After tons of stress and passport headaches, I’m finally in Miami for the annual Winter Music Conference, and let me tell you, I’m extremely glad to be leaving the snow behind for a few days.
Rock music has plenty of festivals, but if you’re into DJ culture, this is the event of the year for the industry. All the big songs of the next year will likely be previewed here, and this is where the world gets a sneak peak of the coming trends for the next year.
Customs wasn’t nearly as rough as people had led me to believe, for which I’m quite glad. Picking up my badge was fun – they take your photo for it (mine is awesomely bad, in a good way), and there’s DJs playing in the lobby and outside by the pool.
Talk to a bunch of randoms by the poolside bar and get a plethora of opinions on which parties are the ones to hit. Now that I’m actually here I’m starting to get a better picture of the scale of this conference. There’s too many official events to be able to attend, but the amount of unofficial events dwarfs that. Circling the skies are planes with banners advertising tonight’s options, which is actually kind of helpful, as there’s too much going on to keep track of.
I’ve already run into a few Toronto peeps – LSM of VND/LSM was at the airport in Toronto, and had missed his flight so he planned on spending the afternoon in the bar until his flight. He asked me if I’d seen Toronto based producer Sta yet, but as it turns out, he missed his flight as well. These crazy young producers and their tardiness. While waiting for a cab from the airport in Miami, talk to a few random Torontonians, all of whom were pretty hyped for the weekend.
Beginning to wish I’d arrived a couple days earlier, as I’ve already missed parties and DJs that I was interested in, but there’s no time for regrets, as there’s 24 hour a day partying until the plane ride home.
Debating having a disco nap, as I’m running on less than three hours sleep and there’s a long night ahead. On the other hand, the pool party down the street is calling…
Above: Ben’s hotel
