attendees get to see what they paid for.

The servers are not only as sexy as they come, but are seen in up to four different outfits every night; a different outfit for each resident DJ, one of whom, Steve Aoki, has even co-designed a custom outfit for the servers for his shows.

Although the venue lacks an outside area, with a five star restaurant occupying the first two levels, The 10,000 square foot Ling Ling club with its mixology bar on the third level and a fifth level that has semi-private rooms with access to the dance floor below, the club is a perfect merger of culinary expertise and nightlife entertainment.

Music:

As far as the music is concerned, the owners have gone all out to sign only the best names in the industry. With a roster of top notch resident DJs such as Tiesto, Steve Aoki, Deadmau5 and the Grammy award-winning Calvin Harris (all of whom have signed year-long contracts with the club) along with a number of artists scheduled to make special appearances, Hakkasan nightclub offers a world class selection of house, trance, dance, hip hop and electronic music with a state of the art sound system that’ll evoke an irresistible temptation to dance till you drop, guaranteeing an unparalleled, one-of-a-kind experience.

Dress code:

The club has a very strict dress code; classy or nothing. The elegance of the club demands an appropriate attire. So ditch the Polos, baggy clothes and athletic wear, you’re going to the hottest club in Las Vegas for crying out loud!

Upcoming Special events:

June 29th: Calvin Harris with Fergie (DJ).

June 30th: Steve Aoki and Quintino.

July 4th: Tommy Trash.

July 5th: Tiësto with Fergie (DJ).

July 6th: deadmau5 with Bambi.

July 7th: Michael Woods.

July 11th: Tommy Trash.

July 12th: Laidback Luke with Moska.

July 13th: Tiësto.

July 14th: Danny Avila.

Hakkasan promises to keep party seekers on their toes with the exemplary experience it offers; epitomizing nightlife in Las Vegas, it truly lives up to its name as the ‘new king of the party capital’.

 

 

 

 

Magnetic Festival Comes to Atlanta on April 20

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The South may be more known for its hip-hop scene than any other genre of music, but its underground electronic music scene is beginning to swell and is rising to the surface with a massive outdoor festival that is coming to Atlanta, Georgia on Saturday, April 20.

Famed electronic music promoters Liquified and Disco Donnie are teaming up to present the first ever Magnetic Festival at the Kennesaw State Sports and Recreation Park in Atlanta. The event will feature three stages, incredible audio and visual effects, video mapped stage designs and some of EDM’s heaviest hitters, including Flux Pavilion, Zeds Dead, Dash Berlin, Darth & Vader, Adventure Club, Cazzette and more.

The site is just 20 minutes from downtown Atlanta, but concert goers will likely feel like they are in another dimension. The 88-acre park will feature the aforementioned stages – one of which will be in a stadium with a capacity of 16,000 people – and a nine-acre lake with the beautiful and majestic Kennesaw Mountain serving as a perfect nighttime backdrop.

If the lineup and the setting weren’t enough to get electronic music fans pumped up, the names behind the event should do the trick. Together Liquified and Disco Donnie have more than 40 years of promoting experience for electronic music festivals and events. Liquified has already put on several successful shows in the South, even in Atlanta. It brought Tiesto to the Hotlanta just last year for a sold out show at Wild Bill’s.

“Dance music culture has exploded globally, and we are proud to have been at the forefront of this scene,” said festival promoter Damian Murphy, via EDMSauce.com. “Joining forces with Disco Donnie Presents is a natural partnership, which allows us to bring this amazing new festival experience to Liquified’s home base.”

The event is open to ages 16+ and general admission tickets are still available for $65. There are also VIP packages available that include premium parking, access to exclusive lounges, gift bags, and more. Tickets will be sold at the gate if they don’t sell out in advance, but let’s be honest, they almost assuredly will, so you’ll want to snatch up your own as soon as possible. Simply check out MagneticMusicFestival.com to order yours today and enjoy the show!

THE LUX FACTOR

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Hip-Hop and Reggae is where DJ and Producer Adrian Lux started out his career, however nowadays, he is playing Techno and House to his millions of fans around the world. Already a Swedish Grammy award winner for “Best Electro/Dance Track” and “Newcomer of the year”, and beating out Avicii and Swedish House Mafia in each respective category. Turning only twenty-seven years old in January 2013, there is no doubt that Adrian Lux has an incredibly long career ahead of him.

