FAQ for Despacio #19 – Ghent

This FAQ’s for folks attending (or curious about) the Despacio Event to be held March 16 & 17, 2024 from 4pm to 10pm in Ghent, Belgium. The FAQ’s last update was March 11, 2024. 

🪩 What is Despacio?
Despacio is the world’s best dance party. It’s ultra-rare, having occurred just 18 times since 2013. Despacio consists of five essential elements:

(1) hi-fi sound
(2) three master DJs
(3) insanely rare vinyl records
(4) the dancers
(5) a disco ball and theatrical lighting

Inside Despacio, a black-and-white checkered dance floor is surrounded by seven towering McIntosh speaker-amplifier stacks arranged in a circle large enough to fit about 1,000 people in their wide embrace, and loud enough — at ~100,000 watts’ capacity — to liquefy their brains. Not to worry, though — John Klett, the audio system’s designer, limits the system to 100-105db, a restraint that must feel like driving an F1 race car through a preschool parking lot — too much gas and kids are gonna die! The otherworldly system sounds great from anywhere in the room, but you’ll hear angels sing in the center of the room where the sound waves converge, and where the energy of their central sweet spot draws dancers together under the giant disco ball that hangs there.

Off to one side of the dance floor, tucked into a partially hidden DJ booth, James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem frontman) and brothers Stephen and David Dewaele (2manydjs / Soulwax) take turns at the decks spinning vinyl records you probably can’t and almost certainly won’t hear anywhere else in the world. Over the course of a five- to seven-hour set, you’ll hear 70 to 90 songs from the DJ’s collections, and Shazam won’t help you identify most of it because it’s the result of decades of crate-digging, taste-building, and an obsessive dedication to the eclectic, rebellious balearic DNA from which Despacio emerged.

It’ll be dark most of the time you’re inside Despacio, but every once in a while, at key moments, the giant disco ball in the center of the room comes to life. The experience just might change your life — people have communed with the dead, met their life partners, and (if the rumors are to be believed) conceived a child on this legendary dance floor, which is why the experience’s social media hashtag, #despacioishappiness, seems less a promise, and more a forecast for any serious time spent inside Despacio.

Want to learn more? Watch this: Despacio soundsystem: James Murphy and 2ManyDJs in conversation or read this Wired article: Despacio: the 50,000-watt sound system designed for discerning audiophiles. Or keep reading this FAQ…

🪩 Where to buy tickets?
Tickets are currently sold out, but a last-chance sale is happening on Thursday, March 14 at 10am Ghent time at this link.  Maximum two tickets per person! Pricing: 

• Regular Tickets (€55 + 6% VAT)
• VIP “Intimo” (€300 + 6% VAT) grants access to Despacio and “a whole host of great extras” (which we believe will include a VIP area, food, and drink)
• Full Access: (€525 + 21% VAT) includes FTI Gent conference content, including 3 days of The Talks, 2 days of The Summit, unlimited access to The Expo, and a single-day Despacio (including afterparty) of your choice. 

🪩 Where is the Belgium event?
The next Despacio wlil be held at Wintercircus, Ghent, Belgium @ Wintercircus, Miriam Makebaplein 2, 9000 Gent, Belgium (map). This one’s going to be special because it’s being held in the hometown of 2manydjs, so one might expect a bit of homecoming energy to be present on the dancefloor. What’s more, the venue is an architectural wonder (just look at these images).

🪩 How much time should I spend inside Despacio?
The event will run for six hours each night, which may sound like a lot of time, but there’s a reality distortion field and time-dilation effect going on that makes it feel both like forever and like no time at all. 

Our recommendation is to spend as much time as you have the stamina for. At a minimum, try to give it a couple of hours because the experience is theatrical in nature — attending less than that isn’t a full act of Despacio.

What do we mean by an act of Despacio? Over the course of a single night of Despacio Ghent, the DJs will spin for six hours, which can be roughly divided into three acts of two hours each. The first song of the night might well be Art of Noise’s Moments in Love (Beaten), a slow number played to a mostly dark room. This is scene-setting and an introduction to the primary characters, who — contrary to most of the arena-style dance music concerts in commercial vogue — are not the DJs, but the speaker stacks. At the start of the first act, the speaker stacks are the only objects receiving illumination, and the Art of Noise track demonstrates their dynamic range and capabilities nicely.

From there, the pace will gradually pick up, reaching its first dramatic peak at about 80 – 120 minutes into the event with a huge song dropping with pre-programmed lighting cues that light up the disco ball for the first time. People get emotional. After the climax moment, there is some “falling action” — vibier, slower songs built to help dancers through their refractory period, and the room is typically very dark again. That’s an act of Despacio, and without experiencing the energy rollercoaster that the DJs are so skillful at creating, you’re maybe missing out a bit on the “full” experience.

