Well, as the title suggests, today I’m going to tell you about Family’s 3rd Birthday bash…well, not the entire celebrations, just the Saturday night (17th July).

As the gang and I had so much fun last year renting a booth out for the occasion (the Ice Lounge), we decided we would do it again and this time put our names on the Royal Box. We had an absolute blast, besides the initial difficulty of getting through the door. I ask you this…why does the “VIP” line move slower than the normal line, there are less people in, they have already paid their money and are apparently getting “VIP” treatment…such is life I guess.

Anyway, for those not familiar with the theory of booths at the Family (as opposed to Einstein’s theory of relativity), it is possible to rent out your own private rooms with different themes, the bar tab and entries included in the price…NICE!

Get to the night, you say? Well it started off slower than I expected for the headlining acts of Groove Terminator (GT) and the Rogue Traders, maybe everyone was just tired from the Valley Fiesta last week. The place was soon packed, but we weren’t all shoved in there like sardines (e.g. last Nick Skitz appearance), which is good, I come to a dance club to dance!

I thought GT and the Rogue Traders had pretty good sets, 10/10 for crowd interaction, one of my friends said they couldn’t remember the last time a DJ interacted with the crowd at Family, with the majority of DJs acting more like gods than music artists. As for the music, I personally didn’t really find it anything special, surprisingly…it just didn’t really put me in a dancing mood. Put Hakka (a resident of Family) back on the decks and I think it would have been a different story. My opinion is mine alone, there were many people on the dance floor and having a blast.

Ok, my favourite part of any event…the lights. Again Family came up trumps with their spectacular light shows, not as much use of the green lasers as I would have liked, I just love that part when all you can see is people’s hands rising out of the laser beams and smoke…very Rise Of The Living Dead...but beggars can’t be choosers!

I would have loved to have checked out Friday night and Sunday night, but unfortunately could not.

From this experience and previous ones, I would strongly recommend anyone to check out Family’s next birthday celebrations, or any major event for that matter. The music is always good, the light shows are fantastic and the type of people that the club attracts are easy to chat to and fun to party with.