Kicking off our new interview series ‘Introducing‘, we are welcoming different parties, brands and everything in between from all around the world.
For our first issue we caught up with Dave who is behind the Portuguese party, PUSH – Lisbon.
Let’s start by asking, how did the birth of your party originally happen and how long has the party been running?
The project started in July 2021, with the need that I (Dave Oak) felt about the electronic music culture in Lisbon’s night scene.
Most of the nightclubs of Portugal play too much mainstream music and we have a really big audience that loves House, Tech House and Techno music, but feel a really big lack of good parties to go to. So, in the middle of the global pandemic crisis with a lot of restrictions we started our own movement to elevate and PUSH further the underground music culture in Portugal’s beautiful capital and surroundings (that’s where the name PUSH came from).
Where are you based in the world?
We are based in Lisbon and Cascais, Portugal, but looking forward to taking our parties further, like London or Ibiza eventually to help bring more international people to our events and help put Lisbon in the map of the greatest party cities of Europe.
Do you have any upcoming parties we can talk about that are planned in the pipeline?
We just had our 1st anniversary last Saturday (July 16th), at the Kremlin Club (one of the best electronic music clubs in Portugal and Europe). It was an almost sold out party with the best and most beautiful audience in Lisbon. We are already preparing the next ones for August and September, maybe a rooftop party and a pool party but can’t talk about it yet. 🙂
What headline DJs have you booked to perform?
Until Now, we have only had local artists, besides some of them are international like Nox (Fuse Records) and Dub Tiger (Plastic Galaxy).
Do you have any residents, if so who are they?
Besides me, our residents are Daveed and Baratta who for us are 2 of the best djs of Portugal that have played as residents or guest djs at some of the best Portugal’s nightclubs and festivals. Daveed plays at the best parties at Lisbon on a regular basis and Baratta is also the resident of one of the best and most beautiful clubs in Lisbon, Jezebel Club at Estoril’s Casino.
How would you describe the sound of your parties to someone who hasn’t attended before?
Our main sound is House & Tech House music mainly, sometimes it could be a little bit techno depending on the guest djs and what the audience is asking for. We can say that we have a groovy and happy sound with a lot of power and rhythm that makes it impossible not to dance and smile at PUSH parties!!
If you could host a party in any venue in the world, where would it be and why?
That’s a hard one 😅 Maybe Ministry of Sound (London) or DC-10 (Ibiza), we love more intimate venues but with a good capacity, vibe and history.
Do you have any plans on setting up a record label?
Yes, for sure. That will be our next big step in the future.
When booking headline artists, what do you look for in them?
First of all, their sound and energy, we care a lot about the sound at our parties but also, we always want to see big smiles and happiness in people’s faces, so we search for djs that can do that easily. On the other side we tend to look after artists that our followers would love to see and dance with them
