international news _ 17th August, 2006

Under Threat Tel Aviv Clubbers Party Harder

Text by Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com)

Israeli club promoter/ DJ Ellyott chatted to Skrufff this week about the effect the Lebanese conflict is having on Tel Aviv’s club scene and revealed that nightlife in the threatened city is perversely flourishing.

“It’s bad days here, with war and misery, trying to protest and stay sane, staying alive and not hating anyone,” said Ellyott, “But there are some great parties happening of course- everyone wants to live, live, live.”

The electro-disco jock, who hosts and promotes Tel Aviv’s wildly popular new Sunday night gay beach party Bitch Boyz, added that she’d also had her record bag stolen last week indicating that the city’s thieves remains unfazed by Hizbollah’s missiles, a stance shared by most clubbers, said fellow local electro DJ Mo-Am.

“I'd say the last thing people at a party think about are rockets falling on Tel Aviv,” Mo-Am told Skrufff.

“But Ellyot is quite accurate about the party scene here. I have a theory that in general the harder the situation is in the real world, the harder the parties are. I suppose the cause of this would be the need to escape. People go out of their house to escape the news and worries of their surrounding family. People come to the clubs to escape for a few hours and be taken away from it all. Tel Aviv is therefore partying hard,” he said.

Meanwhile in India, the Goa Herald reported that the infamous party villages of Anjuna, Vagator and Arumbel have been seriously affected by the conflict with numerous Israeli revellers being recalled to fight in the Israeli army.

“Everything in Anjuna now seems dead,” local police chief Rajesh Kumar told the Herald, “At the moment there are not many Israelis, only a few of them are seen on the streets. Most of them have left”.

The paper said thousands of Israeli soldiers usually pack out Goa after finishing their national service and predicted that the present dip in numbers would be unlikely to last for long.

“The more trouble there is in Israel, the more Israelis are seen in Goa,” they said, “Interestingly, it’s not just the lower cadre but also the elite from Israeli armed forces who make it to Goa to escape tensions,” the paper added.

German newspaper Der Speigel also reported this week that clubbers in Beirut are continuing to go out in the bomb ravaged city, suggesting some clubbers are using music to drown out the sound of explosions.

“Even in a town where it's easy to drop $300 or $400 a night in chic clubs and bars, the youth of Beirut refuse to save money at the expense of going out,” Der Spiegel reported, describing a pair of clubbers who partied until 4.30am.

“The fact that they stayed out so late is no coincidence. The really loud Israeli bombardments usually hit southern Beirut around 4 a.m.”