Agwa Yacht Club, often referred to as the best boat party in Australia (or as Jo Mills once exclaimed, the best party she has ever played), is entering its seventh year and gearing up for its 20th party on Saturday February 22nd [TIX HERE] with a stellar double headliner in the form of disco and house connoisseur Mario Basanov and Panorama Bar resident Cassy, the latter of which is making her Australian debut.
In anticipation of this upcoming milestone, we decided to look back on the party's rich history by asking the DJs and people behind the scenes about some of their most memorable moments from Agwa Yacht Club. Enjoy.
1. Thomas Bullock dropping this track after a power failure and the sound system dropping out for five minutes was a great moment. Top deck went fooking nuts! [James Scott of CO-OP - Resident DJ]
2. Jamie Jones and Lee Foss dropping Tourist Trap 11:11 towards the end of, fittingly, Agwa Yacht Club 011! Got a ridiculous response. From memory it was the quickest boat to sell out in only a month from when tickets went onsale. Epic day. [Kristen Marconi - Pulse Radio writer/Agwa veteran]
3. DJ T. closing Agwa 18 with Blue Monday which saw the whole crowd do a "sit down." [Wade Cawood - Finely Tuned head honcho]
4. AGWA 16 aka AGWA vs The Cyclone! This is a memorable one for me because....
a) Despite the fact that a man-eating cyclone was heading to the Harbour we STILL went out!
b) The top deck had to be closed, but it meant all the headliners (Gerber, Dixon and Emerson Todd) and clubbers were in the main room from the start, so the atmosphere was awesome. [James 'T-Boy' Bates - Resident DJ]
5. A personal favourite top-deck moment was when Terrence Parker's 'Emancipation Of My Soul' was dropped (yeah, okay, it was me that played it). [Neil Terry of CO-OP - Resident DJ]
6. The moment when Subb-An played Basement Jaxx 'Fly Life', bringing it back to a warm house kick in the midst of a seriously epic, bass line-driven tech house set. After we docked, about 10 of us embarked on a monorail adventure, only after purchasing a thousand glow stick accessories from the Darling Harbour promenade. [GABBY - Resident DJ]
7. I was a late and hesitant entrant on the Steve Bug cruise back in '09 due to my final university exam ever being the following day. The Manly boys got wind of this and during the warm up pinned me down on the floor and...anyway next minute I'm kicking onto my exam, asking strangers for a pen. I ended up getting 52% and passing. Chew beauty! [Sam Roberts - Resident DJ]
8. I honestly can't go past the very first in one in 2008. Myself and ten of my close friends decided to hit up this boat party (thanks to Ben Mitchell), then called the Pulse Radio boat party with Luciano and Greg Wilson. Uncle Ru kicked things off on the top deck playing some of the filthiest disco I've ever heard, soon after Greg Wilson's 8 track melted along with my eye balls due to it been 40+ degrees. Then we slid downstairs to witness something very special. That was the first time I had seen Luciano play and the first time I had been involved in a sit down on the dance floor. That was the moment I wanted to play on the boat. I'll never forget when he dropped 'Good Life (Buena Vida)'...epic!. That whole experience changed everything for me and my whole crew. Thank you x (P.S. Tosh was NOT wearing high heels on the top deck!) [BROHN - Resident DJ]
9. Some of my best moments on a dancefloor have been when a DJ has blindsided me with an oddball track that comes out of nowhere. Thomas Bullock of Rub N Tug pulled this off (pardon the pun) when he dropped 'Orinoco Flow' by Enya on the top deck. I never ever thought I'd see a dancefloor go off to an Enya song, but that's Agwa for you. [Henry Johnstone - Pulse Radio Editor]
10. The last party I went on (Audiofly & Emerson downstairs) was a total downpour. Co-Op warmed up for Gadi. I've got very vivid memories of us all helping shield the headliners from the torrential rain and the few people brave enough dancing with massive grins, soaked to the skin. I also ended my set with this track as the sunshine was quickly kicked into touch by the thick grey skies. [James Huxley - Pulse Radio]
11. The first Agwa with Luciano when everyone got on the during one of the breakdowns in his set. He also played the remix of Inner City's 'Good Life'. Was amazing! [Mia Lucci - Resident DJ]
12. Dixon's set downstairs on Agwa 16 during the massive storm was amazing. [Simon Beckingham - Finely Tuned Head Honcho]
13. My first ever Agwa was a pretty special one - the night time party during the Fleet Review with Blondish and Hunter/Game. It went off like fireworks. [Sophie Ingleton - Finely Tuned]
14. The response to Art Department playing We Call Love on Agwa 009 was epic. [Kristen Marconi]
15. That one that left on time was awesome. [James 'T-Boy' Bates]
16. One that was memorable for the wrong reason was the Dixon & Ben Watt billed Agwa #6. During Dixon's set I left the dancefloor and went downstairs for a mere eight minutes (yes, exactly eight). As fate would have it, that proved too long. When I got back upstairs my brother looked at me with this weird expression on his face. "Dude, you just missed Unfinished Sympathy." My heart sank. My favourite DJ dropped my favourite tune and I missed it. The memory still haunts me. [Henry Johnstone - Pulse Radio]
17. That was some crazy ass shit dude! [Seth Troxler]
18. The Claude VonStroke boat changed my life. I remember the boat pulling back into the dock as he was playing Tim Green's remix of 'The Fly' by Steve Mac and Mark Brown. This truly amazing techno track stroked our ears while the sun shined through our perfect little glass island. Everything made sense. This was also the boat that I met my best friend Tim Jones on. We didn't speak, but kept looking at each other doing random hand gestures that made no sense across the dance floor the entire day. I then found him on the couch of my friend's place after the party. We have been inseparable ever since. [GABBY]
19. My favourites have always been the ones with the dogs. Oh, and the one where someone pissed over the side of the top deck but misjudged the wind and covered himself and about 20 others in it. [Neil Terry - CO-OP]
20. Wade tripping over the monitor stand on Agwa 19 and looking like he'd KO'ed. [Claire 'CB' Wainwright]
And just one last video of the top deck going off...
Tickets to Agwa Yacht Club 20 with Mario Basanov and Cassy are on sale HERE. Come and celebrate a slice of Sydney clubbing history.