Danni explains: “Tickled Pink has always been about quality tunes and a friendly vibe. I really wanted to create a place where my friends and punters could party in a non-pretentious environment. We envisioned a space somewhere the DJs felt like they could push the boundaries with music and do it to an open-minded crowd. And I think we have definitely achieved that over the years.” Indeed, it has been a number of years now – and the brains and concept continues to move forward with gusto.
From the beginning, the concept was based around being fun and being a bit cheeky. “Being one of the first female DJ nights definitely worked in our favour when we were starting out, as I think people were thinking whether we could really play. On the opening night, we were blown away getting almost 300 through the door at a pretty small venue, considering the majority of the lineup were all newcomer DJs!”
So a number of years on, the brand has seen the lineup heavily skewed towards femme fatale, but the girls didn’t neglect a balance – they would always invite a male guest to join them, to give the party a bit of diversity. Interestingly, the male guests would be called ‘flavour of the month!’ Danni continues: “Tickled Pink’s resident DJs have always been females, but we didn’t want to leave the dudes out totally so we decided to invite a male guest DJ to play with us. It worked in very well to adding to the cheeky vibe of the party. Early last year I decided to change the direction of the party from a regular monthly event to doing a few special gigs per year and start adding some international acts to the lineups. So far we have managed the Australian tour of David Keno under the Tickled Pink Events brand, and also did shows with Daniel Drier and Christian Burkhard - as you can see we like the Germans!”
Musically, the crew considered themselves at very much the deep end of the tech house tip. “The resident DJs at the moment are myself, Atonix and Cecille so between us, we have a really good mix of styles that covers deep house through to techno. I am playing a lot of deep house club gigs at the moment; Atonix is heavily involved in the festival scene playing tech house and Cecille has been around forever playing minimal and techno, so I think we are a really good team to provide nice musical progression at the parties.”
Likewise, the Tickled Pink experience has seen the girls experience many highlights. “It has been such an amazing experience for me and has helped my own DJ career along so much, so I feel so grateful to have been able to share this awesome experience with so many of my great friends and crew. But a definite highlight was being able to take the brand overseas this year with gigs in Berlin and Prague for myself.”
And low lights? “That’s a hard one,” Danni explains. “Running regular events in Melbourne is definitely no walk in the park so I guess the hard task is trying to keep the party fresh and interesting – that would have been the most challenging aspect of it all. Oh and DJ Sass who was with me right from the start hung up her headphones a few years back to start a family, so it was definitely a sad moment to see her go as she was always such an important ingredient in the Tickled Pink recipe; she was a girl with a massive personality!”
Finally, Danni is excited to be at the helm again, hosting the Tickled Pink event at Lucky Coq on Melbourne Cup Day. “We’re all really looking forward it. Dyed is my favourite producer right now and I have had my eye on bringing him to Melbourne for quite a while now. His style fits the Tickled Pink flavour perfectly and we have a killer local lineup to match so I think it’s going to be a really great day. We are extremely lucky to be working with Lucky Coq on this party and with their help, running it as a free daytime party. We are also working in conjunction with the Philip Bader party on Cup Eve at Bimbo Deluxe, so together, we are offering two great international acts for free over the cup public holiday, it’s all very exciting!”
BY RK
