Singapore is a serious place. On the flight in we're handed a landing card bearing the statement 'Death penalty for drugs traffickers' in large, red letters.
Zouk Out was the country's first large, 8,000 strong, dance music festival.
It was also the first time an event had been granted a licence past 3am.
You don't mess around there then.
But despite this potential setback Singapore has one of the best clubs in the world, Zouk.
It's a fantastically cool club that invites some of the worlds' key players from the DJ circuit to play there almost every week.
It was the people behind this who organised Zouk Out. They chose Silosa Beach on Sentosa, a little resort island linked to Singapore by a bridge complete with security gate.
Silosa has the kind of paradise beach you think only exists in your imagination. White sand. Palm trees. The sun setting over, and then melting into, the sea. A gas works station. Oh yes, that as well, but the eyesore didn't really matter.
The event kicked off at 5pm prompt with a sublimely mellow chill out set from Chris Coco in the House/Techno Tent. Meanwhile in The Phuture/Wall of Sound Tent break dancing outfit Radikal Forze were performing to a very enthusiastic crowd. Run DMC's 'It's Like That' was greeted with a roar as the crew flipped tricks and spun heads like the best of them.
Back in the House/Techno Tent the pace quickened with surprising speed as Zouk resident DJ, Jeremy Boon dropped a pacey deep house selection and paved the way for X Press 2's Diesel.
A few showers of rain (yep it was the monsoon season) helped to pack out the various tents and freshen the air for the hours ahead.
Jacques Lu Cont played a surprise French filtered disco set, rather than the beats and Eighties stuff that people were expecting. Local bands played the Main Stage, unfortunately I missed Force Vomit (!) but caught effective reggae band The Bushmen.
Later another Zouk resident, Adam Low, played a cool house set
before Rocky from Xpress 2 took over with his deep and chunky slabs. The crowd went ballistic.
By now we were over half way through this 13 hour dance event and the people weren't letting up. A mixture of young and not so
young, gay and gorgeous, pretty and absolutely beautiful music lovers.
The Mambo Stage, tucked away in a far corner was the commercial area. DJs there played 'eclectic' stuff from EMF, Abba and Tears For Fears, fuelling a fun party atmosphere.
Richie Hawtin hit the House/Techno Tent with his intense decks, fx and 909 rhythm attack at exactly the same time as Dave Seaman was trancing out on the Main Stage.
A slight programming error here but it seemed to work OK.
Then Seaman played 'Music' by Xpress 2 and mayhem broke loose on the sandy dance floor, slapping broad smiles on the faces of Rocky and Diesel.
Looking forward to Zouk Out 2 already.