🪩 What are some of the tunes played at Despacio?
In a single set of Despacio, you’ll hear 70-90 different tunes. To get a sense of the breadth, check out this Spotify playlist containing over 62 hours music heard at Despacio (almost 700 songs). It’s impossibly eclectic and hard to reduce down to anything that’s not oversimplified. That said,  here’s a list of a dozen songs that define Despacio for me (and here’s my rationale for selecting them):

Art of Noise – Moments in Love (Beaten)
Madonna – Justify My Love
Black Meteoric Star – Freaks Only
Adriano Celentano – Prisencolinensinainciusol
Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On Unknown Re-Edit
Miami (Parrot and Cocker Too Remix) – Baxter Dury
Skatt Bros – Walk the Night
Manncool & Trol2000 – Capy
Ferrerra & 2manydjs’ Love Attack / Get Off the Speakers
Let It Happen (Soulwax remix) – Tame Impala
DJ Falcon & Thomas Bangalter’s Together aka “Together – Together” 
Stephane Sévérac – Hold On

And here’s another community member’s attempts to distill the catalog into an essential playlist:
Art of Noise – Moments in love 
Stephane Sévérac – Hold On
Laid Back – Fly Away/Walking In The Sunshine
Capone – Music Love Song
Dennis Parker – Like an eagle 
Kool & The Gang – Jungle Boogie
Men Without Hats – The Safety Dance
DJ Falcon & Thomas Bangalter – Together 
Jaydee – Plastic dreams
Neighbor – Lando

And yet another: 

Harry Thumann – Underwater
Warren Zevon – Night Time In The Switching Yard
The Orb – Little Fluffy Clouds
Heart – Magic Man
Wang Chung – Dance Hall Days
Who’s Who – Dancin’ Machine
Will Powers – Adventures in Success
Red Axes – Sun My Sweet Sun
Psychemagik – Rattlesnake
Cliche (Soulwax Remix) – Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Populi

Despacio is basically multiple genres of dance music ranging from the 1960s to 2020s … the best genre label is Balearic. In the book, “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life,” Belearic is defined:

“When it became clear that the very foundations of house and techno were built with records from continental Europe, snobby British musos started reappraising Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, even Belgian club history, re-evaluating the music these scenes prized and produced, and plundering them for unheard tracks. As well as inspiring such historical revision, by making lyrics largely irrelevant, house and techno further eroded the English-speaking world’s great pop-cultural advantage.

The Balearic spirit is a willingness to try anything in the service of your dancefloor. Forget music snobbery, an artist’s credibility is irrelevant. Forget the division of different genres, and the obsession with newness, you can even sometimes ignore the correct speed of a record. The established rules of DJing need not apply. All that matters is the power and beauty of each song in the context you place it.

Named after the Mediterranean archipelago which contains Ibiza, and originally referring to the music of Ibiza’s DJ Alfredo, ‘Balearic’ implies a musical openness, an anything-is-possible attitude. It was often born of necessity – the need to stretch a limited number of records to fill long summer nights – but it taught an important lesson to any DJ who treated music with too much reverence.

Balearic is ‘Flesh’ by A Split Second played at the wrong speed to turn it from gothic industrial to deep proto-house; it’s the indie guitar mash of The Woodentops energising glamorous queens in the open air at Amnesia; or trippy Klaus Schulze records washing over kids zonked out on heroin by the side of a gorgeous Italian lake. Balearic invokes the holiday defencelessness you get from warm sand between your toes and a horizon of sparkling waves.

Importantly, Balearic is an attitude to music more than a specific style or location. Or, as dance music writer Frank Tope quipped: ‘It’s pop music that sounds good on pills.'”

In the words of redditor /u/jorgeandthekraken: “First of all, the sound is unreal. Standing in the middle of the dance floor, it’s powerful enough that you feel the bass in your chest, but the fidelity is so good that you could have a decent conversation just by raising your voice a bit. It’s the best sound I’ve ever heard in a dance club-like situation.

Secondly, Despacio advances an old-school dance aesthetic. The speakers are set up surrounding the dance floor and the DJ booth is off to the side and unobtrusive, because they want the dancing to be the focus, not who’s spinning the records. The selection is wide-ranging, and fantastic – everything from ’70s disco to funk to house to indie – but it never really gets above 120 bpm, and they maintain a real balearic feel throughout.

I’ve experienced it twice … and it was the best dance party experience I’ve ever had. The vibes are typically pristine. Since there’s no stage, there’s no crowd jockeying for position. Everybody just dances and has a good time. I am not a dance club person in the slightest, but if every experience were like Despacio, I’d go all the time.”

🪩 Besides DJS (David, James, Stephen), does anybody else DJ at Despacio?
There is no credible report that anybody other than James Murphy, Stephen Dewaele, and David Dewaele have been at the DJ decks.

🪩 I just got into Despacio and I’m confused. What direction do I face? Where are the DJs?
First of all, you’re in Despacio! Put your phone down and enjoy it.

