On March 22, Danza Organika, one of Manila’s preeminent DIY parties, celebrated its last dance in a Makati warehouse with a few hundred people. A spiritual successor to the SadoMasoDisco parties from 2022 and 2023, Danza emerged from an organizational restructuring among Sado founders, making it one of the earliest manifestations of post-pandemic nightlife — one that embraced the “new normal” by redefining the city’s dance music culture.
To many, Danza’s finale marks a milestone in Manila’s party scene, signaling its full emergence from the tumult of the past five years. The pandemic forced organizers and partygoers to navigate endless hurdles for a night of unmasked dancing, and despite the deluge of venues that closed as a result — like Makati’s XX:XX, Black Market, and Futur:st, or Quezon City’s Route 196 and Today x Future — I never partied so much in my life. DJs, producers, photographers, and promoters alike took whatever opportunities they could to bounce back, and these efforts prevented the nightlife industry from fully folding in itself. As a result, Manila saw new genres of music crop up while welcoming a new generation of dancers, many fresh out of college and discovering the party for the first time.
What Makes a Good Party?
For me, a good party means quality music, and a crowd that’s willing to give their all on the dancefloor. While this might be evident to some, it is, in fact, purely subjective. As such, the list of parties below comes with a disclaimer: While seminal to me — a DJ and partygoer who, with my own musical biases, has attended hundreds of events before and throughout the pandemic — these selections are by no means exhaustive, only scratching the surface of what Manila’s party scene has to offer.
It’s also worth mentioning that Manila’s dance music scene is small; the number of tourists it attracts isn’t comparable to cities like Bangkok or Bali. As such, many parties in Manila are attended by the same cast of local characters, and I’ve been involved in some of these events as an organizer. These efforts are not mine alone; it’s also the work of countless others who make partying in this city possible, from door bitches, production designers, bar staff to sound and light technicians.
Special mentions include Synthecide, a gathering for analog synth enthusiasts, and gRAVE, which is arguably one of the city’s most subversive parties for internet punks. Nights like Roll The Dice, Planet Workshop, Moving Parts, and Ritmo, held at the Makati club Nokal, showcase the diversity of house music, while Sonic Ulam and Cherish feature a rotating lineup of DJs adjacent to the House Collab Underground collective, pushing techno music to a broader audience. Parties like Et Alt and Jasphonica — the latter of which is my own — are spaces for exploring music in a more lighthearted atmosphere, being a response to the heavier dance sound in many Manila parties.
Party crews like Bodies and Fly Shit Only are descendents of the pre-pandemic Bad Decisions, a trap and hip-hop collective born out of the now-defunct Black Market in Makati. Some of its DJs have since come together to form the female-led R&B crew, Unlimore. Transit Records, a collective I’m a part of, also hosted nights at Black Market’s neighboring club XX:XX. Its closure in 2020 left us with no choice but to shift to DIY parties, focusing instead on finely tuned sound systems and a second room dedicated to chill out music, which I’ve learned is an essential part of the dance music experience. Similarly, Warphole, which channels a quintessentially Japanese take on dance music, has built its own bespoke sound system; Irie Sunday, which, pre-pandemic, hosted sound system parties at Makati’s B-Side, brought its famous Red-i speaker stack to Boogie along Kalayaan Avenue, Poblacion, offering a unique way to experience dub and reggae music.
Of course, there are the pandemic-born groups like Soulseek Radio, Let Them Cook, and Don’t Tell Nanay, which all have fostered a culture of shared resources and mutual learning among young DJs and organizers. The Apotheka club in Poblacion has centered their programming around Manila’s various music collectives, while curating their own nights like Unearth (for leftfield electronic music) and Diskoteka (for afro house and tech house). There’s also Club Euphoria, CHURCH, and Mighty Real Ball that organize queer parties, many involving the drag and ballroom community; SMUTT, a delightfully horny house and disco party, and Bliss, a space dedicated to FLINTA (female, lesbian, intersex, non-binary, trans, and agender) individuals, have also made big strides for the queer community. But being newer parties, their impact is still unfolding.
Countless others go unmentioned here due to the sheer impossibility of a single person accounting for every scene that shapes the city’s nightlife. Hopefully this effort preserves even a fraction of Manila’s dance music culture from fading into mere hearsay.
With all that said, here is a seminal list of parties that, to many, defined Manila’s post-pandemic era.
A Futur:st Vision
If you grew up watching sitcoms, you’ll know how characters always had a spot to hang out — a place they could visit alone and somehow end up running into everyone they were looking for.
