Gatecrasher Warehouse Party, Moscow

Saturday 25th September 2004

Ideas have never flowed so easy between the UK and Russia. They’re teaching us how to buy success on the football field and we’re teaching them how to dance.

Roman Abramovich is pouring his millions into the UK faster than you can say ‘Chelski,’ but there’s a different driving force behind the renaissance of Russian clubbing: Gatecrasher.

It’s become a bit of a cliché to for promoters to say they pulled off a party ‘against all odds,’ but in this case it’s absolutely true. Fingers were gnawed and hair was pulled out but tonight the feat can only be described as a success as 10,000 people go mental inside a warehouse in Moscow.

If you didn’t know better, you’d think you’d fallen into Michael J Fox’s Delorian and gone back in time. - and it’s edgy - you have to go through three layers of ex-KGB security just to get in - but it’s ball-burstingly exciting.

The uber cool Russian clubbers are 100% up for it. There’s no posing by the bar sipping vodka or sitting around waiting for the party to start. These guys got for it from when the doors open at 5pm to way beyond closing time. There’s a musical progression throughout the night from the breaks of Hybrid to the dirty trance of Scot Project.

As he stands mesmerized by the decks n’ effects of the FUTURESHOCK boys, JFK explains what it all means to the kids out here “I went to sign some autographs before and nearly caused a stampede,” he says, over the cuts and scratches in the music. “It really feels like we’re here to liberate Russia.

The Russian public seems to agree. This is the second sold-out warehouse party Gatecrasher have thrown in Moscow this year, on top of the 40,000 people they crammed into the Fort Dance event in June. Demand for tonight’s event was so great, it’s being streamed live to 200 cities all over the former USSR on Dynamite Radio.

Inside the cavernous warehouse, there’s a bloke down the front who’s been drawing on himself for the last few hours. Everyone else is facing the DJ smiling and dancing their asses off.

When 6am rolls around they’re meant to be kicked out, but the head of security sidles up to the head promoter and begs for the event to stay open for another hour as it would be a ‘security risk’ to kick everyone out on time. Security asking for one more tune? That’s definitely an idea that should be brought home.