But to answer your question, don’t worry about finding or facing the DJs. The center of the room, under the disco ball, is the center of the party. Despacio was deliberately and thoughtfully designed to de-escalate the DJ worship that took hold of EDM / DJ culture in the last few decades. The DJs want Despacio attendees to focus on the music, dance, and on each other. It’s a deliberate upending of convention and a return to a pure dancefloor ideal. The goal is to get folks dancing with each other, and it succeeds spectacularly at this.

🪩 I just tried to ID this song but Shazam failed me. Can anyone help?
Shazam often fails because most of what’s played is heavily remixed and pressed to vinyl specifically for play at Despacio. But after the show, hit up reddit.com/r/despacio or discord.gg/despacio to ask for help with any song IDs you’re stuck on, and the community will do their best to help. 

🪩 I went to Despacio once and it was too dark. The ball never even went off once. What gives?
The ball isn’t overused. It might light up once every two hours in the first part of the evening. Be patient, enjoy the music, and you’ll be rewarded. It’s one of the best parts of the show — just don’t expect it to be blazing light all the time and you’ll be happy when the fireworks do go off. And remember, the darkness is meant to help your sense of hearing come to the forefront. Darkness is a deliberate feature of Despacio.

🪩 Any tips for first-time Despacio attendees?

• Wear earplugs … the volume is generally 95-105db. They try to keep it under 100, but it may get turned up once the crowd size is larger to account for the mass of sound-absorbing bodies. It’s generally possible to have a conversation with someone while in Despacio, which might make you throw caution to the wind, but don’t risk permanent hearing loss, please.
• Find the sweet spots. The best sound is directly under the disco ball. Sometimes, you’ll see an x on the floor marking the spot. Each of the seven speaker stacks has its own sweet spot, so move around the room to find locations where your ears love what they’re hearing. 
• Read our guide, “How to Despacio,” for more tips!
• Read “I’m going to Despacio alone, is it hard to meet new people there?” for even more tips.

🪩 When and where has Despacio shown up in the past?
There have been 18 Despacios to date (not including Ghent) since its debut in the summer of 2013. You can find the complete list of Despacio events here. 

🪩 Where can I learn even more about Despacio / follow social accounts?
Here are the Despacio social media accounts. The fan community is centered on reddit.com/r/despacio and on Discord at https://discord.gg/despacio. There’s also a Whatsapp group that you can ask for a link to in Reddit or Discord.

🪩 Where can I get Despacio Merchandise?
Official Merchandise is sold only at certain shows. Lately it’s been a white t-shirt with a small green Despacio graphic on the left breast (meant to evoke the Hollywood sign). We’d encourage everyone to buy one to show support for this thing we all love. Despacio fan merch links follow. If you’ve made something and it’s available online, reply to this FAQ and we’ll update the links with your designs. Not trying to privilege any particular design — happy to list anything and everything. A bunch of unofficial Despacio fan stuff is here. And finally, if you’re interested in rolling your own, here’s a thread with fan-made merch spotted online and at shows.

🪩 Why is Despacio vinyl only?
“Simply because, to us, it’s the best-sounding carrier of music. We have thousands of them to choose from, and they look great. It’s just one more thing to nerd out over. Between the three of us, we bring about 1,000 vinyls to choose from, and lots of them are edits that we have made and have pressed up especially for Despacio.” — David Dewaele (source)

🪩 I’m a numbers geek. Give me all the numbers.
Ok, numbers geek:

• 2: Brothers in 2ManyDJs, in number of humans
• 3: DJs in the Despacio DJ booth, including James Murphy, in number of humans
• 7: speaker stacks, count (excludes a differently-configured system behind the DJ booth)
• 11: speaker stack height, in feet (according to some press reports)
• 12: speaker stack height, in feet (according to other press reports)
• 20: typical system volume, as percent of capacity
• 44: McIntosh amplifiers count
• 105: Target volume, decibels
• 576: black and white floor tiles, count
• 800: Records behind the DJ booth in Manchester 2013 (performance 01)
• 950: dance floor capacity, in number of humans
• 2013: first show, in years of the current era
• 22,000: cost per McIntosh amplifier, in £pounds
• 30,000: weight of Despacio speaker towers, in kilograms
• 50,000: Despacio wattage, in watts powered by McIntosh
• 100,000: Despacio wattage, total, including booth monitors and non McIntosh hardware 

Unanswered questions (we’re hoping for a response to these)
🪩 At the Ghent event, will there be a coat check room?
🪩 How will re-admittance be handled for folks that need to step out for a break? 
🪩 Will smoking be permitted inside the venue?
🪩 Can I bring a water bottle into the event?
🪩 If there will be a queue to re-enter, will it be indoors or outdoors?
🪩 What’s included in the “Intimo” VIP ticket?
🪩 Will there be any merchandise available from the event that mentions Despacio?