Brought up in Stockholm, Sweden (There really must be something in the air over there; Swedish House Mafia, Tiesto, Avicii, Alesso, etc…), by a Punk Rocker and a Fashion Photographer/Film Maker. Ironically enough, Adrian followed the path of both his parents, because not only is he in the music industry, he also has done modeling for some companies, such as The Swedish Postal Service and a giant department store called Nordiska Kompaniet, among others. It’s almost as if he was destined to be doing exactly what he has been.

His journey to the top has included re-mixing for some of the biggest names in the music industry today. Britney Spears, Korn, and Roger Sanchez have all called upon Adrian Lux to mix some of their top songs. You can even hear some of his tracks right along side Electronic music’s duo giants, Daft Punk, in the “Tron” movie score. One of his most notable tracks, “Teenage Crime”, was actually written by Adrian and his father. It is basically a story of Adrian’s younger days when he and his friends would tear up the town and not want the night to end. “A crime is a crime, but a teenage crime is something like breaking curfew,” Said Adrian Lux, when speaking about the song in a recent interview with Festival Zoo. You may also notice a familiar voice that accompanies a bunch of his tracks as the female duo composed of Rebecca and Fiona. This is also an extremely convenient pairing, as Rebecca is actually Adrian’s girlfriend.

Adrian Lux’s ability to translate his intense emotion through his turntables is what keeps dance floors around the world filled to the brim. Transitioning from powerhouse vocal tracks in to hardcore Electro throw downs and up in to those famous reach for the laser moments that every good Electronic DJ and Producer are masters of in their own right. His recent re-mix “narcissistic Cannibal”, a track originally by Korn and Skrillex, has sored on music charts around the world. You can catch this track and many others on his weekly Sirius/XM Satellite radio show, “Lux Like”. 2011 had Adrian Lux touring around the world and playing some of the largest Electronic festivals and clubs on multiple different continents; Ultra Music Festival in Miami, Beyond Wonderland in Southern California, and stops in the United Kingdom and Ibiza were all on his busy tour schedule.

MAT ZO KNOWS NO BOUNDRIES WITH MUSIC

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Mat Zo was born in London, moved to Cleveland Ohio, then moved back to London all by the age of eleven. His mother is a professional violinist, his father is a successful artist, and his half-brother is Israeli singer, Alma Zohar. It’s almost as if it was in his destiny to be involved in the arts in one way or another. His first venture in to music was when he self-taught himself how to play the guitar at only eight years old. This subsequently led to Matt playing Bass and even Drums in a couple of Jazz and Rock bands throughout London.

It was in 2001, after moving back to London with his father, that his father gave him his first computer, and it was there that he discovered the world of Trance, Drum and Bass, House and the rest of the world of Electronic Dance Music . It wasn’t long after this discovery that Mat started playing around with different beats and sounds and producing his first tracks. He eventually would go on to win the “Baroque Remix Competition” for “In My Life”, which would become the push he needed to get his name and his music in the mouths and on the turn tables of the worlds biggest DJ’s. Another rather large push to super star status happened in 2007 when world dominating DJ and Producer Tiesto, personally hired Mat to re-mix his “Driving To Heaven”, which later appeared on Tiesto’s seventh edition of his “In Search Of Sunrise” CD series.

“I’ve had a very hard time escaping this whole ‘trance’ genre. It is very limiting, especially at gigs when you get put on a trance line-up every time and I just don’t want to be exclusively part of that. It’s hard to be a part of that and be a part of something else at the same time.” – Interview with salacioussound.com

Mat does anything he can to escape having a specific label or genre attached to him. This may sound like an odd fact, given that he plays Armin Van Buuren’s “A State of Trance” (ASOT) events around the world. His live shows outside of the ASOT events consist of blending Trance in to House, and House in to Electro, Dubstep, and more. He really leaves no genre forgotten, even adding some Rock and Classical influences here and there. You may have heard of the Drum and Bass DJ/Producer “MRSA”, that also happens to be Mat Zo. “MRSA” is Mat Zo’s Drum and Bass alter ego that he brings out every now and then.

His recent schedule over the last few years has had him traveling around the world, playing to crowds of thousands at some of the largest and most well-known clubs and to crowds in the tens of thousands at multiple festivals world-wide. Taking him to Holland, Ibiza, India, Ukraine, and so many others. You never know what you are going to get with a live set by Mat Zo. It all really mostly depends on his mood before his set. No two sets with this guy will ever be the same.

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