What was promising to be the hugest dance and indie party of the year, if not the decade, Sum of Us was put together by a bunch of the biggest party planners in Melbourne’s music scene, not of regular headliners, but of the DJs as yet undiscovered by the masses.

As soon as I got in the door, it was obvious the word had spread. The Melbourne indie scene was at its peak. Kablam!, who have previously supported Ratatat, DJ Belgium, had the mezzanine going in a very funky way. These two dude looked like they were having a great time too. Straight after, the CaucAsian DJs rocked the disco and are heading straight for success, with plenty more gigs booked. The theme of the night for this area was talented disco duos but the real show stoppers were KR3W.

The set list was pretty much a Who’s Who of the underground indie scene and also those who are breaking through, with residents from the Mercat Cross, Neverland and Roxanne Parlour, favourite haunts of the indie dance scene. Sax & Go, lit up the top room with a surprising, fun tech house set. Following up from that was Queenslander DJ Fez who filled the dance floor with his style of techno and got the feet moving. There are so many young up and comers who have their finger on the pulse when it comes to reading a crowd. Very impressive.

By 1:30am it was impossible to get to the bar without a fuss and the Garden bar was packed as well. Purely navigating between the areas started to become difficult, especially with freshly acquired indie boy in tow. Trying to make it to see as many of the awesome DJs as possible became a ridiculous task but the vibe was electric!
Hey Sam rocked the Garden Bar and flicked over to Kate Miller, followed by Adrian Miles and then Quinn Masters. All of these sets were great and perfect for the vibe, but it was way too hard to stay outside with so many people crowded into the outside smoking area, which made it less than comfortable to listen for any length of time, especially given the multitude of other rooms to discover.

I was disappointed to miss 1928 and Sleeves, who I know from the Strobe parties are both great, due to set-times. Promoters and organisers seem to be putting main acts later and later to try and get people to stay until the end, but I find it harder to want to stay later, not being amped after hearing a great act. Next time I would put at least one of the headliners on earlier so that the energy is guaranteed to last.

Christian Vance’s live deep house set was ace. Great vibe in the crowd during, and there were plenty of people staying until the wee hours as well, keeping the atmosphere going. Kudos for getting all the best underground DJs to the forefront, but you need a whole lot of stamina and to make it the full length of time. We’ll see if these guys can keep the parties going at this level after the epic opening night, but if they can keep the numbers up then this is going to be the biggest regular night in all the indie and electro calendars.