“It’s not often you get to play to 9000 people, in
the open air, right next to the beach, watching
the sun rise over the sea,” says John Digweed,
refl ecting on his set at Metropolis, an annual
event held on the beautiful Cacao Beach, in
Bulgaria, organised by local promoter and DJ
Steven Kratchanov.
Due to return to Metropolis again this August,
John says he increasingly fi nds himself DJing in
this part of Eastern Europe, especially during the
summer months.
“I’ve just come back today from headlining the
Sunwaves festival in Mamaia, Romania, which
is run by the owners of a club called Kristal,
in Bucharest,” says John. “Over three days
they had the likes of Ricardo Villalobos, James
Zabiela, Derrick Carter and Sneak playing there.
I played to around 8000 people on the Saturday
night. The set-up was amazing and the crowd
were unreal. I did the same festival last August
and it just seems to be getting better each year.”
Digweed has been playing at venues on the
Black Sea Coast — now being dubbed as Eastern
Europe’s Riviera — for a number of years now
and has witnessed the clubbing developments
there fi rst hand.
“The scene is much younger over there and
people are generally less jaded,” says John. “The
Black Sea Coast seems to attract a really mixed,
up-for-it, Eastern European clubbing crowd and
Metropolis, Cacao Beach, Bulgaria
there are some great line-ups at the parties
throughout the summer.”
uplifting, inspiring music, dance and party,” he Sunny Beach and Cacao Beach stick strictly to
According to Argentinean DJ Hernan Cattaneo, says. “And dance music is the perfect soundtrack these sounds when it comes to booking DJs.
the rampant appetite for dance music in the for that.” According to Steven, Mania — a 1000-capacity
Black Sea coastal areas is akin to the taste young venue in the Sunny Beach resort — is the “best
people have for it in South America. SUnnYSIDE UP club at the seaside”, favouring a dark proggy,
“It’s a newer thing for clubbers from Eastern In Bulgaria, areas such as Sofi a and Plovdiv are tech-house music policy.
Europe,” says Hernan. “It’s obvious they’ve been good spots for clubbing, and last year Balkan “Sunny Beach is basically the party place at the
waiting for something like this to happen and Holidays fl ew 4000 people from Western Europe seaside in Bulgaria,” says Steven. “It’s located
dance music is youth culture in Eastern Europe out to Burgas, the country’s main airport for right in the middle of the coast so it’s easy to
now, just like it is in South America.” those wishing to access the Black Sea resorts. get there from the north and south of Bulgaria.
Hernan claims the hedonistic club scene is Musically, Bulgarian clubbers prefer house and There are good direct fl ights to Varna and lots
particularly appealing in countries where people techno, says Steven Kratchanov, one of the of charter fl ights to Burgas in the season, and
have experienced a lot of “suffering”. organisers behind Metropolis, and venues in a lot of mainly young people go there for a long
“Young people just want to go out, listen to the Bulgarian Black Sea coastal areas of Varna, weekend, from Thursday through to Monday.”
Steven has held his Metropolis parties on
Bulgaria’s Cacao Beach for 13 years.
John Digweed
“We wanted to create a platform where we could
play the music we liked,” says Steven, who was
inspired by parties such as Berlin’s Love Parade.
“Back then all the clubs were playing 100%
commercial music and it was hard to play house
and techno. Six of us started up the Metropolis
company as a joke, but at the fi rst party we did
on Cacao Beach — with just local DJs playing —
2500 people turned up.”
Today, Metropolis put on more than 130 big
events around the Black Sea area and beyond,
and have also branched out into club tours, a
record label and a booking agency.
“Musically, when we fi rst put on Metropolis we
were infl uenced by Detroit and German techno
and American house music,” says Steven. “The
Germans were the fi rst international DJs who
decided to come and play here at a time when
Bulgaria was a country they had never heard of
before in terms of club culture.”
Steven claims rave legends such as Marusha,
WestBam and Dr Motte did a lot to promote
electronic music in Bulgaria through the 1990s.
066
www.djmag.com
DJ474.black sea.indd 66 18/5/09 20:03:50
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