2009 Miami Winter Music Conference

Pete Tong Pool Party

Irene and Luciano

Friends

WMC

Shelbourne Hotel, Luciano and Loco Dice Party

From March 24 through March 28, 2009, Miami held it's yearly Winter Music Conference. DJs' from all over the world met in South Beach, Miami, Florida, for four days of music. House, techno, bass, trance and much more of the dance music scene, were avaible at various parties hosted by hotels mostly on Collins Avenue. During the same time, the Miami Ultra Fest was going on where famous DJs' such as Tiesto and ATB were spinning great tunes... but located too far from the main strip where the Winter Music Conference was being held.

I got to see Luciano and Loco Dice (House music) spin from 2 p.m. through 10 p.m. at the Shelborne Hotel Pool Party. To my surprise, MANY Italians and other Europeans were there. Americans did not know much about the music of Luciano and Loco Dice. They were great and the music always had my body dancing.

Because I wore heels at the pool party, I then paid the price of pain and soreness in my feet for the next two days. The following day we went saw Pete Tong and other DJ's at Surfcomb Hotel. The crowd was entirely different from the previous day. More Americans were present, and their style of clothing was different as well. Many super fit people wearing top trendy brands of the moment (Ed Hardy, Juicy, etc). The musis was good, but started to sound the same by the third hour.

That evening, our friend's cousin was having a fashion show at the Fontaine Bleu, a fancy hotel in Miami. The hotel was awesome, in the back pool area were tons of hot tubs...almost 10 per section. The hotel was something. The fashion show had ended right when we got there. We had a few drinks, we were told Fergie and Pam Anderson were around, but we never saw them. We went back to the main bar, and went home. A good evening, not too bad. I love nice modern hotels, and this was one of them. The architecture was neat, and had a modern spa feel to everything where earthy tones were mixed with silver metal accents and dark marble.

The third day we went back to the Shelbourne Hotel where the Ibiza Pool Party was happenin'. An English man wanted to get in, and we had an extra ticket...he said they were $35 at the door, so we sold it to him for $30 (which was the original online price). At the door, the tickets were $65... talk about rip-off and bad business skills on behalf of my brother. We are honest people, so it's ok, and we were there for the music.

This party was good, I got to sit by the swimming pool the entire time, which lead to a massive sunburn on my shoulders. We were able to meet new people, Italians, Texans, New Jersey. The music was good, but I have to be honest, it just set the party mood because we were having a great time with friends, old and new.

I had two $16 dollar fresh fruit alcoholic smoothies from a man who lives in Ibiza, Spain. Irene (my good friend) and I also saw and met Luciano and asked him about the sold out tickets to his event that same evening, Circo Loco.

As just mentioned, Irene was determined to go to Circo Loco, no tickets, and they were sold out. We call the cell phone number listed on the event information, and a man named Ali told us to be at the door at 10 p.m., and tickets were $50. We got ready, took a terrible cab ride to downtown Miami that cost $60.... we arrived, and the tickets were $100 each, sold by Ali who had told us they were half that price. We were not even on the list as Luciano said he would have done. We returned to South Beach to have the BEST Hookah ever...Mojito Hookah.

All I have to say about the Hookah is: fresh, summer, minty, exotic, relaxing...plain wonderful.

We returned to the hotel thinking about what a great time we had, no matter what. We did not get to spend time on the beach if you were wondering...the winds were pretty high, and sand was blasting in our faces. We chilled around South Beach and did some cab exploring as well.

We ate mainly at Italian Restaurants, but also enjoyed a little junk food at Jerry's Famous Deli where a scene from Scarface was directed.

The marketing at the WMC was amazing. Posters, banners, flyers, free magazine and cd's were many of the free promotional items received. The energy drink promoted was Sex Drive, but not many people seemed to be interested. The taste was ok, but nothing I would buy since I like the Sugar Free Red Bull.