Futur:st was that spot for many. The bar-restaurant-club opened in 2019 as the Makati offshoot of Cubao’s Today x Future. During the pandemic, it was a refuge for artist types looking for a nightcap or a place to waste away until the wee hours of the morning. Samantha Nicole, Futur:st’s co-founder and programmer, struck a healthy balance between young DJs hoping to play to a crowd free of judgment and veteran selectors wanting to dive deeper into their music crates. Of course, there were the regulars: You could expect darker, pulsating four-to-the-floor digs by local DJs Tefi, Mafia, and Manila Animal (also known as the visual artist Kiko Escora), while cheeky pop edits were provided by the likes of Jer Dee, Marky, and Xtina Superstar.
The beauty of Futur:st was never really knowing what to expect. In June 2024, the space shut its doors, and the city lost a home that was beloved by many.
The Return of UNKNWN
UNKNWN had consistently thrown parties in Manila since 2017. So, when they broke their pandemic silence by announcing their return to Intramuros’ Puerta Real Gardens on April 30, 2022 — more than two years after the world went into global lockdown — it signaled the first step toward getting the city’s nightlife back on track. By this time, Manila’s surviving bars and clubs were cautiously reopening, but the fact that a full-fledged outdoor party was allowed to happen signaled an imminent change was in the works.
UNKNWN’s return, which consisted of an all-local line-up, was one of the first occasions that Manila’s seasoned partygoers rubbed shoulders with the new kids on the block, many of whom discovered dance music through live-streamed DJ sets. Some unforgettable moments from the comeback party included UNKNWN co-founder Emel Rowe dropping The Black Eyed Peas’ bombshell track “Boom Boom Pow” in the middle of a percussive-heavy set, sending dancers into a frenzy; Samantha Nicole, also a co-founder of UNKNWN, played the emotional “Marea (we’ve lost dancing)” by Fred again and The Blessed Madonna that had people shedding tears on the dancefloor.
KAPUT Intersecting Art and Rave
KAPUT was one of Manila’s earliest pandemic-born DIY parties. Established in mid-2022 by visual artist Derek Tumala and filmmaker Jan Pineda, KAPUT was an attempt to combine art and rave with its pioneering use of video mapping projections, which was uncommon for Manila parties at the time. Their early events were, to those that knew it, a best kept secret: limited tickets, and a small, secret venue announced just days before the event.
January 27, 2024, signaled a turning point for the organizers as they took over a defunct movie theater inside Makati Cinema Square. The event, in collaboration with pandemic-born queer collective Normie Corp. from Vancouver, saw droves of people in slutty business attire. Revellers danced to high-energy and abrasive pop edits, while Normie Corp.’s resident DJ fagofcolor addressed faux employees like the head of HR, telling people to get on the stage if they’re a “sexy motherfucker.”
Today, KAPUT is arguably one of Manila’s largest dance music parties in terms of production value and attendance. Despite this scale, the organizers pride themselves in being independently funded.
Boiler Room in Manila
Manila Community Radio (MCR) began as an effort in 2020 by multiple music collectives affected by pandemic-led venue closures, offering a platform for DJs and producers to create their own online radio shows. MCR established “satellite studios” in bars when foot traffic was low, helping democratize among young broadcasters resources that were previously reserved for establishments, or those who could afford or had access to it.
In 2023, MCR won a broadcasting grant from the globally renowned dance music platform Boiler Room, which led to a collaborative live showcase on April 29, 2023. Taking place in a literal former boiler room by the banks of Marikina River, the one-day celebration saw Boiler Room and MCR shine a spotlight on the Filipino grassroots dance music genre budots and its mutations.
Opening the night was Showtime Official Club, represented by AZ Uy, who set the bar high by blending budots edits of tracks like Kitchie Nadal’s “Huwag Na Huwag Mong Sasabihin” with Willie Revillame’s “Beep Beep Beep Ang Sabi Ng Jeep.” Multidisciplinary artist t33g33, also known as the former Ourselves the Elves frontwoman Aly Cabral, went back-to-back with DJ and producer Hideki Ito, dropping remixes of New Jeans’ “Ditto” with Kyla’s “Love Will Lead You Back.” A footwork-inspired budots set by producers Pikunin and obese.dogma777 was complete with live whistles, while Libya Montes from Lapu-Lapu, Cebu, showcased his brand of space budots wearing a Jollibee uniform in solidarity with non-contractual workers. Music prodigy Teya Logos, who opened her set with harsh gabber selections, cleansed the dancers’ palates with Boracay beach house from the early 2000s, thus completing the 360-degree Filipino experience for the night.
But of course, the headlining act was DJ Love, the budots music pioneer from Davao City, who finally received the praise that was over twenty years in the making. It was truly a Pinoy moment to be proud of, one that we’re lucky to have archived and made rewatchable online.
ELEPHANT’s Second Wind
ELEPHANT began in 2017 as a techno night in XX:XX, catering to the drag and LGBTQIA+ community. They have consistently advocated for safer spaces while raising the torch for vulnerable groups within Manila’s nightlife.
