Sydney's Party-Starters Look Back On Their Favourite Club Memories

As showcased in the recently wrapped 2015 Vivid spectacular, Sydney knows how to party. Few in the city know how to party better than those in charge of curating The Studio @ Vivid, presented by Red Bull Music Academy, that took place over five nights last month. Some of the key players involved in the program took a dive into the smoke-machine laden pool of nostalgia and relayed their favourite party memories from the city of Sydney.

SIMON CALDWELL (MAD RACKET)

New Years Eve 2001 Mad Racket.

People waltzing to jazz music, then dancing to house music until the morning, it kind of felt like a bunch of kids had taken over a grown-ups' party. Prop, featuring a pre-Presets Kim Moyes, also played alongside Herbert's trio. Special mention: Jamie Lidell playing with a band on the bowling green.

JIMMY SING (GOODGOD SMALL CLUB)

Young Turks takeover Goodgod, Feb 2012.

In 2012 I met Caius, Molly, Katie and Tic who run Young Turks whilst they were out for Laneway. When Caius walked into Goodgod he got real excited about putting on a party with us. We had a night free at the club in two days. Somehow this was one of those perfectly effortless nights from the idea, to getting word out, to the flow of everyone's sets and special collaborations - it was just meant to be. By memory the night flowed from Young Turks DJs into Bullion into Caroline from Chairlift improvising with John Talabot into Sampha singing into DJ Oneman (the recording of his set that night has been well appreciated too!) into SBTRKT. I don't recall that order of proceedings being planned out but it was eight hours of party that left everyone in the room - including all the Young Turks guys - completely inspired.

TOM HUGGETT (ASTRAL PEOPLE)

Canyons 'Fire Eyes' Launch @ Goodgod Small Club w/ Jimmy Sing, Steele Bonus & Toni Toni Lee - 10th October 2009

It was the very early days of Goodgod's inception and at this point in my life I had never entered a club so smoky. The club was covered in palm leaves and the only light in the club was the light illuminating from the projections on the wall. Canyons played one of the best DJ sets I've ever heard which I swear opened with some weird remix/edit of Black Box's "Everybody Everybody". It was just one of those rare Sydney nights where the vibe was just perfect. If you've ever been to an Astral People party then you've probably noticed that this night had a big influence on us aesthetically… especially in the smoke machine department.

LORNA CLARKSON (RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY)

Kooky, Sydney

The best parties are when you have the perfect storm of great friends, great sound system and the music is unexpected end exciting. And people are there to dance - not 'be seen'. Kooky delivered this consistently every Sunday night over at least two years in the 90s and I don't think I missed a week!

Want more features, news, tracks and mixes? Like THUMP on Facebook