DJs give us the thrills, the chills and the ills, and don't we just love them for it. Clubbers spend hours hurling praise in the direction of their darling mixers and producers, so when we have an opportunity to vote and make our opinions known to those who matter to us most, we do so with gusto.
The opportunity arose again in 2017 with the annual DJ Awards, which this year hit its whopping 20th milestone edition. Founded by renowned Ibiza organiser Jose Pascual and respected DJ, producer and record label owner Lenny Krarup, DJ Awards is an independent non-profit electronic music awards and has been the only one of its kind since 1998.
This year the congratulatory showdown was held at Playa d'en Bossa's plush new superclub Hï Ibiza, with us congregating in the tipi tent garden for a little socialising with the exalted nominees, industry gunners and music heads.
Luciano, Solardo and Camelphat in for the grill
With some of the big names in dance music being in there with us to boost our anticipation, it was game on in the hunt to lay down Q & A sessions with some of those nominees. Tech house magnet Luciano, brazen duo Solardo, the genre-transcending Doorly, deep house doyen Agoria and deft production duo Camelphat were the chosen ones in what we'd fittingly describe as speed dating with DJs. Short and sweet, but nonetheless packed with buzz words and sentiments.
As the clock inched closer to midnight, we moved indoors to the Theatre for a very generous helping of finger food, cava, wine and beer, which, as you can imagine, went down an absolute treat. Kudos to the finger food creators, you did good. As we munched, sipped and gossiped, music streamed in from electronic artist Henry Saiz with his live band, which was an exquisite blend of deeply woven techno.
At midnight, finally, what we'd all been waiting for descended. Presenters Des Paul and Lucy Horobin leapt onstage and we were off to rip into the categories and offload those awards. An almighty cheer rip-roared through the club as the first winners to be revealed were Graham Sahara and Paul Reynolds for the Ibiza DJ award.
Oceanic Global, Dave Browning and Eoin Smyth of Game Over, Jaun Arnau Jr and Julio Martín of elrow, and Adam Beyer
Other awards thrown into the mix went to Drumcode for Record Label of the Year with founder Adam Beyer taking to the stage, Tech House was collected by In The Dark resident Luciano, Electronic Music Pioneer was justly handed to legendary father of Chicago house Marshall Jefferson, Carl Cox lifted the Techno trophy, Electronic Live Performer went to innovative techno lord Richie Hawtin, Newcomer fell to aspiring DJ and producer Bontan, Trance was won by Hï Ibiza resident Armin van Buuren and British duo Solardo triumphed as Breakthrough winners.
Big highlights included elrow Ibiza taking home Ibiza Night, which has absolutely killed its first season at Amnesia with it being sold out nearly every single week. Oceanic Global took home the Eco Award - a special award which strives to give a shout out to the conscientious humans who promote projects to improve the environment by making themselves known through electronic music. And if you were at either of Carl Cox's PURE events at Privilege, you'll know just how damn excellent those were. It's been a while since we've seen the belly of the world's biggest club spilling with thousands of ardent clubbers, and Coxy is one of the few DJs on this planet who is singlehandedly capable of filling that room. So, the award for Ibiza Music Event couldn't have gone to anyone other than Coxy for Pure Carl Cox, with Dave Browning and Eoin Smyth of the Game Over crew collecting the award.
Awards dished out and it was time for attendees to get stuck into that afterparty. Luciano was the winner to lift Hï into full-on clubbing mode and it took a matter of minutes.
So, folks, until next year, but in the meantime the full list of 2017's winners can be found here.
PHOTOGRAPHY l Michael Tomlinson
