Let Them Eat Cake

Wow which one hmm - the one in Melbourne on the 40 degree day where the storm rolled in just before midnight and we rode our bicycles through the rain to a party and everyone ran around kissing everyone chastely on the cheek and we jumped up and down on a strangers bed with the tequila bottle being passed around. There were tears yes, but there was laughter too!

getting paid to work the main stage bar at summadayze this year and seeing all the big acts perform.

Sitting at my desk at an I.T job at 2pm, was looking up flight prices last minute to Sydney to see how ridiculously high they'd be. Turns out, they were ridiculously cheap. Nobody flying last minute on NYD!

Fuck it, I thought. Booked two tickets. Girlfriend met up with me at 6pm after work, thinking we were going to a local club for the night (I was doing some work there around dj'ing). Nope. I just handed her a map of Sydney, saying "you'll need this tonight". Not long later we're on a plane. No change of clothes.

We land about 11pm. Somehow caught a train into the city, walked into a sea of millions, went down this dark wack tunnel and emerged on a hilltop overlooking the harbour with a perfect view. Some park that wasn't even busy. Had a great view.

Slept on a park bench, then used an online site to book a 5 star at ridiculously cheap rate. Walked in at 9am begging for a room waaaay before check-in time, and got it. Collapsing into that 5-star bed after that kind of night was amazing. Woke up looking at submarines in Darling Harbour.

Still with her. ~5 years and counting.

Hot summers night in a back yard in Thornbury surrounded by friends and cold beer, Bands playing and every one lounging around waiting for that sweet sweet cool change. Knowing that the next day we could go to the beach or go see some of the best international DJ's around. Love Melbourne.

A few years back my brother was traveling around NZ so I thought it would be cool to fly out and tag along for a while. We road tripped south to Queenstown for NYE.

Neglecting to actually book any accommodation we rolled into town at around 6pm and to our surprise – everything was booked. No hostels, no hotels, no campsites. In a flash of pure genius we decided to pitch our tent on the rugby field in the centre of town! Just a short stroll away from all the pubs and clubs – perfect!

Our night on the town was a particularly messy one, mainly due to the invention of our new signature cocktail "Gider" (gin + cider). Luckily our tent remained in it's prime location and we weren't moved on by the police. In the morning however, we woke up to find we had a new lodger. A young Maori bloke was sleeping in our tent between us! "Is this bloke anything to do with you?" My bemused brother asked. "I hope not" I replied...

Well that would be the one where I won tickets to 'Let Them Eat Cake' and partied like a rock-star well into the glorious new year! yeewww! Oh wait that hasn't happend yet.

My first rave - Welcome 2002 at the last party at Docklands with John Digweed, Sven Vath and Richie Hawtin. I somehow got in even though I was 17 and looked about 12. One of the best nights ever!!!!

The one when I was on Ko Pha Ngan over New Years, but my girlfriend at the time and I weren't interested in going to the full moon party on the other side of the island, and we ended up being the only two people on the entire beach we were staying at. Lying on the hammock, listening to Revolver, watching the moon reflect off the ocean, was one to remember.

This year NYE is going to be so surreal. First of all I am going to be in Australia for the first time - somehow forced cause my boyfriend went there for his research project 5 months ago and i said at some point: "well - the only place I am acutally gonna visit you during cold winter is Australia ". (the second choice was sweden - which would have meant only 3 hours of daylight in dec. - and all the other places i have been at some point or were just extremly boring)..

My very close friends from Holland (I went to my first electronic musik thing ever) I met 2005 in Bangkok during my exchange programe are now living and working in Melbourne. I spent the last 4 NYE with them in Berlin or Amsterdam and can not imagine anyone more fun and smooth to party with. In the meantime they also became good friends with my boyfriend - which is going to be amazing when I arrive.

