It's the holidays and I finally have some time to myself. After a whole 2016 of spending money and not earning as many, I decided to do myself a favor this 2017 and earn me some bucks. How did I do that, you ask?

Through the wonderful land of meet ups and negos that cheapskates everywhere in Singapore (including myself) love to shop on - Carousell!

For the past two days I've been busy doing meet-ups with buyers and clearing my old unwanted clothing. The #AllForFirsts event is currently on-going, and I've also been taking advantage of it by getting myself some new shiz and giving away things that people wouldn't want if they had to fish out money for it.

So far, I've earned myself about $94 and I can't be happier.

Today I happened to be wearing my ZoukOut tee while doing meet-ups, and it turns out that one of my buyers also went to the concert! Coincidental? I think not. Anyway, he asked me what day I attended and how it was for me... and it suddenly struck me that I haven't blogged about my ZoukOut experience yet!

How atrocious.

So today I will be blogging about my ZoukOut 2016 experience!

Wouldn't say it was a peachy experience though.

(This will need a little bit of memory-power since it happened 2 months ago)

Before this I always wanted to attend Zoukout as I'm a club-lover, but I missed the chance in 2015. Though I was of age to attend the one in 2015, I had no one to go with as I'm older than most of my friends and they were underage at that time.

When I heard of ZoukOut 2016, I basically saved the date and woke up an hour before ticket sales started. I managed to buy day 2 early bird tickets for me and friend at $130 each.

Now you understand why I need to sell on Carousell...

The concert started at 6pm but we were late and only joined the queue at 10pm, which also meant I missed Alan Walker and at that point my enthusiasm faded.

Haha.

It took us 45 minutes to 1 hour just to line up and go through security clearance (and this was even after cutting queues - don't judge please, my friends dragged me and I was strongly against it). I won't even mention how long it will take you to squeeze yourself to the front of the stage in the midst of all the sweaty bodies.

Security is really tight and they actually confiscated some of my pills though I told them that it's for acne treatment and not for getting high, but they took it anyway. If you want to save your prohibited items from getting thrown away, you can leave them at security and claim it afterwards.

But it's pills anyway, so nah.

As you're not allowed to bring alcohol into the venue (because they want you to splurge on all the more expensive drinks inside, duh) my friends and I bought a bottle from 711 and had a couple of drinks before lining up. We then hid the bottle under a vending machine in case we wanted more drinks later.

Upon entering the venue, I realized that it was almost impossible to take pictures of anything because there were so many people. It was impossible to take pictures with the large ZoukOut neon sign, impossible to take pictures with the stage (due to the crowd), and impossible to take pictures of myself without having some complete stranger's face derping in the background. I mean you could, but you'd have to wait really long or till the concert is over.

There were three big stages - moon, star and kaleidoscope. The moon stage was primarily for celebrity DJs like Martin Garrix, Zedd, Ghetto and KHSMR, while the other two were local DJs.

Now here's the most annoying part of the whole concert.

At every part, or section, or point, or coordinate in the crowd of people in front of the stage, people are moving in or out. And I'm not saying just 4 or 5 people at a time, I mean a whole line of 30 people. 2-3 lines of 30 people each, squeezing in and out of that space.

Space? Who am I kidding. There is no space at all.

And if you think Zouk is crowded, ZoukOut is a hundred times worse.

I'm fine if people enter in and out nicely and politely, but if they're squeezing you or pushing you and you're falling down...I have a problem with that! I even got a bruise because this big guy nudged me so hard in the arm. I'm not even exaggerating okay, the bruise was green and lasted 2 weeks!

Anyway, my friends and I did manage to locate ourselves around the front part of the stage where there was minimal movement. Here's a tip in case you're planning to go for ZoukOut this year: stay away from areas with poles as these are the places that people move in a out. As much as you should avoid poles, they are a good way to indicate where your location is if you are lost in the crowd. Most importantly, don't go with a large group of friends as you'll lose them easily.

Oh, and did I mention that you shouldn't bother wearing makeup?

Around 2.00 am, it started raining very heavily and everyone was drenched. That didn't stop the party from continuing and we just danced in the rain - makeup or no makeup. It dirtied my clothes and got my shoes soaked with mud but oh well, you don't get to dance in the rain everyday.

I guess that at this point, my experience sounds really negative but there were times when I did enjoy the concert. Martin Garrix was amazing, and so was Zedd. It was really surreal, being able to listen to their music live and to be in their presence - a whole different experience from what you get at F Club or Zouk. The most satisfying part would be when a familiar song comes on and you get goosebumps when everyone starts singing along.

The feels.

You also get tons of freebies at ZoukOut. There will be people passing around bangles and light sticks. As long as you switch on your kiasu-mode, I'm sure you'll be able to get one. If not, just pick up one from the floor that someone may have dropped.

After Martin Garrix's performance ended around 4.00 am, people started vacating because it was getting really late (or early???). I actually lost my friends while in the crowd, so my friend and I waited in an open area for everyone to reunite. 

After waiting for 15 minutes, we realized that one of our friends was missing. We tried calling but no one answered, so we waited some more. One of us then remembered that his phone was low on battery, which means that it probably died and he was uncontactable from that point onwards. Everyone panicked because we knew he also had a lot to drink. As I had a plane to catch later that morning, I had to leave early and leave my friends to worry about the missing person.

On the way to the taxi pickup at VivoCity, my friend and I looked up Uber and Grab rates but it was hell too expensive for us to cab back to Tampines. We then decided to wait in line for a taxi (hello, queues!), but there were about 10 people in front of us and I needed to get back ASAP. Thankfully this angel sent from God (this kind angmoh standing behind us) gave us Comfort Cab's contact number, which he said will be able to get us a cab in less than 10 minutes. In 10 minutes, my friend and I were sitting at the back of a Comfort Cab, exhausted and drained and on our way home.

Wondering what happened to my missing friend?

He apparently drank too much and blacked out behind one of Grab's promo tents, which means he was in fact just right beside us the whole time.

At least no one lost a life that night.

I wouldn't say that my ZoukOut experience was one of the best, but it was definitely a great once in a lifetime opportunity. It was amazing to be able to meet my favorite international DJs and club under the stars, and also to be able to enjoy music with those dear to me.

However I can confidently say this would be the first and last ZoukOut for me.

Love this post? Feel free to share and comment below or check out what you can wear the next time you go clubbing at Zouk here.