The Balinese status quo
After reading a story in the Australian Financial Review about the Bali digital nomad community yesterday, I decided to take a look at PARQ, north of Ubud. The owners of the place bill PARQ Ubud as a city of the future on their website. The article billed it as a Russian and Ukrainian enclave, full of digital nomads, setting up camp in Bali to escape the war in their neighborhood. The place is enormous. Someone obviously spent a lot of dollars or rubles to put it together, but I didn’t feel threatened by it, nor the people there. In fact, it’s all rather suburban, like a shopping mall with accommodation.
It’s a complex of apartments, swimming pools and restaurants. There’s also a flash gym. But the main thing is the peaceful people. There’s no aggression, just people going about their business – most probably digital business like everywhere nowadays. There’s even a hint of sadness at these people’s plight.
There are other complexes around the island inhabited by Australians, French or Germans, maybe not as big, and like them, I wouldn’t feel threatened.
Bali has an inclusive environment that welcomes all to its shores. Just like Aussie bogans or Pommy hooligans everyone has to learn the local way and feel the local energy if they want to settle here. I expect these new settlers will eventually do the same.
The world and Bali is changing now at a rapid pace and there is no holding it back. Fortunately, we have a banjar system on this island that will keep the status quo the same as it has been for centuries, as was seen with recent deportations of unruly wannabe new settlers.
At sunset there weren’t so many people around the complex. A friend said there were more punters about at lunch. We took off down the hill for dinner in town and had a pleasant evening in Ubud.
More about that later.
Space Konnekt – Locca Edition
Space Konnekt – Locca edition
Space Konnekt is a one day festival celebrating togetherness, inclusivity and the good times through carefully curated, one of a kind line up of dance music and art from only the finest artists and collaborators across the island of Gods. It’s on for one day only at Locca Sea House in Jimbaran on Saturday, March 25, 2023.
Along with diverse activities ranging from workshops and markets to fun kid’s activities, it’s also a space where you can be yourself as the day and festival is highly committed to equality, radical inclusion, and accessibility for all.
Step into the Space Konnekt multisensory universe located in an open air venue with a breathtaking ocean view in Jimbaran. The event is organized by Kozmik Kollektive, a group dedicated to art and music, connecting artists with a multidisciplinary background with electronic dance music, lighting installations, visual art, projection mapping, and art installations. Space Konnekt offers you an experience to indulge all the senses.
With curated Djs coming from across the island, ranging from dub, dnb, to jungle, house & techno with live PA format, to our very own expertise of psytrance, they are on the bill. Bring extra cash for their fun workshops and markets that have been especially curated for this event.
Kozmik Kollektive and Locca Sea House together aim to create a safe space for anyone to express themselves, to connect with kindred spirits, and collaborate together, in the hope of finding networks and support between different grassroots collectives on the Island.
The link to join the event and support the movement is right here.
Click right now to find out more.
Free entry for kids under 12 yo
Let’s connect with the Flow!
Burning Beach Festival to be held in Bali
Burning Beach Festival is set to be the biggest House and Techno festival ever held in Bali, Indonesia and will be held over two days and nights on three stages at the incredible new beach club Canna Bali in Nusa Dua.
The main stage will be hosting ten international world-renowned headline DJs, as well as over forty DJs based in Indonesia hailing from Bali, Jakarta and around the globe across the rest of the festival.
On top of this, the organizers have activated and collaborated with some of the most well-known and beloved brands in Bali, Jakarta and beyond, including Escape, Mixmag Asia, Designer and Nebula from Jakarta to name a few. Together with the outstanding line-up, this will create an absolute not-to-be-missed atmosphere and experience never seen before in Bali.
Over the two days of the festival, guests will be able to enjoy a journey through house and techno, all spun in one of Indonesia’s most breath-taking beach clubs on the white sands of Nusa Dua.
The event originated from a collective of passionate like-minded music enthusiasts living in Lombok who wanted to curate a space for genuine musical connections, combining their collective backgrounds in large-scale renowned events across Europe. The fire was lit, so to speak, after they curated a series of successful beach parties that drew increased attention and hype. Initially the festival was due to take place in Lombok but after listening to the feedback from hundreds of inquiries the promoters made the brave decision to move it to Bali and this is great news for the island.
Organizers are also pleased to announce they have added two more international DJs to the roster including an absolute giant of house and techno in Darius Syrossian (main stage) and, as if the line-up wasn’t big enough already, one of Europe’s brightest young stars in Ale De Tuglie from Italy (Escape Stage).
