The Viper Room turned up the beats for the start of the Anzac Day long weekend with its new night Star Garden featuring a host of Australia’s DJs on the decks till sunrise. Surprisingly, the start of the night was not hard house and trance as I expected. The tracks graduated to a harder mix of sounds in waves, and the dance floor was never empty with a few experienced clubbers getting into the dance-off mood. For those wanting to chill out, there was the red-lit sideroom with slower, more top 40 style of music being . Kiss FM featured on the night for those wanting a home broadcast or too tired from the previous nights outing.

Just before Mike Nichols’ sweet set finished, Bexta moved through the crowd and her celebrity status had the guys being extra friendly. Her tracks were well received by the people on the dancefloor, with her style distinctive but not slamming you in the face like the sunlight at 7am the next morning. She mixed her new single VIP featuring Amii as well as some of her Mixology tracks. The group of young fans didn’t seem to mind that her famous hard dance style was not the only genre that was heard in her set.

After Bexta’s performance, I was dancing through to the early hours with Steve Strangis and DJ Kat, as well as going for a chill out with the side room DJs Steve May and Ben Jackson. Of all times I have seen DJ Kat spin, her brand of hard house is rare; the freshness is plenty hard enough for those who like to be kept awake for the next set. Kudos goes out to the light technician as the lasers danced along with the patrons at key moments of the uplifting beats to the very close. And indeed, Stargarden kept me up all night last weekend!