El Baile @ PACHA 2022 - Reviews & Reports

El Baile - what a party. Get it in your agenda

Like Flower Power on DMT
Wow i was just about to Ask, that how was the opening:) We have tickets for next week El Baile! How was it music Wise? What time should we get in? We Will Do Cova Santa as a pre-party and Then off To El Baile:)
 
El Baile - what a party. Get it in your agenda

Like Flower Power on DMT

OK, one phrase I hate using is “it looked good on the socials”…. ahhhhh. But…. It looked damned good on the socials.

The Erykah Badu set looked like some kind of Benirras Beach hippy party crossed with spaceships, LSD and some African tribal dancers. My head hurts just looking at it.
 
also quickly made it to pacha last night (was there for literally half an hour).

this one has got so much potential. good opening last night, a glimpse of what's gonna come later in the season. and yeah you can clearly see the woomoon/storytellers crew is behind this from a production & performances point of view, so much attention to detail everywhere.

to me, this is like flower power but 10x better.
 
also quickly made it to pacha last night (was there for literally half an hour).

this one has got so much potential. good opening last night, a glimpse of what's gonna come later in the season. and yeah you can clearly see the woomoon/storytellers crew is behind this from a production & performances point of view, so much attention to detail everywhere.

to me, this is like flower power but 10x better.
Maybe something for me 🤔
 
Wow i was just about to Ask, that how was the opening:) We have tickets for next week El Baile! How was it music Wise? What time should we get in? We Will Do Cova Santa as a pre-party and Then off To El Baile:)
Musically it was a really mixed bag last night. Personally, and as much as I respect her for her contribution to music, I didn't think Erykah Badu worked. The pace just slowed down too much and while there was a obviously a portion of the crowd who had come specifically to see her, she lost a lot of crowd. Kiddy Smile before her was excellent and when he moved to the Funky Room afterwards, he carried that momentum on and got that room jumping

Zakes Bantwini (who, btw has track of the summer for me so far) had a lot of work to do to pull things back as it had emptied out a noticeable amount. And straight off the bat he started with Osama which made me very happy and then continued with some great Afro House music. He did what he had to do and won the dancefloor back. So kudos to him

So last night you could've heard everything from Disco to Soul, R&B to Hip-Hop, Afro House to Jackin' House

Production is just fantastic and Pacha, which is already a club worth exploring, even moreso with what Storytellers have done. Get to the roof terrace, get to the back garden, go everywhere

And I think a rare example of a modern night that Ricardo Urgell would approve of. A party that heavily references Pacha's heritage yet pushes things forward

I would say a 01:00 arrival is perfect.

There was a bit of a press-launch/industry insider pre-party that meant there was an earlier crowd last night, so even by midnight the dancefloor had a decent number of people on it already. Between 02:00 and 03:30 it was briefly very close to Solomun levels of busy in the main room. But it was only for a short period
 
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I promised to get a fuller review of this last week and never did! So here is a quick review for 08 Sep.

Overall I thought this was an absolutely amazing night. Not sure was just me, but I actually preferred it to Saga/Bedouin the night before in terms of crowd (more on that in a bit) and a better party too. This could just have been I was pretty tired the night before - so do not read too much into that.

For El Baile Pacha really is transformed. The amount of time and investment that Storytellers/Pacha have put into this is very evident as soon as you walk in. The garden area has small stalls and shops Etc, there are tattoo areas Etc. Usually not a fan of this type of thing but really worked I thought.

Spent most of the night in the main room for Jellybean & Layla Benitez B2B. As always with those two pitched perfectly. Perfect mix of House/Disco and just SO great to hear this music in Pacha. As much as I love the heavy Solomun type night, Pacha is always best when it has those House beats pumping through it. Really good set overall.

Another thing I am never usually a fan of is 'shows' or people swinging from the roof in clubs. Not sure why, just not usually my thing, and often you just think 'seen it all before'. But holy-cow this is next level kind of stuff, and total professionals - not just people having a go. The dancers, the people hanging from the ceiling by a nose-ring are all excellent and it adds to the overall night.

Sounds cliché, but it is just some immersive experience, but its all still about good music and dancing.

The crowd surprised me too! I was expecting an older crowd, and less younger folks., but it was really a mixed crowd, some really cool kids having a great time and was great to see.

They are really onto something with this night in my opinion. Hopefully next year they will have more time to make the line-ups a bit more consistent, and my guess is some more bigger names will want to be part of it too. Really hope they keep going with this project....
 
I promised to get a fuller review of this last week and never did! So here is a quick review for 08 Sep.