Two girls i used to work with during my gapyear in London are living in Melbourne as well ... also coming to let them eat cake as the rest. and a couple i did travel around with in south east asia for three months has tickets as well.

its going to be a missive colission of people i met during the last couple of years at different stages of my life. Cant wait to leave AUSTRIA in 68 days and dance on the other side of the world....

swam across the yarra. in the nud. with a mate. we nearly spewed. climbing up like drowned maggots with shrimp dicks on the way up. i'll never forget the way our feet just continued to sink into the gross mud beneath us... err. i was looking up "man gets sick from swimming in yarra" on google for a week. fortunately we were cool :)

NYE 09-10
I'd met a girl at a picnic on Dec 27, and agreed to meet up with her on NYE. I'd never been to the bar before, and it was a very hot evening, so I decided to go shorts and thongs thinking the occasion would be informal, we'd have a couple of drinks and see where the night would take us. That was a bad move. As it turned out the bar was a swing music bar, and she was dressed in a long black maxi dress, looking absolutely stunning and ready to dance all night. I'd never danced a single proper step in my life, and felt completely embarrassed to be surrounded by a room of dancers, dressed in full 60s swing dance get-up, who to me looked like they were professionals. I was in hell, before having a chat with her friend at the bar and explaining how embarrassed I was watching her dance on her own to the band and feeling like I'd muffed the night up. Her friend said to me "look, you can go over there thank her for inviting you out, leave and she'll find someone else to spend her new years with. Or you can go over there, try your ass off, stop making excuses and be that guy she'll always remember for spending a new years eve dancing swing in shorts and thongs just for her."
I went over and started dancing with her. We're getting married in October next year.

Probably the most unique new years I ever had was about 3-4 years ago when I was studying in Europe, I visited some family friends of mine over Christmas in the UK and ended up heading to this back country party in a Barn, (we also stopped at stones hedge which was on the way which as amazing as the sun was setting). It was a big converted barn with throw pillows. turkish carpets, incense and fairy lights everywhere. They even had a massive scale model electric toy car track and a vintage arcade machine, drinking home made cider and getting ripping everyone danced till dawn listening to new UK music that I had never really heard of at the time, such as Digital Mystics, Burial etc etc. Was the best new years party I've ever had.

Nye 10-11.

Sailing the south pacific with 3 mates in a decrepit old boat in which we some how survived. We brought the news years in 200 meters off the coast of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands funking out to Flying Lotus' Cosmogramma. Would be so dope to see him in person, yeww beat mag.

mine is .. after being anxious about meeting and making friends and actually getting to a party and feeling like everyone else instead of being lonely.

When I was 18, my boyfriend and I were caught having sex by his parents. We then spent the following day with a whopping hangover, spewin' in the toilet and getting a very detailed, tedious sex lecture from his mum.

Gisborne NZ 2007/08; Rhythm and Vines festival. Drinking Harvest Cider, popping squats in the grape vines, our tent passing out before we did, accidently swallowing a glow-stick, seeing the New Year in on a hammock listening to Dick Johnson with a very neon mouth, sex on the beach with the first rays of the 2008 sun...

We arrived at Watergate in Berlin soon after midnight to a 300 people long queue. Unable to bear the snow and eager to get partying, my friend and I waltzed straight to the front, put on our best German accents and said: "my name ist Heidi und das its Izel, we are on Magda's list". Worked a treat and what a night to remember!

It was a stroke past midnight in Surfers Paradise. As my husband and I ran streaking into the crisp waves without a moment of hesitation - I knew I had truly found The One. Fireworks cracked loudly over our heads as we hurried back to shore for a chilled glass of bubbly. We stood hand in hand with warm towels wrapped around us and we celebrated our first new year as newly weds with a kiss.

surfers paradise at mirage listening to the australian doors outdoor sellout concert coming in at midnight with 'break on through to the other side', go go girls in scaffold cages, fireworks blasting away, sharing a massive spliff with close mates

2011 NYE Koh Phangang Full Moon Party in Thailand. just incredible.