London DJ Stage Manager’s guide, to Sri Lanka’s clubs, beach bars and tourist hot spots
The popularity of British tourists visiting Sri Lanka, the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean” continues to grow year-on-year. The government have for this season, scrapped tourist visa’s for 35 countries.
My My Music’s artist and DJ Stage Manager, aka Dan Proxy, decided to move to Sri Lanka for part of the year in part due to increasing his overall wellness and wellbeing. The move was a chance to secure some freedom to explore his art and to hone is musical craft, away from the financial costs of living in London.
For Dan, DJing in Sri Lanka can be even more challenging than playing in London – for this is not a niche target audience, so it forces you to find common ground.
To dig deeper and deeper, testing and finding that universal appeal that ticks every single box on the dancefloor, no matter who the listener is.
You recently played a set at Ice Hiriketiya and will be back there in November. What are your other top Sri Lankan clubs, attractions and bars to visit for dance music lovers?
The scene out here is still in its infancy. I’d compare it more to the scenes in UK towns, more than in the cities.
The south coast draws a surfing crowd who love to party, but they are more obsessed with getting up early to catch the waves, so it doesn’t tend to run as late as we do back home.
Trax, Ahangama
Trax reminds me very much of the Lion & Lamb pub in Hoxton, as it has the same intimacy on the dancefloor; It’s a garden café by day and cocktail bar by night. I had the pleasure of going b2b with Robert James last season, and it is the place to play if you are a visiting International DJ.
Laura, Giles Smith and Remi Mazet have played at Trax. Tom Haus, Paloma Monnappa, Emanuel, and Leandro are the best resident DJs, so keep an eye for them too.
The Ruin, Hiriketiya
A new venue I’m most excited about is called The Ruin in Hiriketiya. They are just about to launch. It’s an incredible space, and the first time I visited, it gave me goosebumps. It’s got a VOID Soundsystem too – so The Ruin is my hot tip for this season.
Doctor’s House, Madiha
This is a stunning 200-year-old former Dutch Ayurvedic hospital, situation on the south coast of Sri Lanka, by the beach in Madiha.
They have popular nights every Wednesday and Saturday, but it’s also a great place to visit any time of the week. Guests can enjoy wood-fired pizzas, snacks and cocktails and private and dorm rooms are also available for guests to stay.
Lazies, Midigama East
Lazies is a hotel and has a stunning rooftop bar. Every Tuesday this is now the place to be. The rooftop bar draws a couple of hundred party people in each week and it’s open every day.
Other venues to mention when you’re visiting are Dots Bay in Hiriketiya, Ceylon Sliders, Lamana, Tiki Maran, Ahangama and TIKI Bar in Weligama.
Under The Radar
These organisers run their events more like traditional European underground music raves, and they feature local and international DJs across techno, break and acid.
Under The Radar have some fantastic day and all-night events and parties, with frequently changing locations.
What tourist sights are a must-see for Londoners?
Sigiriya, Lion’s Rock This is one of the wonders of the world, it has an amazing history and breathtaking views. There are a couple of super hikes here, which are totally worth the effort for taking in an epic sunrise or sunset vistas.
It’ s an ancient kingdom and the entrance through the gardens feels like something out of Game of Thrones.
Kandy
Is undoubtedly one of my favourite places to stay, as it has its own distinct culture, and the botanical gardens are a must see. If you are in Kandy, you must check out the bar Slightly Chilled.
The train from Kandy to Ella is the one of the best railway journeys in the world, and Ella is must-see. It’s a beautiful village nestled in the mountains with plenty to see and do there for a few days.There are a couple of good hikes, ziplining, quad biking etc.
There is also the famous Nine Arches Bridge, and you can walk along the train tracks too. Then of course the South Coast, which faces out towards the Maldives, has incredible beaches and a vibrant surf scene.
The best time to visit the south is between January – April, as that is the guaranteed dry season.
What are your top luxury suggestions in terms of hotels or restaurants?
