Released
21 & 22 August 2004
- Following the craze of Euro 2004 and the Olympic Games, people that visited Greece and were in Mykonos for holidays this summer had the chance to come across a “huge” line up at Cavo Paradiso Club. Mykonos has the fame of the most glamorous Greek island that started being a “trendy” holiday destination during the extravagant 60’s - 70’s era; since then it’s attracting many Hollywood stars, politicians and artists every single summer. This summer Madonna, Britney Spears and Jennifer Aniston amongst others dropped by for a short trip during the Athens Olympic Games; of course don’t forget that Mykonos has the reputation of being the most gay-friendly island in the world…
Well enough with this kind of information. Let’s focus at the musical side of the island for a while. Cavo Paradiso is the best club in Mykonos and has the reputation of being the best open air club in Greece; located nearby “Paradise beach” on a hill, it has a great view at the sea, and it is probably one of the best clubs I’ve ever been. A huge swimming pool makes things better if you consider that the events start sometime after midnight and finish at around noon; when the sun comes up the pool is very, very useful. With a capacity of 3500 clubbers, Cavo is definitely the ultimate place to party in Mykonos! Moreover, it is well known across the “House family” that David Morales celebrates his birthday every summer at this venue for some years now.
This year, it was Cavo Paradiso’s 10th birthday and as everyone expected, the line up was hot… From early June to early September many “superstars” took over the dexx of Cavo. Terry Francis, G Pal, Sasha, Digweed, Billy Nasty, Deep Dish, Carl Cox, Silversurfer, Richie Hawtin, James Holden, Frankie Knuckles, Kevin Yost, Angel Moraes, Martin Solveig, Francesco Farfa, Sander Kleinenberg, Junior Sanchez, Satoshi Tomiie & Hector Romero, Tony Humphries, Todd Terry, Steve Lawler, Dave Seaman, Danny Howells, James Zabiela, David Morales & Danny Rampling, Nick Warren, Little Louie Vega, Junior Vasquez, Hernan Cataneo and Marco Carola are few of the names that “rocked the house” this summer.
We were happy to be at two of the best parties on the 21st and 22nd of August, when Little Louie Vega and Junior Vasquez appeared respectively. We arrived quite late (around 5 am) on Saturday 21, and by the time we entered the club, Louie was “in charge” of the DJ booth. Everybody started calling his name and at that point I realized that it was going to be a hell of a party! Before starting his long set, a drag show took place with the “diva” singing and dancing near the booth (check the photos to see what I mean). It caught me by surprise that the Greek crowd welcomed this show and appreciated it so much that warmly applauded and rushed into taking a few snap shots with the really tall “show woman”. The party had started and it looked for a while that the crowd was a little bit disorientated; after a couple of tracks though, everybody was dancing to the rhythms of the “maestro”. His set was full of funky, latin, deep, disco house and he managed to keep the people dancing all the way till noon. He cracked out some old time favourites like Giorgio Moroder’s feat. Donna Summer – I feel love, some older and newer MAW tracks and remixes and of course many summer anthems that drove the crowd crazy (again check the photos for that). During his long set that finished at around noon, there were quite a few fire-juggling shows! The place was packed until early in the morning and it looked that the 3500 people and Louie himself had a really good time. The atmosphere during the night (and day) was more than positive and all you could see around you was smiley faces that enjoyed the music. What a night!!!
At around noon we decided to go for a swim in one of the many beautiful beaches around the island. We had a bite, a nap and started getting dressed for the next party on Sunday night. Guest DJ that night at Cavo Paradiso was Junior Vasquez. The legendary DJ/producer from New York, co-owner of Rhythm Factory and resident at Exit, Twilo and more. It was the first time that Junior appeared in Greece so everybody was excited about his first ever set at Cavo. Unfortunately the place was not that packed as it was on Saturday (probably most of the people were exhausted from the wild partying the previous night). However, everyone that was there was certainly a Junior fan and what is more, there was plenty of space to dance! A beautiful night with Junior playing some of his remixes and tracks that I didn’t expect to listen to that night like “Push the feeling on” by the Nightcrawlers!!! His set was much shorter than Louie’s and for 3 hours, he managed to create a vibe that all his fans will remember for a long, long time.
If you are planning to visit Greece you must go to Mykonos, pay a visit to this club and feel the gooood vibrations.