Ayesha de Kretser/Shanghai Daily

Not long ago, Shanghai struggled when it came to getting decent DJs to play in its clubs. The best it could offer was Paul Oakenfold or other assorted past-their-used-by-date hacks billed as superstars by random DJ magazines. No one I know has ever heard of, let alone read.
However, in recent months, certain venues have upped the anti when it comes to pulling in big names. The best of these has been Club DKD, located on Huaihai Road, near Chongqing Road.
DKD is popular amongst clubbers because of its friendly atmosphere. Unlike some nightclubs in Shanghai, there’s an unusually pleasant vibe present in DKD and people generally mix well amongst each other on the dance floor.
There’s little pushing and shoving (unless it’s jam packed like it was last Saturday night) but most of all, they actually deliver quality DJs.
Like Carl Cox, who played there last Saturday night.
No matter how old the big man gets, he’ll always set dance floors grooving with his old school techno beats and cheesy classics. Taking the crowd back to the early days of rave on Saturday night, Cox played a marathon four-and-a-half-hour set.
The management of DKD can regularly be seen mixing with the crowd, which makes for a welcome change from the norm and creates an authentic clubbing experience.
It’s not a particularly big venue, and over recent months has been packed to the rafters when DJs like Miss Kittin and Australian live dance music act, Infusion, played to excited crowds.
The bar staff are usually very polite and also efficient, and not having to queue for a drink can really make a big difference in a hot and sweaty club like DKD.
But the best thing about the place is that it offers Shanghai residents a chance to escape the routine hard trance scene that has been so overdone in most other clubs. It’s one of the only venues that offers a taste of psychedelic beats and more progressive trance at its new “Full Moon” party events.
Maybe not everyone’s cup of tea but certainly proving popular with the new generation of Chinese partygoers and foreigners alike, DKD is exactly as a club should be.
It’s got the right mix of decent tunes, great management and appreciative clubbers to keep Shanghai attracting top name DJs well into the future.