The Lion's Share of Gatecrasher

After a long break, Gatecrasher is coming to Moscow! Many remember the Englishmen's first appearance in Moscow in 2004 - a grand party dedicated to celebrating Victory Day, which was held with the support of the Moscow club Zeppelin. Back then the festival featured such stars as Ferry Corsten, Gabriel & Dresden, Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode and Leeroy Thornhill, and the number of attendees topped 8,000. A few months later the Gatecrasher festival was held for the second time at the Gaudi venue, gathering on one stage musicians such as Above and Beyond, Future Shock, Hybrid and Scott Project.
This time the British musicians are being invited directly by Gaudi Arena. The first event takes place as soon as December 23, featuring the legendary DJs Christopher Lawrence, Fergie and Riley & Durrant, and right after the New Year the English empire of electronic music will hold several more events in Moscow before setting off on a tour of Russian cities.

Gatecrasher is a unique label in the world of electronic music. Their parties can only loosely be compared to giant open-airs, and the work of the label's founders Simon Raine, Simon Oates and Scott Bond is one of the most striking examples of building a club empire on a planetary scale. Starting in 1993 with one-off parties at the club Engine House (West Midlands), in less than seven years they turned the Gatecrasher emblem - an enraged lion rearing on its hind legs - into a symbol of quality electronic music of any style.

The very first Gatecrasher party was held illegally, back in the days when the notion of "banned raves" existed. It took place on the grounds of a large hangar. At the very height of the party the police arrived. However, there were so many people that the partygoers, fleeing, knocked down the huge gates, and they fell right onto a police car and crushed it. Thus the clubbers escaped inevitable arrest, and the party got its name - Gatecrasher (the broken-down gates).
Today the Gatecrasher festival draws the same kind of audience as Madonna, Britney Spears and other pop stars at the time when they were at the peak of their popularity (the parties Summer Sound System (40,000 people), Gatecrasher NEC (15,000 people), Crasher N/Ice (at the Nottingham Ice Arena) (7,500 people), Gatecrasher Sound System (Australia), etc.)

Gatecrasher's history is a fortunate combination of art and business. Perhaps one of the main secrets of its success lies in the fact that its founders very quickly understood that "even a very good circus can't stay in one place for long". And so, having established itself in a club - and in 1997 Gatecrasher, after some small tours around the country, moved into the premises of the nightclub The Republic in Sheffield - it began staging away events.
The Republic premises had previously belonged to a factory and retained the colourful features of industrial style. Here the club twice underwent grand reconstructions, following the changeable club fashion. The most significant moment in its history was the change of design in September 2003. The sound equipment, laser rigs and furniture cost the club's owners 1.5 million pounds sterling at the time. Just two years later, in 1995, everything was redone again: Gatecrasher's main colours became red and black, and the comfort of the premises and the service began to receive as much attention as the sound quality. Around the same time the style of Gatecrasher's fans changed too: the "punked-up" acid partygoers of the early '90s disappeared, the so-called "Gatecrasher kids" who wore multicoloured mohawks, platform shoes and vinyl clothing. Today at Gatecrasher you can meet clubbers of various styles, and the dress code could be called "fun and non-trivial club wear". What's meant is that sneakers, cossack boots, iron-shod rocker boots and Timberland footwear are better left at home, as are the already tiresome models of glamorous and evening "luxe" style from YSL, Ralph Lauren, Ben Sherman and the like, and it's better to come up with something original.

In June 2000 an important event took place - the Gatecrasher's Summer Sound System party was awarded the title of Event of the Year.

From this moment on the Gatecrasher label very quickly won worldwide fame. In the following years the number of festival attendees grew to 40,000, and among the musicians appeared such stars as The Chemical Brothers, Craig David, Miss Teeq and Faithless. Around this period the musical direction changed too - initially Gatecrasher events were oriented toward techno and house music, but at the end of the '90s, with the flourishing of trance, a more instrumental sound came to predominate at the parties. Later, practically all directions of electronic music would be represented in the repertoire.
In 2003, having celebrated its 10th anniversary, the Gatecrasher festival headed East, to Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Tokyo, and also acquired a monthly residency at the club Arc in New York, the cosmopolitan Space in Miami and the underground Turbo in Toronto. In that year alone more than 1.4 million people attended Gatecrasher events. In 2004, Gatecrasher held 10 parties in

England and another 17 around the world - (Rome, Oslo, Reykjavik, Prague and others), and then went to India, China and Lebanon, as well as to Russia (see the beginning). In 2005, updating the Gatecrasher logo that had grown rather worn over 12 years, the brand's owners opened a new club in Leeds called Discotheque, oriented toward the rapidly developing Funky House style, while the residency at the new club went to Hed Kandi.
And while Gatecrasher hasn't yet opened a residence in Moscow, we can let loose at the pre-New-Year festival; moreover, Moscow clubbers have been given a unique opportunity to become part of world club history: on December 23, during the Gatecrasher Live In Moscow party, a "live" DJ mix by Christopher Lawrence will be recorded at "Gaudi Arena". The disc, illustrated with photos from the Gatecrasher Live In Moscow party, will be sold all over the world - including in Russia. Christopher Lawrence is a famous American DJ, a laureate of the prestigious DanceStar Awards and fourth on the DJs Top 100 list. His albums United States of Trance and All or Nothing enjoyed unfailing success with the public and sold in record numbers around the world.

Material prepared by Alena Alexandrova and Alexander Baulin