There’s a fantastic selection of truly unique places to stay, in the most beautiful natural surroundings.
The Nirbana Retreat and the Palm Hotel offer an array of lifestyle options including deluxe suites and A-Frame Cabana’s. If your fancy boat parties, I would recommend Terra Resorts and Kima surf.
Nirbana Retreat
I’ve played here before, it’s Nestled on a serene inland island; this retreat is simply minutes away from world-renowned surfing on the Southwest Coast.
Relax and unwind whilst you induldge in yoga and wellness treatments all designed to rejuvenate your body, mind and spirit.
I would also suggest you visit Paradise Cove – I was playing there regularly last year and it’s a stunning beach lounge. The Ravana Pool Club in Ella, Sri Lanka’s first and largest pool club – enjoy their selection of pool parties with unbelievable views.
Sri Lanka has an amazing surf scene, any tips or insider advice?
Start off on the beginner waves in Weligama or Hiriketiya bays. There are plenty of great surf schools here.
Places like Kima and Layback, offer fully inclusive packages, accommodation, lessons, surfboard hire, food and entertainment; plus, the chance to meet and learn alongside likeminded people.Get up and get out there early to avoid the traffic.
And apply lots of zinc cream to your face to avoid sunburn. What can we expect to see from you going forward? I’m going to be launching my own weekly parties here on the south coast in Sri Lanka, as well as playing regularly for a few promoters and friends.
And I will be back in the UK next year for the festival season. I’ve been booked for an official Stage Manager set at We Out Here 2025, brought back by popular demand.
Read the full feature here
Escape the Chill: Discover London’s Hottest Daytime Clubs This November
November marks the start of a full-on daytime clubbing schedule, featuring a stellar line-up of DJs and artists
This must be one of the best-daytime runs I’ve ever seen, clearly showing the continuing success of ‘friendly’ clubbing hours and the importance of these events to keep London’s nightclubs open.
From the family friendly ‘Big Fish Little Fish’ Halloween rave to massive scale events at Drumsheds featuring Four Tet and a soulful 3-hour set from Louie Vega at Fabric, Londoners are truly spoilt for choice.
Be warned tickets are selling fast!
November’s Daytime Clubbing Highlights
Drumsheds, The Hydra x EYOE present: Four Tet Curates W/Caribou, Digital Mystikz, Surusinghe, Logic 1000, 1-10:30pm
2nd November, from £44.50
It’s an enormous festival-style lineup of artists and a collaboration with Eat Your Own Ears, set to deliver dance perfect electronic realms, in London’s epic Drumsheds.
Ministry Of Sound, Stanton Sessions Halloween Day Party
2nd November 3-10pm, from £25
It’s a massive beats & breaks party in celebration of Stanton Sessions Vol 5 album featuring the Plump DJs, Freestylers, Scratch Perverts, FreQ Nasty, General Midi and Madame Electrifie.
Woolwich Works, Big Fish Little Fish, Halloween Family Rave
3rd November 2-4pm, from £10 (pre-walking enfants are free)
The whole family (0-8) can enjoy a dance together featuring Prime Cuts and the Scratch Perverts. Enjoy ghostly ghouls, foam, bubbles and balloons with a licensed bar.
Fabric, Planet V
Saturday 9th November 2-10pm
Catch a stellar lineup featuring across an 8-hour session, featuring the likes of DJ Marky, Bryan Gee, Jumpin Jack Frost, LTJ Bukem, Calyx, Total Science and Bladerunner.
The Cause, Modern Funktion with Hamish & Toby, Luke Dean, Garrett David (live), Julian Anthony
9th November 2-10pm
Modern function is all about keeping things simple: underground house music, space to dance and local talent. No phones, no nonsense.
