Author Archives: Joost

Eva Simons to Feature at Smash The House Festival

Everyone who sees the line up of Smash The House Festival agrees within a heartbeat; this is the most epic line up any party in Curaçao has ever seen. And now we’ve gotten the news that there is another big edition to the festival: Eva Simons is coming to Smash The House Festival as well and she will do her first public DJ set ever!

Eva Simons Vocalist

Eva Simons is currently one of the most sought-after EDM vocalists in the world and has worked with big names like LMFAO, Afrojack and Will.i.am. Her cooperation with Afrojack on the hit Take Over Control resulted in a platinum single in the US (over 1,000,000 copies sold) and her cooperation with Will.i.am on This Is Love got them a number 1 position in the UK with 102,000 copies sold in the first week after release alone.


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Something Big is Coming Our Way

If you live in Curaçao you must’ve heard the rumors by now about a big EDM party coming to Curaçao early next January. Just in case you haven’t heard yet, here’s the information that’s available now.

The venue for this 2-day festival will be Kokomo Beach and the line-up is so amazing that if the festival would be held in Amsterdam, Caracas or Miami the tickets would be sold out in minutes. However, this is Curaçao so people will need to make travel arrangements to come here but since Kokomo can’t hold much more than 4,000 people we expect the tickets will still be sold out quickly.

So far, the information that’s been leaked is that it will be a super line-up, the lights and sound will be amazing and that someone special is coming to the press conference on November 6 (5.30 PM at Miles Jazz Cafe).

Update Nov 5, 2013: Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike will be the special guests at the press conference!! We know they’re on the island with their friends of WolfPack so we’re thinking they will be there too…

Curaçao Party Guide is one of the proud sponsors of this festival and we’re sure you’ll see us there 🙂

Skempi: Discover the Dutch Caribbean Musical Heritage

skempi-0There’s a new online music streaming service online and it’s looking good! Visit skempi.com now, sign up and listen to golden oldies, discover those hot new artists and share your heritage. All songs on Skempi are from Dutch Caribbean artists, including many artists from Curaçao.

Several months ago we saw a new fan page on Facebook. It didn’t have a lot of content yet but their proposition sounded good: “a highly innovative online music streaming service offering music from Aruba, Curacao, St. Maarten, BES and Suriname artists. Discover your musical heritage for free”. So we liked the page, subscribed to the newsletter and didn’t think any more of it. I mean, how often don’t we see ‘highly innovating’ products/services and then only hear about it again when someone says that they worked for it and left because nothing happened.. ..

But Skempi was different. We often saw them posting pictures of new artists who signed up with them, they posted music and the name kept popping up in conversation. And then this morning we received a newsletter inviting everyone to sign up at the website and start discovering.. .. Yay!

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Curaçao and Kokomo EDM Anthem by Hall & Zanfa

We can’t believe we missed this earlier this month but German producer duo Hall & Zanfa (RBMC), consisting of Marco Zanfardino and Bernd Hall, produced EDM anthems for Curaçao and for Kokomo Beach!

Curacao EDM Anthem by Hall & Zanfa

Apparently they got inspired when they were in Curaçao last year for a vacation and a gig and couldn’t let go of the feeling. So they channeled that inspiration into the creation of these two tracks.

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First Curaçao Gay Pride is ON

Curaçao’s first Gay Pride started yesterday with the pre-activities and is set to go full-force this weekend with parties, after parties and a ‘Dance 4 Love’ on one of Willemstad’s main public squares. The event is already stirring up emotions of solidarity as well as some of the less pleasant emotions.. ..

Curaçao Gay Pride 2013

While in many parts of the world gay people are generally accepted, many of the Caribbean islands still have all kinds of taboos surrounding the LGBT lifestyle. Mostly this doesn’t go much further than name-calling and threatening with eternal damnation, but there have also been plenty of incidents of gay bashing or even murder in the Caribbean region. Luckily Curaçao has long been peaceful in this respect.

One of the reasons why we love Curaçao is the relaxed attitude towards its sexually diverse community. Same-sex couples can walk on most streets while holding hands and no one will bat an eye, the annual Get Wet Weekend was a success every year it was organized since 2005 and Willemstad’s downtown is often overrun by gays when a gay cruise arrives. Continue reading

CHATA Award Celebration Cancelled

CHATA Award Celebration CuracaoWe just received an email stating that CHATA has cancelled their CHATA award celebration at Kokomo, scheduled for this coming Saturday.

From their email: “Due to tough economic conditions putting pressure on our members spending and time, the Board of CHATA and Staff decided it is not possible to deliver an event that would do justice to both our members and industry.”

To us this sounds like they were either too ambitious in their plans or they just didn’t sell enough tickets (combination of both maybe?). We all know that the people here don’t decide what they’ll do until the last minute so we’re guessing it’s the tickets situation.

Also from their email: ” We hope you will understand the circumstances under which we have taken this decision. We value and respect our members and the budget of our association. We once again apologize for any inconvenience. Partners who already paid their tickets to attend will be reimbursed.

It really is too bad because we thought it was a great initiative to have a party on the beach instead of a boring awards ceremony in some ballroom somewhere.

Maybe they’ll try again next year with some more forethought?

New Miss Universe Curaçao – Eline de Pool!

Promotion campaigns on Facebook, photo sessions, tv performances and lots of different opinions. Yes folks it was that time of the year again; the Miss Universe Curaçao pageant was ON. Six beautiful young girls from our island with all one goal: winning that beautiful shining crown, the title and the opportunity to represent the island of Curaçao in Russia.

Miss Universe Curaçao pageant
All six misses, picture by Theo Meijer Photography

Last night the big finale was held at the Santa Barbara Beach & Golf Resort and on our Facebook news feeds we saw people speaking out for their favorite. Stephany Francisca was the favorite, a talented and experienced model who made quite the impression at the Caribbean’s Next Top Model competition in Trinidad (1st runner up). She did an amazing job on stage -according to many- with so much style and grace. But what can you expect with so much experience? Continue reading

Privilege Curaçao cancels Girls Take Over party

Late last night the Privilege Curaçao Facebook fan page posted a letter by the foundation’s president (Mr Martha) that they had to cancel the Girls Take Over party. This is the letter they posted:

girls-cancelled

For the people who don’t speak Dutch: mister Martha states that they had filed for the necessary permits on time. However -due to personnel problems- the fire safety permit wouldn’t be available until one day before the event. This wouldn’t give the organization enough time to file for the permit they need from the police so the permit situation won’t allow for the party to take place. Continue reading

Meet & greet with Into the Wild star Jack Hanna

Jack “Jungle Jack” Hanna, one of the most recognized authorities on wildlife conservation and habitat protection, and frequent guest on American TV talk shows and news programs, will make a special appearance on Thursday September 12 at L’Aldea Brazilian Restaurant for a Meet and Greet event to benefit Curaçao’s Parke Tropikal (our local zoo).

jack-hanna-wide

Jungle Jack, host of several popular TV programs including “Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild” will appear on Thursday September 12, 2013 from 5:00 to 7:30pm. The evening will feature Jack Hanna and his wife Suzi Hanna.

Get up close and personal with Jungle Jack and enjoy dinner at L’Aldea Brazilian Steakhouse! An experience you won’t easily forget. Continue reading