Ahmed El-Gamal (American University of Sharjah) wrote:
8 hours ago
Yo, so as i promised here is the review of the tiesto night that took place at CHI a couple of hours ago. 4:24 am now
Ok, so here it goes.
Doors open at 7:30-ish, bouncer crowd taken from various clubs, if im not mistaken i recognized a dude from peppermint, and i think one from ibo as well. in any case, long ass que outside, lots of people that were selling off their ticket (at ridiculous prices) cus they werent able to come in cus of ID problems (if ur under 21 then stay out, thats my opinion). The crowd really lacked etiquette, shitloads of people cutting in line, and at some point when ur standing for half an hour without moving, u would eventually do the same. In any case, i found parking easily, parked across the road in front of AL HAJ Cafeteria, so convenient, i walked for 3 mins. i was in by 11:15-ish & the place was PACKED!
Some of my mates were already inside, some still on the way. 12:00 chimed, and the doors were closed. and i mean sealed. there as the expected rampage, what can 5 bouncers do to a crowd of music-hungry people! NOTHING! people snuck in thru the trees, pushed the barriers down blah blah blah. the main cause of the havoc was there were lots of people still standing in que, mistake here was that there was only 1 regular entrance! if theyre gonna do an event like this, they need at least 2 entrances, and separate exits! instead, people entered and exited from the same place.
Moreover, the ID check was causing a delay, people used to try again and again, they tried to be through, but when u have a stampeed of people pushing behind u, there is no turning back, and the only was is in. So once the doors were shut, people went thru extreme measures to get in, they pushed the doors down a few times, people started climbing the lodge building, jumping over the fence, etc etc... both guys and girls were doing that, there were a few girls that climbed on to the roof but too afraid to jump down later on. that whole drama went on for approximatley half an hour.
Tiesto came onto the scene at exactly 12:07 cheers, crowd, yadda yadda yadda. The crowd was predominantly F-speakers, F standing for Farsi or French. I dont know why. There was a very big percentage of iranians there. dont get me wrong i love iraniane, 2 of my best friends are iranian, i just needed a translator whenever i met someone "Salam, chi tori, chi kar mikoni, khobam..." thats all i know
The place was packed and i blame the management for that. they kept saying tickets were running out etc etc. BUT what do u know, they were still selling tickets at the door, at regular prices! so it was quite a surprise.The choice of the venue was a total mistake, i think CHI needs to go thru another renovation after what it went thru tonight, dont get me wrong, but the club is one of the hottest new venues in dxb, its just that it isnt that well designed in terms of circulation. It got very crowded at some areas. There is a nice outdoor dancefloor right underneath the DJ booth. Problem is, it wasnt big enough belive it or not.
The music: i felt like i was listening to my iTunes. Tiesto started with Dance for life, he then played Just Be, Moonlight Party, Love Comes again, Adagio For Strings, Pirates, etc... basically most of his typical tracks, he was A LOT better last year that he came. I felt that my itunes could have done a better job, nothing WOWed me that night regarding the music. the crowd was dancing though, and the high end laser lights and special effects kept them going.
The people: Ok the bad etiquette didnt stop at the door, it went on thru the night, a lot of people were just frustrated cus of what happened at the entrance they just werent in the mood to party, or they let it out on other people. I witnessed 4 fights that night. i was about to have another one with this guy, but it ended before it started, so let me tell u what happened, i was standing with my mates on the dance floor and he wanted to pass from behind me, being respectful i moved the space i could, and there was nowhere else i could go, so the little bitch says "i asked u to fucking move" i replied "how bout i move up ur ass bitch, where the fuck do u u want me to go" in the process we shove each other, but then it ends, too bad, i wanted to kick some little bastard ass! hahahaa kiddin, anyways, obviously guy to girl ratio is 5:1, ok it wasnt that bad, maybe 3:1 thats ur typical dubai club guy:girl ratio. The white concept was an intriguing idea, kindda like the sensation white parties they have, but they didnt really require for people to dress from head to toe, in face some people werent even wearing white, theyre were wearing orange with 1 white thin stripe across their chest for example! they were selling TIESTO t-shirts at the door for the colorful guests that night (probably at a ridiculous price, i didnt check), but as soon as their people were in, the tiesto t-shirts were off. in fact by the end of the night, i spotted 6 shirtless guys, and 3 girls in just their bra! One thing that pissed me off was the excess amount of whistles. Just like the first tiesto event, the crowd was given whistles, i dont know why, it was fucking pathetic and fucking annoying! how old r u! The main colors outside was blue with green laser beams, and inside the VIP it was red. Speaking of VIP, by 12:45 i was in VIP, dont wask me how, a friend was inside, and sortta pulled me in. The bouncer didnt check, it was very overrated, and nothing VIP about it. Its noy like i snuck into the place, it was just open, and trust me you would have rather been outside. There werent any speakers inside, so the noise came from the outside speakers.
The vip was a bit of a hoax, oddly shaped lounge benches which people used to stand on surrounded by stringy curtains. 13,000 Dhs for that! Did any celebs come? Well besides the dude that looks like an identical copy of Nancy Ajram, (vanity insanity) hahahaa, no one else. There were a few TV cameras in there, i spotted an Mtv crew interviewing people. but that was about it. I didnt have HIGH expectations for this event, but i didnt expect it to be THAT fucked! so i dont want to hear "I Told you so" cus hey you live u learn!
I paid 250 to listen to my iTunes!
To sum it all up, no more big events for me. Dubai is not ready for something at such a scale, neither in Management sense, or in Venue location sense. I hope i didnt forget something, i think i covered it all. 5:08 am now. good night
ps: i dont fix my typo errors, and im not gonna re-read it to check the grammar, its bloody 5 in the morning! deal with it!
Stuart Wilson wrote
2 hours ago
nice review mate, especiall as i see it was done at 4AM, lol.
something wich u did miss however was an outsiders perspective, i use this term literally, as i never made it inside.
absolute bastards, i paid 250AED and never even made it inside. was waiting in the line for an hour and they just closed the doors!
the actual riot was caused because of the bouncers! my mate saw a glimps of a bouncer beating the shit out of some poor guy and then everyone just ran for the gates. people banging on the doors for ages and then people jumping he fence (god knows what happened to these people when they got on the other side). by this point i gave up and decided to go to trilogy, whilst walking back i found that most of the people were in the same situation as me, everyone had a ticket! how can it be that they were selling ticket on the door, they were so full inside, and u had a mob of clubbers outside who have already purchased a ticket!
this club is absolutley pathetic!
Ribal N wrote
at 12:01pm
Tiesto by far was the greatest clubbing experience in my life...his music..his lights the atmosphere was fuckin wicked...best night..for whoever who missed it..tough luck..for those who were there...Tiesto is No 1
SO there we have it- TIESTO in Dubai getting mixed reviews- we were kinda expecting to read some controversy... indeed we got it!
