Better late than never? Having now fully digested Halloween weekend, we can finally review the events we attended. The drop in temperature paired with pumpkin-spice everything signals the start of the holiday season. Rather than being depressed that summer is over, we were looking forward to NY, arguably the best place to spend Halloween weekend. The city is always bursting with energy, festive spirits, and incredible parties. We’ve been going to NY for Halloween for 4 years in a row now, so we couldn’t wait to see what 2018 had in store for us. It’s no secret that we are fans of non-standard, and non-traditional parties. This does not distract us from our love for the clubs, but we have always believed the world of house music outside of the club is most-likely being attended by those who may be more passionate about the music. In turn, this community of music lovers ensures the dance floor, and performances are the center of it all, as they should be.
We started the weekend with Souq Festival on Friday October 26th at Knockdown Center in Brooklyn. Souq Festival, described as an international itinerant organization with middle eastern roots had an amazing lineup with musical talents like Viken Arman, Stavroz, Feathered Sun, Crussen, and more. The brand has developed into a cross-continental phenomenon, with events in locations like France and Los Angeles. The venue, Knockdown Center, named after their knocked-down steel frame door, is a 50,000 square foot space dedicated to events and performance arts.
As we walked into the party we couldn’t help but notice that Souq was nicely crowded, but not too crowded. There was a main room, which we spent most of our time in, and a second room accessible via the right side of the main stage. The second room was too crowded and hot for us, so we stuck to the main room. Souq was packed with people in artsy costumes, skeletons, witches, zombies and ghost like figures partying till early hours. There was a hum of excitement as people danced away to the electric sounds mixed with middle-eastern vocals and beats. Each of the artists brought stylistic diversity as they played through their sets. Throughout the night, the bar was easily accessible and we never had to queue up longer than five minutes for a drink. As a cherry on top, Knockdown Center took the opportunity to go beyond the traditional warehouse offerings by including a hot fresh pizza bar. Yum!
Time really flew by and the vibes were really strong straight to the finishing hour, but a few highlights from our night:
Stavroz, WOW! Their sound was a cocktail of indie, tribal, electronic, folk and global sounds. They inserted an overall exotic, acoustic and authentic feel to the night, and their live set was truly unique.
Viken Arman, along with other like-minded artists in the Souq Festival lineup, fused ethnic sounds mixed with electronic beats to create magical vibes that went beyond dance music. It brought us all together as we embarked in a mystical musical journey through the world.
Around 5 AM the music came to a stop, lights slowly turned on, and we were faced with the familiar scene of the night coming to an end. We were looking forward to a fabulous night filled with awesome music, and good friends, and we got much much more than that, especially since there was pizza involved.
Ciao
T&P
Techno & Pizza 