DKD will be open mid december.
Anyways in regards to bringing in big name DJs... to me there is a difference between bringing in a DJ and THROWING A PARTY. My biggest gripe w/ all of the big name Trance DJs that have been here is that no marketing and promoting was done at all. There were no print flyers and very few posters.. pretty much if I wasn't a frequenter of local electronic music BBS's, i'd have no idea that these DJs were even here.
Also, when i went to go see these DJs, yeah it's great for a DJ like me because I allready know the DJ and I allready know/understand the music, but for everyone else, there is NOTHING to differentiate a night at a club w/ a International DJ from a night at a club w/ a normal DJ. People here don't know the difference!
The best parties I've been to in Shanghai have NOT been superstar DJ parties.. they've been mostly lesser known DJs. Why? Because at those parties work is actually done to PROMOTE the party... for example.. I don't know if anyone remembers but there was a DJ party at Rojam the same night as Paul Oakenfold. I opted for the Rojam party because even though i didn't have a clue who the DJs were, i read that they were bringing in their own lightsystem, their own dancers, etc. See THAT is cool. I walked into Rojam that day and it didn't feel like Rojam, it felt like something special, something someone had done work for to make it seem like it wasn't "just another night" at Rojam.
Another Example would be the DKD Tsunami Beach Parties. Look how many Beach Parties there were this summer, which ones were the best, the ORIGINAL Tsunami parties. Why? Because they know how to throw a party, and they know how to promote.
Sasha may be hella **** expensive, but what I like is AT LEAST those guys are doing proper marketing for that party. There are ads and flyers all over the city, they've posted pics of their visual system, the have a humungous space and they've invited all of the top local DJs to come spin with Sasha. They are also having crazy Chivas drink specials and even free breakfast (for VIP tickets). I'm hoping that that party will set a better precedent for electronic music parties here in Shanghai, showing that to throw a good party you need to do more than just stick a DJ behind a pair of decks and just expect people to come.
The Clubbing & Music industry here is just like any other emerging market- it needs to be educated, and it needs to mature. Furthermore, if you ever wanna make money on an event, you HAVE to find a way to market to locals and not just rely on the expats, that's how you LOSE money.
Perhaps Trance, DnB, Breaks or anything not house is still too underground here, who knows? Or perhaps people here haven't been trained to differentiate between different styles of electronic music... but all will come in time. My suggestion would be, if anything, support the local DJs who try weekend after weekend to build up a scene for these big name DJs... because without local DJs, there's really just no market for International DJs.
