Miami Sound Machine!

HOLD YOUR HORSES, STOP THE PRESS: THIS IS THE BIG ONE! At 2009's Miami Winter Music Conference, taking place from 24th - 28th March, DJmag are throwing a week of special parties to celebrate the vibrancy and innovation of our endlessly diverse scene. Still one of the most essential weeks on the dance music calendar, WMC attracts DJs, producers, clubbers, promoters and dance industry types from across the planet. This year, we're proud to slap our party stamp on it by teaming up with one of Miami's top hotels, The Shelborne Beach Resort, to bring some of the globe's best DJs together under our banner.

Wednesday 25th March is the main date for your diary at the Shelborne as we're throwing a special DJmag pool party with a dream line-up that reads like a who's who of dance. Ali Shirazinia - aka steely techno persona Dubfire - tops the bill alongside French house maestro, and next issue's coverstar, David Guetta and the increasingly on-form Steve Lawler, whose recent proclivity for bumping mini-tinged techno have resulted in his tech-tribal smash 'Kalimba' and his forthcoming remix of Radio Slave's 'Koma Koma'.
Playing live, breakbeat tinged progressive champions Way Out West take to the stage to deliver classic tracks like 'The Gift', alongside new material from their eagerly anticipated fourth studio album. Flying the South American flag, Brazil's foremost techno titans - Anderson Noise and Kompakt's Gui Boratto - will DJ, showing us how they get down, which is bound to delight the huge Brazilian contingent who are expected at this year's conference. And to cap it all off, homegrown heroes Anil Chawla and Dale Anderson will be getting the party started, fresh from the release of their sublime, genre-traversing 'Roadhouse' LP on Global Underground.

And that's not all. Over the course of the WMC week, a host of day and night raves will rock the Shelbourne with DJs including Danny Tenaglia, Josh Wink, Hernan Cattaneo, Darren Emerson, Fedde Le Grand, Sasha, Sander Kleinenberg, Nick Warren, Dave Seaman, Axwell, Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso and DJ Jazzy Jeff. In short, it's going to go right off.

In addition, the Brazilian Lounge will showcase the latest and greatest in Brazilian DJ talent and there is also an exclusive scheduled screening of Carl Cox's new DVD, and much, much more spread over the course of the week.

The already stunning, Art Deco-styled Shelborne has been entirely refurbished. All hotel residents will receive complimentary free entry to all events making a stay at the hotel an even more attractive proposition.
"It's a new hotel experience at The Shelborne," enthused marketing director Dennis Wheeler. "Our hotel policy is that guests get into all our events for free, it's their hotel. That basically saves them a hundred dollars per day in tickets just by staying in the hotel directly. There are so many advantages." The hotel will also act as a one-stop-shop for ticket buyers as The Shelborne join forces with the US club ticketing giant Wantickets.com.

"This year we're giving Wantickets our largest meeting room, which can accommodate over 150 people in line, in air-conditioning," explained Dennis. "They also have all kinds of state of the art electronic gear where you can print out your tickets for the whole week. Wantickets sell tickets for every event in Miami and they will have a ticket pick up office at the hotel."

Despite the shadow of the global financial crisis looming large over the party scene, Wheeler remained unfazed, reckoning that this year's WMC will only be partially affected.
"Obviously the crunch is hitting everyone - I think that many conventions in Miami Beach and around the world have seen a 15% decline in their occupancy. But WMC has been around for 25 years or more and has seen other recessions. This year will be as big as ever."

It's destined to be the biggest WMC yet so get over to Miami and join us at the Shelborne for a week of the freshest parties on the face of the planet!
More details here: shelborne.com.