ZoukOut is an annual dance music festival held in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

since 2000. One of Asia's biggest music dance festivals, it is organised by

Zouk Zouk is a musical movement pioneered by the French Antillean band Kassav' in the early 1980s. It was originally characterized by a fast tempo (120–145 bpm), a percussion-driven rhythm and a loud horn section. The fast zouk béton of Martini ...

Singapore. DJs that have performed at ZoukOut include

Paul Van Dyk Matthias Paul (; born 16 December 1971), known professionally as Paul van Dyk () is a German DJ, record producer and musician. One of the first true renowned DJs, van Dyk was the first artist to receive a Grammy Award nomination in the newly a ...

, 2ManyDJS,

Masters at Work Masters at Work is the American garage house production and remix team of "Little" Louie Vega and Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez. The duo has produced music together under the names MAW, KenLou, Sole Fusion, Hardrive, and Nuyorican Soul. They have been ...

Gilles Peterson Gilles Jérôme Moehrle MBE (; born 28 September 1964), better known as Gilles Peterson (), is a French broadcaster, DJ, and record label owner. He founded the influential labels Acid Jazz and Talkin' Loud, and started his current label Brow ...

Richie Hawtin Richard "Richie" Hawtin (born June 4, 1970) is a British-Canadian electronic musician and DJ. He became involved with Detroit techno's second wave in the early 1990s, and has been a leading exponent of minimal techno since the mid-1990s. He beca ...

Sven Väth Sven Väth (born 26 October 1964) is a German DJ and electronic music producer. He is a three-time DJ Awards winner, and his career in electronic music spans over 30 years. The single " Electrica Salsa" with OFF launched his career in 1986. Refe ...

Peter Kruder Peter Kruder (born 1967 in Vienna, Austria) is a Viennese artist, producer and DJ. Together with his partner Richard Dorfmeister he is the founder of the duo Kruder & Dorfmeister and the record label G-Stone Recordings. Since the release of the '' G ...

James Lavelle James Lavelle (born 22 February 1974) is an English electronic musician, record label owner and curator. He founded the Mo'Wax record label in 1992, and has been the only constant member of UNKLE. He directed the 2014 edition of the Meltdow ...

, Armin Van Buuren and Stereo MC's.

History

In 2000, Zouk started an all-night dance music festival, ZoukOut. The dance festival was held at Siloso Beach at

Sentosa Sentosa Island, known mononymously as Sentosa, and formerly ''Pulau Belakang Mati'', is an island located off the southern coast of Singapore's main island. The island is separated from the main island of Singapore by a channel of water, the K ...

, Singapore. ZoukOut 2010 celebrated 10 years of the festival in December 2010. It was held on Saturday, 11 December at Siloso Beach,

Island from 8pm-8am. The three headline acts performed at ZoukOut 2010 were multi-platinum selling artiste

David Guetta Pierre David Guetta ( , ; born 7 November 1967) is a French DJ and music producer. He has over 10 million album and 65 million single sales globally, with more than 10 billion streams. In 2011, 2020 and 2021, Guetta was voted the number one D ...

, world-renowned trance DJ

Tiësto Tijs Michiel Verwest (; born 17 January 1969), known professionally as Tiësto ( ), is a Dutch DJ and music producer from Breda. He was voted "the Greatest DJ of All Time" by '' Mix'' magazine in a 2010/2011 poll amongst fans. In 2013, he was v ...

and Grammy award-winning

DJ Jazzy Jeff Jeffrey Allen Townes (born January 22, 1965), known professionally as DJ Jazzy Jeff (or simply Jazz), is an American disc jockey (DJ) and music producer. He was a member of DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince with Will Smith. He is credited, alo ...

. The 10th anniversary saw a record attendance of 28,000 party-goers. As a result of such high demand from people wanting to attend and its growth in popularity, ZoukOut set out to hold the event from 2012 on a two-day basis (Friday & Saturday). ZoukOut has since held the festival for two-days at Siloso Beach, Sentosa over the past few years. The 17th edition of Zoukout took place on 8–9 December 2017 at Siloso Beach and featured a gamut of acts, including Hip-Hop, Techno, House, Commercial EDM, Trance and more. In 2019, ZoukOut announced they will not be holding the festival. From 2020 to 2021, ZoukOut was not held due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore The COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first case in :Singapore was confirmed on 23 January 2020. Early cases ...

. In 2022, ZoukOut was held on 3 and 4 December. Due to the earlier heavy rain, a VIP area was sunk in and the police went to assist in evacuating the people. During the evacuation, police officers were reportedly splashed with an "unknown liquid believed to be alcohol". A 32-year-old woman was arrested for allegedly "using criminal force to deter public servants from discharge of their duties".

Accolades

ZoukOut has also won the

Singapore Tourism Board The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Government of Singapore, tasked to promote the country's tourism industry. History The board was first established on 1 January 1964 and w ...

’s “Best Leisure Event Experience” award thrice, between 2005 and 2020.

References

{{Electronic music festival Electronic music festivals in Singapore Music festivals established in 2000

History

Accolades

See also

References