Thinking about going to Vegas? Then don't go with anyone from the Defected. For the second year running, Simon Dunmore and his house crew again suffered at the hands of the Miami weather gods with Nikki Beach an indoor affair for much of the afternoon. Still those in attendance didn’t seem to care much, slipping and shuffling away in their wet thongs to the sounds of house stars from around the world and the overtones of Barbara Tucker.

Defected weren’t the only ones to suffer from the tropical conditions with flights into Miami diverted to nearby airports and serious delays affecting the thousands of music industry punters flooding into the County.

Nikki Beach

Frankie Knuckles kicked off the WMC with the official conference opening party at Shine. The place took a while to warm up in the main room before the Shapeshifters got their thing on while over at the Penthouse, the Proton Radio party attracted a good crowd with the Miami locals, progressive online radio heads and the likes of Evil 9 and Infusion all showing support.

Super hot Border Community head honcho, James Holden, in the wake of his recent ‘At The Controls’ release pulled in plenty of punters at his label night with little swede Petter rocking the place early on at BED. The club has had a good tweaking this year with a much needed Integral sound system installed by Steve Dash's crew and the removal of the beds in the centre of the club opening up the dance floor to twice the size. After Petter, James Holden picked up the pace and nailed it out til the 5am close with a crowd that thinned out a little from 3-4am; a lot of people out seemed to be holding back for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

John Digweed

One party that didn't lack in crowd, vibe or a honk-if-your-horny type response was John ‘trucker’ Digweed at his Bedrock party. John had the place heaving, DJing from the newly arranged Pawn Shop which now sees the DJ box situated at the front seat of a truck, complete with massive airhorns at the control of the progressive master. Tommie Sushine, infamous on myspace for his hippie amounts of facial hair and millions of random loving friends, took the backroom for the crowd that was up for pretty much anything.

Onwards and upwards and things are definitely on track for the WMC 2006 as we roll into the weekend. All that will be required is the stamina of an in form race horse...mind the ketamine.

WMC Photos - March 23 – Thursday
Robbie Rivera's Juicy Music WMC party at Opium Garden
Defected In the House Miami 2006 at Nikki Beach