Drumsheds, Jamie Jones presents Paradise, from £44.50
Saturday 16th November 1-10:30pm
Jamie Jones has pulled together a hot winter lineup pushing the boundaries of electronic music across underground house and techno. Featuring acts including Hot Since 82, East End Dubs, Fleur Shore, Darius Syrossian and Rossi.
https://ra.co/events/1970766
Heaven, Raindance 35, £28
17th November 1-10:30pm
“Is this what heaven feels like” – Raindance returns to Heaven London, the spiritual birthplace of UK dance culture, in celebration of 35 years of misbehaving. Expect a unique lineup featuring new pioneers, sonic renegades, live acts and Raindance residents including Micky Finn, Tim Reaper, Uplift (UK), Trevor Fung and Arkyn.
https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/London/Heaven-Nightclub-London/Raindance-35/38062024/
Fold, Transmissions: Objekt All Day, from £10
23rd November 2-10pm
Visonary DJ and producer Objekt returns to Fold for his 2nd all-day set. Expect a sonic journey via Fold’s impressive Soundsystem.
Fabric, Peach and Strawberry Sundae, £34.60
23rd November 1-9pm
Featuring titans of the dance scene celebrating classic house, trance and old skool; Seb Fontaine, the Space Brothers, John Pleased Wimmin, Rob Tissera and Graham Gold. Enjoy the best-of-the-best in this legendary nightclub.
https://ra.co/events/2012077
Drumsheds, False Idols with Melanie C, Jessie Ware, Romy, The Blessed Madonna, b2b HAAi, Shanti Celeste, from £42.50
Saturday 30th November 1-10:30pm
It’s their third time visiting this iconic contemporary venue, marketed as one of the standout events from their AW24 season, tickets are selling fast.
Fabric, Groove Odyssey: Louie Vega (3 Hour Set)
Saturday 30th November, from £23.00
Celebrating their 15th birthday, music industry pioneers Michael Hughes and Bobby & Steve, celebrate their momentous run across three rooms of music with further guests including Groove Assassin, LEVE, Billy Cocks, Nathan Adams live and Femi Fem, plus many more.
https://ra.co/events/2015469
Meet My My Artist Dan Proxy, aka The Stage Manager
How did you first catch a love for DJing and clubbing?
I was born in North London but grew up in Milton Keynes, which was home to The Sanctuary, a legendary warehouse venue that hosted large scale raves in the early 90’s - Dreamscape, Helter Skelter, Slammin’ Vinyl and Godskitchen. I was slightly too young to attend the early raves, but I had a mate who had an older brother, and he’d bought the tape packs, the recordings from the raves.
That was how it all started for me - Randall, Slipmatt, and Carl Cox cassettes.
Clubbing and club music followed on from the rave scene and I was influenced by the first Cream and Ministry of Sound compilations, which led me into going to Ibiza the summer after I finished school in 1996. The big tunes of that summer were Tori Amos - Professional Widow, Josh Wink - Higher State of Consciousness, and Faithless - Insomnia.
I came back inspired, begged my parents to buy me some turntables and a mixer, but then I couldn’t afford to buy many records. So I picked up my first job in the industry - flyering for Godskitchen, at a club called The Vault in Northampton.
The promoter only paid me £5 a week, but it was all about getting free entry for me and a friend into the club as we were only 17, so that was the first UK club that I started going to regularly, and then I was hooked
Tell us more about your work as a former manager at London clubs Fabric, The Cause and Village Underground
Oooh, now that would be telling!
I am actually planning to write a book based on all of my experiences from behind the scenes. I am privileged to have held such a unique and insightful set of positions and responsibilities throughout this industry.
Let’s just say it was very very very intense, and it’s definitely not as glamorous as it sounds!
The clubs were all very different. I went from Fabric to The Cause in it’s infancy, with both being at completely opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of licensing and what you can get away with.
Fabric was the best possible industry training and I am proud to still be a part of their family.
But we are talking about a club with 20 years (then) of operational procedures and processes compared to a brand new club (as it was at the time), where we were still making it all up as we went along…so very different experiences
I’m very fond of Village Underground, after Fabric and The Cause, I found it super easy operationally to step down to an 800 cap venue, and my favourite part was being able to interact with all the punters on a personal level - something that you simply can’t do when you are processing thousands of people every weekend. Plus the live music during the week is brilliantly programmed.
