Any place with unlimited soft serve I consider my happy place. Throw in a massive state-of-the-art cruise ship, two immaculately tropical private islands, and a plethora of the world’s biggest and most talented DJs… well, that happy place is called Holy Ship!!!

From Jan 9th to 12th, 4,000 lucky partiers (we call them shipfam) did nothing but…

Eat. Rave. Repeat.

Seriously. That should be the slogan for this amazing festival, simply put, there is no time for sleep. The music stops sometime after 6am and starts back up no later than 10:30/11am. There are over 10,000 people on a waitlist that will gladly take your spot. You can sleep when you get off the boat.

The shipfam are a beautiful group of people who come from everyone corner of the world to share this amazing experience and enjoy the finest electronic dance music, and "boy oh boy," are these shippers glad to be here. At any given moment the ship looks like a scene from ‘Alice in Wonderland’- extensive costumes and handmade goodies and gifts galore. We always talk about how respectful and peaceful the ‘EDM’ community can be- consider Holy Ship!!! the apex. I traveled to Miami by myself, not knowing a single person on the cruise prior to my arrival. When I stepped off the MSC Davina this past Sunday, I now have a whole new family to call my own. Nowhere else on the planet can you meet all your favorite DJ’s & Producers and they be equally as excited to meet you and party with everyone.

Whether it was getting down with GRiZ and his Saxophone in the ship hallways, dancing with Alvin Risk in the disco, smoking cigars and drinking scotch with Zed’s Dead, or catching an after hours b2b set with Skrillex and Emoh Instead - everyone on the ship is there to have the time of their lives.

The journey began last Thursday night as Diplo took to the main-pool stage while the ship set sail. Immediately the tone was set and energy couldn’t be higher. Taking things one deeper, the entire boat was rocked to the unexpected tunes of the secret surprise guest... none other than Tiesto himself! Claude VonStroke’s disco set got interesting when Skream, Diplo, and Disclosure joined him for a back to back to back to back. Other highlights from the trip included a turnt up b2b with Bauuer & RL Grime, a flawless sun-drenched set from Boys Noize, an awesome live set from Gramatik and ExMag, as well as some filthy hip-hop tunes from the Boogeyman (Brodinski).

From TJR and Flosstradamus to Laidback Luke and Shlohmo, the Holy Ship!!! lineup was a grand slam. Oh yeah, there was also this guy Pharrell that flew in via helicopter, you might have heard a few his songs before…

A special shoutout and thank you to Hard Events and Gary Richards, aka Destructo, aka the GodFather, for stepping up and putting on such an amazing and flawless production. To quote the man himself … “I have done so many events over the last 20 years, and so many events that you do with people, they are never going to be satisfied 100%. You give them a gold brick… they want platinum. This is the one event that I do that 99.9% of the people love it… I don’t think that on this boat and in this climate you could complain. I cant think of anything better than sitting here and talking to you about this, you know.” I do know Gary, and it’s my pleasure to share your amazing work with the world.

Shipper Tip: Take advantage of the on-board spa services.

 

More From Elektro Daily