6 Things About Zouk As It Hosts Final Party At Jiak Kim Premises

The curtain falls on Saturday (Dec 3) on Zouk's home since 1991, as the club hosts partygoers for the last time at its Jiak Kim Street premises.

Zouk, one of Singapore's most popular nightspots and arguably one that many here have grown up with, is moving to its new home at Clarke Quay on Dec 17.

The club has enjoyed great success in its 25 years at its current location in warehouses gazetted for conservation, becoming an icon here and a must-go venue for those looking to experience the clubbing scene.

Its last party is expected to be full-house, with 4,000 people turning up at the award-winning club.

Here are six things to know about Zouk.

1. IT IS CLOSING ITS CURRENT PREMISES AFTER BEING BOUGHT OVER BY GENTING HONG KONG

The home-grown club was bought by conglomerate Genting Hong Kong late in 2015 and has since embarked on an international expansion drive including a cruise edition Zouk At Sea, a club aboard the Genting Dream ship.

It has held a series of farewell dance nights with different themes throughout 2016, and is going out with a bang on Saturday night (Dec 3).

Jiak Kim Street has been its home for 25 years. Zouk has invited partygoers to join in the celebration of its run there with the hashtag #ZoukAtJiakKim on Instagram and Twitter.

2. IT IS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE BEST CLUBS IN THE WORLD

Zouk has been named Singapore's Best Nightspot Experience by the Singapore Tourism Board a record nine times, but the rave reviews are not just from within Singapore.

It placed sixth in the latest DJ Mag's Top 100 Clubs (considered an industry standard), beating out other world-famous clubs such as Greek Mykonos island's Paradise Beach Club. Its highest ranking was fifth, in both 2012 and 2013, quite a feat considering the competition it faces from other cities known for their nightlife such as Ibiza and Las Vegas.

The club has also been mentioned in global publications such as Time and Wired.

3. IT WAS HOUSED WITHIN HISTORICAL BUILDINGS

The land on which the club was originally located had three dilapidated warehouses — built in 1919 — on it when the club owners tendered for the location.

Instead of tearing down the buildings, the owners cleaned it up, restoring its facades, and renovating the interiors to a more modern design while keeping its traditional architecture.

There have been multiple revamps of the place since it opened its doors in 1991.

4. ITS NEW VENUE AT CLARKE QUAY OPENS ON DEC 17

Zouk will start operations at its new home in Block C of Clarke Quay on Dec 17. It takes over a 30,000 sq ft space previously occupied by public-listed company LifeBrandz. The move was originally planned for June, 2015, but was pushed back.

5. THERE IS A BRANCH OF THE CLUB IN KUALA LUMPUR

Zouk KL opened in Jalan Ampang in March 2004, and moved to a new $14 million facility at Jalan Tun Razak in KL in August, 2015.

The 106,000 sq ft complex, launched at lifestyle and entertainment enclave TREC, features 11 venues including an electronic dance music (EDM) and mash-up room called Phuture, a balcony deck playing hip hop, trap and house music, and a members' lounge with a gold slide.

In 2014, the club won the Nightspot Platinum Award at the Mayor's Tourism Awards in Malaysia.

6. IT IS BEHIND SINGAPORE'S BIGGEST DANCE PARTY

Every year since 2000, the club organises ZoukOut, seen as one of Asia's largest music dance festivals. Usually held at the end of the year on Sentosa, the event attracts people from all over the world looking for an electronic music extravaganza.

Besides boasting huge crowds - the event drew 45,000 over two days in 2015 in its 15th edition - the organisers of the event regularly manage to get some of the dance genre's biggest names to come and grace the festival. Among the renowned DJs to turn their tables at Zoukout are Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk, Avicii, Tiesto, David Guetta and Paul Oakenfold.

This year's edition will be held on Dec 9 and 10 at Siloso Beach, Sentosa, and will be headlined by acts such as Russian-German DJ Zedd and Hardwell, who is consistently ranked as one of the top DJs in the world.

However, this year's event has been marred by an online ticket scam which cheated at least 23 people out of a total of $3,400.

From: The Straits Times