A dramatic balcony and two large steamy showers on a purple platform, filled with dancing girls; it has to be the opening night of Pacha New York (December, 2005).

It was a cold and blustery Wednesday night in New York and new club Pacha was due to open its doors for the first time. The queues down West 46th Street were intimidating to say the least and it looked like mass pandemonium. There were three white tents erected outside and a cherry red carpet laid down on the steps, ready for making that fabulous entry. Unfortunately it took quite a while to get to the front and grab a hold of one of the clipboard fairies in order to gain entry, but once inside I was not disappointed.

Though I had once been to Sound Factory which was in the same building a few years back, I felt like I had entered a clubbers utopia once I got in. I walked out onto the dance floor and was in the centre of it all. It was a who’s who of the dance music industry with key players from around the world rubbing shoulders with a host of celebrities and New York’s finest elite. There were gorgeous dancers dressed as colourful geishas dancing on platforms in the middle of the dark and sexy dance floor. As I looked up at the floating DJ booth and saw Erick Morillo’s mentor Louie Vega manning the decks. He played house music all night long and the glamorous party goers were grooving with cocktails in hand.

I walked upstairs to explore. I dodged the host and managed to get a peek and the mezzanine where there were comfy coffee coloured couches and a pretty amber light shining down on the tables, illuminating the groups of hipsters huddled around their bottles of vodka and champagne. I passed a cute little bar with a mosaic tiled cherry logo and then moved up to the next level to see what was there. First I noticed the dramatic balcony - there was a square cut-out in the floor with metal banisters surrounding it – the perfect place to spy on the dancers below and the DJ, which was now Pete Tong. I wandered in to one bright green corner that was shrouded with muslin curtains. When I walked up the platform steps I saw that there were carpeted beds with bright green cushions where people were curled up, gossiping about what celebrities were at Pacha that night.

After I left the green fuzzy area, I found a sleek little ski-lodge looking area with dark orange couches, wooden planks above and yellow lighting that made everything soft and beautiful. I went to sit down but as soon as I did I lifted my butt again because I spotted ‘the showers! There were two large steamy showers set up on a purple platform and I watched as every fifteen minutes two more gorgeous girls jumped in, got soaked and boogied to the beats. Lots of lads were gathered around the showers, taking pictures with their cell phones and gawking at the dancers doing their thing. We managed to grab a table in the shower area for a quick drink and looked around at the pretty painted walls that featured gold lace and butterflies.

Then a friend spied a staircase while en route to the bathroom so we grabbed our beverages and went to see what was in the attic. When I walked in I was struck by the elegance of the room - it looked like the Mediterranean hideaway of a billionaire. There were plush round couches in deep blue shades in one half of the arched room and a light up table that looked like it was made of stained glass windows from a church. There was a dance floor where beautiful people boogied to the sound of hip-hop coming from the DJ booth which was padded with brown patent leather on the outside. There were modular square couches in the centre of the room and little short tables which completed the lounge area.

It was gone 4am and we went back downstairs to the main dancefloor, where the music was still pumping and the dancefloor was still heaving. The club was more amazing than I imagined and the party was a once in a lifetime experience that I didn’t want it to end. If that wasn’t enough there was still more to look forward to at the weekend, as the main public opening party was on Friday with Erick Morillo taking to the decks and Saturday had Steve Angello from Sweden. Review by Nikki Stei

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