No spin is necessary: Venture is giant success

Around 11 a.m. on New Year’s Day, DJ Lee Burridge, who’d been spinning records either by himself or as part of a tag team with fellow British DJ Danny Howells since 2 in the morning, wrapped up his Herculean efforts in the Pasadena Ballroom of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel.

Before rushing off to board a plane for Acapulco, where he was performing that evening, an exhausted Burridge shared his views on Giant Venture, the two-day party staged by the Giant nightclub offering 36 consecutive hours of music over New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

“It turned into the most twisted, screwed-up, demented night ever; it was awesome,” a smiling Burridge yelled as Howells brought the night-morning home for the few dozen remaining fans a few feet away. “Dave Dean has to be congratulated on pulling together such a great party.”

Giant Venture was the highly ambitious brainchild of Dean, director of the dance club Giant. After three successful New Year’s Eve events in Hollywood and downtown, Dean expanded this year’s gathering of DJs and dance fans into a jam-packed two-day marathon at the Bonaventure.

A capacity crowd of 10,000, many of whom were staying at the downtown L.A. hotel, packed into three ballrooms, the rooftop deck and the revolving restaurant at the top of the hotel to celebrate New Year’s and witness sets from Paul Oakenfold, the Crystal Method, Sandra Collins, Jason Bentley, Burridge, Howells and more.

The hotel’s rooms, which also sold out, were available only to guests of the Giant Venture, so everybody in the hotel was there to share in Dean’s communal experience, which he likened to “a cruise ship that doesn’t move.”

“We put it in an environment where you’re going to interact with people that you don’t know,” he said in the Bonaventure lobby on New Year’s Day.

Despite long lines to check in on Dec. 31, the mood in the lobby was upbeat from early on.

A string ensemble and an acrobatic show were set up in the lobby area, as well as giant video screens, which were also placed between the second and third floors to accommodate any overflow from the massive California Ballroom, where Oakenfold and Collins would be spinning.

The ballrooms and rooftop opened at 8 p.m., but the party didn’t really begin until the Crystal Method’s DJ set on the rooftop deck at 9.

With the downtown skyline as the backdrop, and chairs set up around heat lamps, the duo of Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland ripped through a two-hour set of heavily tribal and percussive beats as smartly dressed fans danced under a covering.

The next major draw was Oakenfold, who spun from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. in the California Ballroom. Although people began lining up outside the security entrance for the room around 10 or so, several were stuck in line and missed chunks of his set. That didn’t deter the enthusiasts though, who entered screaming and dancing when they finally got in. As 2004 approached. Oakenfold led a countdown to midnight, then played U2’s “New Year’s Day.”

As other ballrooms closed during the night, fans migrated downstairs to the Pasadena Ballroom, where Burridge and Howells packed them in beginning at 4.

While the hard-core fans stayed throughout the event, many found sleep, often wherever they could get it.

Downstairs in the early morning, the benches of the Bonaventure lobby were lined with the sleeping bodies of those who didn’t have rooms.

As might be expected, the vibe was a bit more laid-back on Thursday, but by midafternoon, the rooftop was again abuzz as members of the DJ group known as Naked L.A. had the joint jumping with a skillful mix of everything from house to popular songs such as the Beatles “With a Little Help From My Friends” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

By 10 p.m., with an hour still to go, as the rooftop party closed down and the crowd gathered in the revolving restaurant to see sets from Architects of Sound, DJ Sol and more, there was more energy in those elevators and around the lobby than in most nightclubs.

As he waited for the elevator with attendees, Dean was approached by a fan named Julian. “This was an awesome party. I had a great time. You must be so proud of yourself,” the fan said.

“It’s not over yet,” Dean replied.

Whether officials at the Bonaventure Hotel were equally pleased remained to be seen. They couldn’t’ be reached for comment Friday.