What are some of your most cherished clubbing memories and moments?
Breakfast @ Egg was an institution back in the day when Kings Cross was the epicentre of clubbing. We’d go to places like The Cross the night before and then roll on to Egg for the ultimate afterparty, where you would join everyone else who just didn’t want to stop partying - we would just go hard all weekend every weekend. They were some of the most silliest and most spiciest scenes I can recall.
Any of the brilliant nights at The End. That was such a special club.
Mr. C’s Superfreq parties at Centrepoint in Tottenham Court Road watching a new day dawn from the 33rd floor of a central London skyscraper.
Being one of only a handful of heads at the very first Fuse @ 93 Feet East in 2008, as well as being there for the first ever Fuse party in Ibiza.
Watching Jeff Mills perform an eerie dawn breaking set on a temporary floating stage on a lake in an old disused prison quarry in Estonia.
Being brought to tears by Calibre playing such an emotional sunset set on the beach at Sunandbass in Sardinia.
Working with Katy B @ Village Underground was a pinch myself moment.
DJ’ing to over 1000 people on the campsite on the night before an EXIT Festival in Serbia. And of course the magic that happened with me stepping in and playing at Rhythm Corner for We Out Here 2023, warming up for my heroes Kruder & Dorfmeister - a young me dreamed of having that opportunity!
To be honest, its all accumulative, and every year it gets better because of all the beautiful souls that I get to connect with - special shouts out to all my Freero, Houghton, WOH and Dimension crews.
You've been part of the Houghton Festival crew since day one. It's now one of the most esteemed dates for music lovers, what has been the secret to its success?
It’s artist led, as opposed to being held for commercial reasons.
Artist led festivals are the way forwards. People have been to enough festivals now, to be able to tell the difference between when something special is done for the people attending, and when something is being done purely for profit.
It also helps that it’s a proper 24 hour programme and that there is no phone signal throughout the festival site - which forces everyone to return to the original ethos of living in the moment and being offline and representing fully.
Craig Richards is the not so secret reason for the success of Houghton. His unwavering commitment, vision and attention to detail shines throughout. It’s a real treat and privilege to be a part of Houghton’s heritage.
You also work at the We Out There festival, how did you get involved here?
That came about organically, which is nice. They needed an experienced stage manager to deal with some slightly more technical production elements, which really whetted my appetite.
I’d worked with a couple of the team on events in London so when they asked me I jumped on it in 2022 - the last year that it was held at the old SGP site.
When WOH moved to the current site in Dorset, I had already cemented my position as Rhythm Corner’s Stage Manager
You've officially launched your DJing career and live in Sri Lanka for part of the year, how will this develop your style and love for getting people onto the dance floor?
Being based in Sri Lanka allows me the freedom to explore my art, away from the financial pressures of making ends meet by being based in London.
I would liken it to the period where the The Beatles were based in Hamburg - we get to play every night, hone our craft, try different things and it’s even more challenging - this is not a target niche audience, so that forces you to find common ground, digging deeper and deeper, testing and finding that universal appeal that ticks EVERY SINGLE BOX no matter who the listener is.
Plus I’ll be bringing the sunshine music and vibes back with me every time!
What can we expect to see from you going forward?
I’m launching my own weekly parties here on the south coast in Sri Lanka, as well as playing regularly for a few promoters here. I’m going to be putting out a lot more content online and sharing some of my record collection and musical knowledge.
I’ve been booked for an official Stage Manager set at We Out Here 2025, brought back by popular demand.
The plan is to be in Europe for at least 3 months in the summer, so hopefully lots of gigs and plenty of partying, reconnecting with the culture.
What are the top tracks you always keep to hand - that always get people dancing and fired up?
Oh god, there is so much music and it’s cyclical and ever changing.