So when XX:XX closed, their organizers had to pivot to DIY parties. Their Pride Month special, “Magandang Gabi, Bayot!: An Elephant Pride Special” on June 24, 2023, was certainly one for the books. Their stacked line-up of 18 DJs and drag performers meant there was something for everyone — whether it was the back-to-back Kylie Minogue tribute set by local favorite Subicbae and fashion designer Salad Day, or Berlin-based DJ Ketia showing their playfulness by mixing baile funk with techno on the sweaty and booming dance floor.
But everyone in the venue (and apparently on social media) couldn’t deny the powerful rendition of the Catholic prayer “Ama Namin” by drag artist Pura Luka Vega, who was dressed as Jesus Christ. It was a performance that went viral online, sparking a furious uproar among the Philippines’ most religious factions; it led to Luka being arrested under Article 201 of the Revised Penal Code, penalizing “immoral doctrines, obscene publications and exhibitions, and indecent shows.” They were also declared persona non grata (or an unwelcome person) in several cities across the country.
While it was just another Pride party for some, this particular event ignited discourse on queer faith and freedom of expression, illustrating that despite our many advances as a democracy, there is still much work to be done.
The Rise and Fall of SadoMasoDisco
Co-founded in late 2022 by Karlo Vicente and Jeric Lim (also known by his DJ name Limsum), SadoMasoDisco’s impact on Manila’s dance music scene is undeniable. They adopted a blueprint for what many small-to-medium-sized parties in the city follow today, taking place in unlikely venues like an abandoned Japanese restaurant or a boxing ring. They catered to their niche of dark, groovy dance music with anthems like “Silver” by the Dutch producer Beyond being mainstay tracks at the party. Alongside local DJs, Sado invited breakthrough acts from across the world, which were not exactly mainstream headliners but were highly respected in their scenes.
It didn’t take long for people to catch on to Sado after their first party on December 3, 2022, as images and videos quickly circulated on social media, with local and international publications picking it up. Sado brought many standout artists to Manila, but what really put the party on the map was their booking of Hong Kong DJ, producer, and record label honcho Mr. Ho on February 4, 2023. His 2021 track “Bail-E” with South Korean producer Mogwaa was a pandemic dance anthem, frequently reaching the top of the algorithm in its niche corner on Spotify. His night at Sado was opened by local DJs Duality and baby ikea, who set the pace with their high-energy set of broken beat bass, bleep techno, and sinister electro.
While most people patiently waited for Mr. Ho to play his beloved track, the real takeaway from the night came when he dropped the needle on the infectiously deep and soulful house tune, “So In Love With You (Full Intention 12” Mix)” by Duke. This track has gotten local DJs rinsing it out at their gigs ever since. While the track has, in fact, been a staple in Manila dance parties since the ‘90s, Mr. Ho’s masterclass in timing showed how the right anthem, played at the right moment, can transcend generations of dancers.
Sado dominated Manila’s party scene until December 2023, when Vicente faced sexual harassment allegations that surfaced on X. Vicente then made a statement on his Instagram Stories saying, “I really would like to apologize to any of you who I could have made uncomfortable at any point.” He, however, said that most of the allegations are “definitely not true.” In February 2024, Lim announced in an Instagram post that he was leaving Sado, which he attributed to his co-founder’s “lack of accountability” and that he could “no longer continue throwing parties under false pretenses.”
The fall out of such a revered party prompted local organizers to think long and hard about issues of safe spaces and how Manila parties can uphold values of community while looking beyond hedonistic fun.
A New Era with Danza Organika
After leaving Sado, Lim formed Danza Organika in early 2024 with friends Luis Naguiat and Jem Capeding (the latter of which DJs under the name Jem). Still continuing the formula of combining local DJs with regional scene favorites in intimate locations, Danza steered their musical direction towards a more slick and progressive dance sound.
Their eighth party, on October 26, 2024, was located in the basement of what looked like a Catholic school, which felt in theme with that Halloween weekend. The line-up consisted of Paris-based trio Pitaya Soundsystem; Youknowsong, resident DJ of Kockiri, Seoul’s only electronic music gay bar, and local acts TSK, Constance, Thirstkid, and Limsum playing cheesy Italo, Balearic house, and feel-good disco. A standout moment included Pitaya resetting the dancefloor with the minimalist deep house track “Miura” by Metro Area, which, with its rubbery bass line and warm, emanating synth, conjured flashbacks of pre-pandemic days when this song was played in almost every Manila club night.
Fast forward to Danza’s finale on March 22, their impact was made evident as old faces from Sado came to support. DJs and producers from across Asia showcased a range of dance music, from a percussive and bass-heavy set by Tokyo’s Stones Taro, showcasing sounds that Danza don’t usually platform, to Hong Kong DJ Xiaolin’s closing set that combined dark selections with a live violin performance. It was like a warm hug to end 8 hours of dancing, and the perfect send off to this beloved party.