Canna is one of the hidden gems in Bali with its absolutely stunning location and plenty of space and home comforts to ensure a quality experience for all attendees including a state of the art two level nightclub for the Burning Box late night revelers who don’t want stop!
Phase two early bird tickets (10% discount) are currently on sale and are available on www.burningbeach.com.
The Burning Beach experience is still growing and more will be revealed over the next few weeks.
‘Let’s start a fire!’
Uluwatu Turns on the Nightlife
Uluwatu has become one of the major areas of Bali to holiday and live over the past few years. It has come alive with people from all parts of the planet, mainly surfers first, but now also people from all walks of life. There are contributing factors for this migration to the south, including beautiful white sand beaches, not so much rainfall, less traffic issues getting around, and nowadays, a plethora of new dining and entertainment options busy most days and nights of the week. Young people are turning their backs on places like Canggu or Seminyak and moving to the Bukit, and really, I can see why, the place has a lot going for it.
We asked rising star DJ Papū, who happens to be playing and living most weekends nowadays in the Uluwatu area, what he thought the best run-down would be to get among the good times on the weekend in that south west corner of Bali.
“Thursdays are all about cashew tree. They normally have great live music and the place is pumping.
Fridays. You can’t beat Tabu restaurant and bar, they have DJs (me included) and it’s busy. Ulu Cliffhouse always has a crowd and weekly house DJ nights till late. Half price selected drinks too. Recently opened Baracca has a bar/club vibe on Friday nights as well till late. Savaya day club on the south coast has hip hop or special events on Fridays.
Saturdays. Savaya is normally rammed with big international guest DJs (hip hop & electronic music). Get there about 5pm. Tabu has DJs and classy electronic music most Saturdays. There is a special event on the deck at Ulu Cliff most Saturdays, or if there is a big international act the main stage will be set up next to the pool.
Sundays. Single Fin is an institution in front of the Uluwatu surf break and has live music and DJs most nights of the week, but Sunday is when it really grinds. (Commercial house music). Savaya gets tribal with Southern Tribe (Afro house vibe) & international headliners.”
There are also a number of great dining options in the Uluwatu area too. What do you think are the better options Papū? “Ours, Rolling Fork (Italian), Suka (brunch & dinner), Tabu (dinner), newly opened Mason, Ulu Cliff, Lucky Fish (local fish BBQ on Bingin Beach), Yeye’s (best Nasi Campur), El Kabron (Spanish ).”
Hey Papū bro, thank you for your time and the words of local knowledge.
You can catch Papū playing his tunes in Tabu, Ulu Cliffhouse and Savaya, among other hot spots on the Bukit and down town, too.
Get in Uluwatu, folks. You’re sure to have a great time.
Bali Nightlife in December? No problem.
Bali nightlife never ceases to amaze. Last weekend we had Above and Beyond and Anjunadeep (Savaya), Nina Kraviz (Kudeta. pictured above) and Franky Rizardo (W Bali). This weekend, we have the biggest festival of the year, Burning Beach Festival being held in Nusa Dua, with dozens of DJs including big names Dubfire, Danny Tenaglia, Monkey Safari, Darius Syrossian, Anja Schneider and a load more internationals and locals taking to the decks at Canna Beach Club. There’s a whole bunch of other shows going around the other venues too like Ulu Cliffhouse – The Jungle Giants, W Bali – Andhim and Coiz, Alesso at Savaya, and there’s Hatch in Uluwatu re-opening this week and holding the Odyssey Festival, with a bunch of cool DJs in attendance on Saturday. You would think it was high season in the middle of August.
But hey, isn’t it the middle of December? The time of year when no one is around and the place is gearing up for the Christmas/New Year invasion. And let’s not talk about the weather – the stifling heat during the day particularly. Well, it would appear all that doesn’t matter. It now seems that all the old rules don’t count, we are now on a whole new, post-covid playing field where anything goes.
As they say fortune favors the brave and hats off to them, the organizers. We the punters are the beneficiaries of all these organizational events, could we say, online. Yes, we could say it is rather bold. And to finish off this marvelous weekend we have the World Cup Final at 11pm Sunday night. You couldn’t script it any better.
This is the new Bali, folks, where anything goes at any time.
Enjoy it and make sure you get out there and support these events as much as you can.
You may even have a great time doing it.
Check the events section for further details.