Urban Marinade

We continue our Miami Music Week coverage with a look at our Wednesday in South Beach. This was the one day that Rob and I didn’t have 5 different parties to attend, so we spent the morning shopping, enjoying cocktails and renting scooters. Yes kids, we rented scooters (see image below after the break). But once the afternoon hit, we wandered over to the massive Beatport Beach Party at the Gansevoort Hotel.

Beatport was throwing a daily party at the Gansevoort Miami Beach in association with a handful of other sponsors that wrapped up at the end of the weekend with their annual Beatport Music Awards. The party took place on a strip of beach at the back of the hotel with a daily line-up fitting for any major dance music festival. And their stage / LED backdrop made it very clear this event was going to be one of the major destinations of the week.

Wednesday was important to us because Sara Cooper PR asked us to photograph Umek and Sander Van Doorn during their sets. And Beatport media director Tyler Jensen was kind enough to set us up with all the access we could need. Which is pretty incredible when you find yourself hanging out with Tommy Lee and Laidback Luke backstage. Seriously, I think Tommy Lee is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. The guy would wander in, say hello to everyone and disappear, only to appear later at another party being friendly with everyone. Forgive the pun, but the guy rocks!



The highlight of Beatport for me was being on stage with Sander Van Doorn. I knew I liked Sander’s music and enjoyed his sets before Miami Music Week. But after spending several days with him and his crew, I grew to truly enjoy watching this man work. His style is so hard to pin down because he clearly spins trance, but will throw a hard progressive house track into the mix to completely give his sets some raw edge. I also loved his connection with the crowd. Some DJs get it, others simply do not. The image above proves my point. The crowd LOVED Sander!



To sum it all up, Wednesday at the Gansevoort was amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a better daytime festival to attend leading up to Ultra. The setting, the crowd and quality of music made for an endless photo opportunity on the beach. Thank you Beatport!!!

(oh, and here is that goofy pic of the scooter…)