Meet the crew Soul of Sydney

Get to know this funky and creative collective. By Jordan Kretchmer

Hey guys, so to start off can you tell us who's the soul of Soul of Sydney? We were originally launched by local music fans Michael Zac, Eadie Ramia and Phil Toke in 2009. Now the extended ‘Soul family’ includes the likes of Devlin and Kate at Sydney Street Art Project, Billy Kid, Megan and Ayesha and Soul Patrol Dancers as well as our good friends at Dancelkool studio.

How and why did it begin? The Soul of Sydney blog kicked off with the idea to support the music scene we loved. We were all a little frustrated with music in Sydney and we wanted to create an outlet for our own projects, other DJs events and venues who were playing the music we loved: events where DJs, record collectors, B-boys and B-Girls, and musicians from different cultures, age brackets and social scenes can meet away from the usual late night bar and club situation. Describe a Soul of Sydney party in three words. Positive party vibes.

What inspires your parties? We take inspiration from legendary parties like Kool Herc’s Block Parties, the Body and Soul Parties in NYC, the Do Over parties in LA and Larry Levan and the Paradise Garage. Closer to home, events like Vibes on a Summer's Day, Playground Weekender, Funk Inc parties, Sounds on Sunday and Mad Racket have always stuck with us as pretty special, as well as some of the killer local underground warehouse parties. What do you want people to get out of going to a Soul of Sydney party? The events focus on positive people getting down and enjoying themselves. At a typical throwdown you would expect all kinds of dancefloor fun, be it classic Soul Train lines, breakers, poppers and lockers showcases, Roller Boogie flash mobs and even the odd limbo lines or group jump rope. More than anything we would like people to walk away invigorated, uplifted, and tired from too much dancing.

Soul of Sydney Check soulofsydney.org for events.