I have a few exclusive and underground tracks that use samples from Double 99 - Ripgroove, which was one of the first records I ever bought in 1997.
Rubin by Oliver Huntemann & Stephan Bodzin - is a track that just refuses to go away
More recently it’s pretty much anything by PJ Bridger, Smokey Bubblin’ B or Soul Mass Transit Authority - they’re great crossover party tune producers.
You have to dig through all their output to find their best output, their gems. That’s what I do - I dig deeper and present perhaps the artists lesser known or earlier work.
To me that’s the role of the DJ, to do the necessary homework, to be critical, and to find the cream of the crop.
Follow Dan
Daytime clubbing continues to invigorate London’s epic music scene
Daytime clubbing continues to invigorate London’s epic music scene
Are you looking to get back into clubbing? Or do you want to alleviate built up weekly office stress, with a proper dance?
Then day clubbing and an extended September festival season is for you. Dance the day and some of the night away too, with this selection of festivals and day clubbing events, featuring the finest artists from across the UK and overseas.
Celebrate your weekend with friends, family or by yourself (yes solo raving is gaining popularity across multiple generations), amongst a diverse and rich scene from jazz, drum and bass, pop, house and 80s power ballads.
If you want to dance the day away with your kids, why not celebrate 30 years of the UK’s drum and bass scene with Raver Tots, at Hackney’s Colour Factory. In partnership with One Nation founder Terry Turbo Stone, it promises to be as much a treat for the parents, as the kids.
And for all parents out there, it means you don’t have to pay pricey overnight babysitting fees. And best of all, you can jump on public transport and (mostly) be back in bed for your own 10pm curfew!
Here are a few of the capitals highlights for this September and October
Be warned, buy your tickets in advance, as these events are selling fast.
September
One Out Festival, Apps Court, 12-11pm
14th September, from £38
Held in leafy Walton-On-Thames, the One Out Festival returns to Apps Court. Featuring a mega line up of DJs including Eats Everything, Sam Divine and Flowdan.
dnb Festival, Gunnersbury Park, 12-10pm
15th September, from £67.50
7 stages, featuring over 100 artists from Hedex, Wilkinson, Dimension, Emily Makis, Fabio & Grooverider, DJ Rap, Mickey Finn, Ray Keith and Aphrodite.
https://www.dnballstars.uk/tickets
Jazz Café Festival, Burgess Park, 12-10pm
15th September, from £55
Featuring four unique stage experiences including Giles Peterson, Buena Vista All Stars, Nils Frahm and Earl Sweats.
Drumsheds, Defected London: 25 Years in The House, 1-10:30pm
28th September
With a dazzling line up included Sam Divine, Low Steppa, GlitterBox 10, The Shapeshifters, Solomon, Fat Tony and Alex Mills.
Raver Tots X United Nation at Colour Factory, 12-2pm
29th September, from £12
Raver Tots joins forces with the original one nation founder Terry Turbo Stone to celebrate three decades of drum and bass, 100% family friendly and suitable for all ages! Featuring Jungle legend Jumping Jack Frost and more special guests to be announced.
October
KOKO, Guilty Pleasures Daytime Disco, 3-9pm
19th October, from £16
The Guilty gang are back in their spiritual home of KOKO, where they resided for 15 years from 2026. From huge pop-anthems from the 70s-00s, expect giant balloon drops and power ballads.
Image Luke Dyson
Roundhouse, All Day Chaos in the CBD, 4pm – 10pm
19th October, from £27.50
This marks the duo’s only London club show of 2024. Join them for a 6 hour all day long set.
The Steel Yard, Sash! From 3pm
19th October, from £22.65
For some high energy 90s trance and dance vibes, hit the floor with Sash! You’ll soon remember his infectious classics, ‘Ecuador’ and Encore Une Fois.
Read feature here
https://www.londondaily.news/daytime-clubbing-continues-to-invigorate-londons-epic-music-scene/