Is Romania the next Ibiza? ‘Yes’ says Lee Burridge

Is Romania the next Ibiza? ‘Yes’ says Lee Burridge

15 May, 2008 | 4.02AM

• Section: Music News Topics: Beatport Blog
• Written by: Ryan Keeling

The music industry would have to rank as a comfortable number one when it comes to making bold and brash proclamations about “this being the next this”.

Of all the media attention recently, Romania clubbing and its young DJ flag-bearers Raresh, Rhadoo, and Pedro have no doubt been treated to the biggest slice of the hype-flavoured pie.

With this in mind, the primary objective of Beatportal’s Romanian excursion was to try and establish if there was any proof in this Eastern European pudding, and to see what all the bloody fuss was about.

In Part 1 of our Romanian clubbing autopsy we caught up with Lee Burridge to fill in some of the gaps in our Romanian clubbing knowledge and to try to put a finger on what it is that makes clubbing out here so unique. 

Every May 1st seemingly most of Romania packs up its beach-worthy possessions and heads for the Black Sea resort of Mamaia, an 8km strip which is sandwiched between said water mass and Lake Siutghiol.

Of particular interest to us on the Friday night was La Mania, which first opened its doors in 2002, and is considered to be one of Europe’s finest venues.

As we discovered over the weekend, the DJs who command the most attention and respect are those who have steadily built up a relationship with the dedicated local crowd by consistently rocking the parties they play at and building up a level of trust as they go.

One such DJ is Lee Burridge, who we chatted to before his ‘home-coming’ at La Mania.

Firstly, Lee, I was wondering how you have come to have such a strong affiliation with the scene out here?

One - there is nowhere better to play than this in Europe.

Two - I've been coming here for a long time and three - I actually think that I look like I'm having a good time while I DJ and I’ve sort of built up this affinity between myself and the crowd here.

They are really receptive.

I've just been told that the crowd is totally different tonight and it's full of Europeans so I'll probably get booed off and have a bottle thrown at me.

...and do you think that’s down to your style?

What, getting hit by the bottle?

I think I have been coming on this holiday long enough and Mihai [in charge of La Mania’s DJ bookings] has been kind enough to bring me over here for the last 5 or 6 years now, and I always go to the beach afterwards and hang out with people and play all day there as well.

It’s like everyone feels you are giving something back. You are not just coming here to take money to DJ and then leave again.

Video: Lee Burridge on Kudos beach

Here’s a video I filmed from the DJ booth of Lee Burridge DJing on Kudos Beach after his set at La Mania.

...so actually socialising?

Yeah, you know—hang out, talk to people, take pictures, do all that kind of stuff which I don’t think of as being weird or different but you know a lot of DJs are standoffish.

They are a very warm and open crowd of people and so I’ve made a lot of friends and spent a lot of time hanging out with them so I guess that’s what it is.

That, and I’m really fuckin’ good at playing records!

Well, once a year, here.

Is there a particular sound or style you find yourself playing out here?

My style definitely has some sort of walls but they’re kind of rubbery.

I play a long time here so I’ll play everything tonight.

I’ve got some older stuff, I’ve got some newer stuff, some stuff from last year, some minimal, some tech house, and I guess...are we calling it trance?

Did you say the T word?

I did, but it’s the kind of Trance that is more James Holden and Kompakt than Armin Van Buuren and Tiesto.

Do you think Romania could go on to become a major European clubbing outpost?

I really hope so, and I’ve been almost like this ambassador for Romania trying to get people to come here and not go to Ibiza because it’s much more affordable, there’s a load of clubs, all the DJs come here, the people are cool, and the girls are really good looking.

Why wouldn’t you come here?

The beaches are nice and maybe the hotels are a little behind and not up to that standard yet, but I mean, some of the conditions people stay in in Ibiza are…

Shit holes?

Yeah.

And I will continue to try and champion it as a place, trying to get festivals to come here.

This year Creamfields is coming here in the summer.

It will be good to have different events happening and also the thing here is that there is a bunch of other cities that are really amazing.

Obviously during the summertime people will come to the coast but it’s a clubbing destination all year round.

It’s wicked. I keep calling it the Ibiza of Eastern Europe.

I coined that a few years ago and will keep saying it.

You guys are here - you didn’t necessarily come because I said so, but somebody’s told you.

It’s really fresh and it has been for quite a long time now.

It still feels that way to me.

I was quite surprised when you mentioned to me earlier you had been coming here since 2000, I thought it was something that more recent, say over the last two or three years?

It’s been like a little secret that’s been going on and on and building.

It was very locally oriented—there weren’t a lot of tourists coming here but the local crowd was, and probably still is—sorry,are—amazing.

As I mentioned, I’ve just been told there are loads of tourists here which in some respects is great, and in other respects maybe isn’t that great because I love the Romanian crowd, and I’m scared that they are not here now that he has said that.

I guess we’ll find out in the next few hours.

If people are still in here at midday then it’s the Romanian crowd, if they’re gone at 7am then we’ve got tourists.

---

The next five hours illustrated perfectly everything we had discussed.

Lee’s big room selection of tough tech house, warped minimal and selected club classics moved the sizeable crowd in a way we had not experienced on a UK dance floor for a considerable length of time.

The aforementioned remix hit the floor like a true weapon alongside other dance floor peeks provided by the recent Paul Ritch remix of Shonky, and Guido Schneider and Andre Galluzzi’s brilliantly twisted ‘Baccara’, which would have been slapped on a ‘soundtrack to the weekend’ compilation should such a thing have existed.

By 10am the crowd had thinned sufficiently (must have been half tourists) for Burridge to make Henrik Schwartz’ ‘Walk Music’ his last record of the morning and sprint down from the lofty DJ booth to have a dance with the last few remaining clubbers.

In walking around the day-lit Kudos beach with Lee, and our feeling of importance merely through association was palpable.

The amount of well-wishers, autograph-hunters and photo-opportunists was truthfully staggering.

We headed over to the Sunwaves Festival after-party at Kristal, located 50 metres down the beach to find Zip continuing his set from the night before.

After getting caught up in a spot of drinking and socialising for a couple of hours, Lee decided it was time to try and kick start the party on Kudos beach, a gig that he’s been more happy to lend his presence to since his first time in Romania.

For the first couple of hours, his and local DJ Kool’s back-to-back set drew enough of a crowd to make it an occasion, before eventually, around 3pm, the majority of the crowd from last night’s gathering emerged from their tactical disco naps ready to get the proceedings really moving.

Dancing open-air, especially on a beach nearly always beats the interior of a dark, in personable night club and this afternoon was no exception.

As enjoyable and debauched the fun was, it suddenly dawned on me that day 3 of the Sunwaves Festival was starting in five hours and we’d probably had eight hours sleep in the past three days.

I politely dipped my cap and stumbled home in order to pick up the scattered pieces and prepare to do it all over again….

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