Overall I thought this was an absolutely amazing night. Not sure was just me, but I actually preferred it to Saga/Bedouin the night before in terms of crowd (more on that in a bit) and a better party too. This could just have been I was pretty tired the night before - so do not read too much into that.

For El Baile Pacha really is transformed. The amount of time and investment that Storytellers/Pacha have put into this is very evident as soon as you walk in. The garden area has small stalls and shops Etc, there are tattoo areas Etc. Usually not a fan of this type of thing but really worked I thought.

Spent most of the night in the main room for Jellybean & Layla Benitez B2B. As always with those two pitched perfectly. Perfect mix of House/Disco and just SO great to hear this music in Pacha. As much as I love the heavy Solomun type night, Pacha is always best when it has those House beats pumping through it. Really good set overall.

Another thing I am never usually a fan of is 'shows' or people swinging from the roof in clubs. Not sure why, just not usually my thing, and often you just think 'seen it all before'. But holy-cow this is next level kind of stuff, and total professionals - not just people having a go. The dancers, the people hanging from the ceiling by a nose-ring are all excellent and it adds to the overall night.

Sounds cliché, but it is just some immersive experience, but its all still about good music and dancing.

The crowd surprised me too! I was expecting an older crowd, and less younger folks., but it was really a mixed crowd, some really cool kids having a great time and was great to see.

They are really onto something with this night in my opinion. Hopefully next year they will have more time to make the line-ups a bit more consistent, and my guess is some more bigger names will want to be part of it too. Really hope they keep going with this project....
Well that’s potentially ruined my 2022 club plan.
 
I promised to get a fuller review of this last week and never did! So here is a quick review for 08 Sep.

Overall I thought this was an absolutely amazing night. Not sure was just me, but I actually preferred it to Saga/Bedouin the night before in terms of crowd (more on that in a bit) and a better party too. This could just have been I was pretty tired the night before - so do not read too much into that.

For El Baile Pacha really is transformed. The amount of time and investment that Storytellers/Pacha have put into this is very evident as soon as you walk in. The garden area has small stalls and shops Etc, there are tattoo areas Etc. Usually not a fan of this type of thing but really worked I thought.

Spent most of the night in the main room for Jellybean & Layla Benitez B2B. As always with those two pitched perfectly. Perfect mix of House/Disco and just SO great to hear this music in Pacha. As much as I love the heavy Solomun type night, Pacha is always best when it has those House beats pumping through it. Really good set overall.

Another thing I am never usually a fan of is 'shows' or people swinging from the roof in clubs. Not sure why, just not usually my thing, and often you just think 'seen it all before'. But holy-cow this is next level kind of stuff, and total professionals - not just people having a go. The dancers, the people hanging from the ceiling by a nose-ring are all excellent and it adds to the overall night.

Sounds cliché, but it is just some immersive experience, but its all still about good music and dancing.

The crowd surprised me too! I was expecting an older crowd, and less younger folks., but it was really a mixed crowd, some really cool kids having a great time and was great to see.

They are really onto something with this night in my opinion. Hopefully next year they will have more time to make the line-ups a bit more consistent, and my guess is some more bigger names will want to be part of it too. Really hope they keep going with this project....

I think it's great that there is that theatrical spectacle for people who really want to immerse themselves in something beyond the usual ice cannons. I remember a 90s club on the outskirts of Barcelona called Batikano which was decked out like a church with nuns and priests in suspenders dancing on podiums and it was pretty entertaining. There is obv a thin borderline between kitsch and naff but sometimes it is a wow experience. A world away from boring techbros in SuperDry tees.
 
How was last night @TiffyBennett1 @Sassette

Did you make it?

We did and really enjoyed it although we only stayed for a few hours … you were right about the set up they had gone to masses of effort with dressing the club … as normal for certain nights roof terrace was closed and part of the entrance area before the steps to the dance floor curtained off but this worked well and if anything they needed a bit more space at peak time 0230 …. Kerala Dust (Cowboy electronica type sound ?) played a hybrid set which was a bit different but nice and 2ManyDJs (who I had never seen before and didn’t realise was made up of Soulwax and partner) started with the Marie Davidson Work it remix with the vamp sample and that Solomun used to play a lot so cool to hear that out again … then a move through a lot of recognisable mash up stuff (Bee Gees edit, Shakedown At Night) etc … other room upstairs was a bit of an urban vibe and with some BDSM type show and people where having fun in the Balearic room next to the main front entrance too … have to say if you are at a loose end on a Thursday or want something more fun than Afterlife then this is a really great option … wish we had the legs to stay longer …
 
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