Nike kicks off World Cup party

The World Cup has yet to kick off, but the dance parties are already raring to go: tomorrow night, “Play Beautiful,” a dance party to cheer the Korean team at the 2006 Germany World Cup in June, will begin the grind at the swank W Bar at the W Seoul Hotel in eastern Seoul.
The dress code is “chic and sporty.” To fit the theme, the party’s main sponsor, Nike, will be handing out free Nike T-shirts. There will be no soccer balls, but the athletically inspired can participate in virtual sports on Playstation and win Sony digital cameras. All activities there will benefit from groovy non-stop music, first by DJ Eugene Blake, a new face in the Seoul party scene, who will be starting out with easy-to-drink-and-dance lounge house. Next up will be DJ Sungwoo with his powerful and deep house sets.
Past midnight will be DJ Jinwook, who said he would be showcasing some of the latest samples ― all deep house and funky house ― from “Eastronika Vol. 3,” a mixed album to be released on May 2 in Korea and Japan. The “Eastronika” series is a recent collaboration and compilation of electronic music made by some of Asia’s top DJs. For the new solo release, the former model-turned-DJ spent the past three months, working on the album, from licensing to recording. If the album hits stores, Jinwook will be the first Korean DJ to release DJ music outside Korea, although a couple of Korean DJs released international singles before. Jinwook also organizes a party on the second Friday night of every month at Betty, located behind the Louis Quartorze building in Cheongdam-dong, southern Seoul.

by Ines Cho

The party is from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. The entrance fee (no free drinks) is 30,000 won ($30). For more information, Call Sway Production at (02) 544-3467.