Dance music festival ZoukOut will see the highest number of music acts making their debut this year in the event's 15-year history.
Its organiser, nightclub Zouk, announced the first wave of the annual ZoukOut festival line-up today. Close to half of the 12 international acts will perform for the first time in this year's ZoukOut.
They include Swedish electronic music duo Axwell and Ingrosso, who are from the now-defunct dance music trio Swedish House Mafia; up-and-coming French DJ and rapper DJ Snake; and British deep house producer and DJ, Duke Dumont.
Also making their debut are Dutch music producer Oliver Heldens and American techno and house music trio Visionquest.
Last year, only three of the 31 acts performed for the first time at ZoukOut, which is considered one of the biggest and most prominent dance music festivals in the region.
On attracting more new performers to ZoukOut, Ms Sofie Chandra, 32, Zouk's head of marketing and events says: "ZoukOut is becoming an internationally known event, and we have seen more artistes wanting to perform here to be part of a world-class experience."
She notes that the first wave of performers is "a good balance of electronic dance music headliners and deep house artistes".
The pulsating beach rave party will be held on Dec 11 and 12 at Siloso Beach in Sentosa.
The release of this year's ZoukOut line-up comes hot on the heels of last week's announcement that Zouk will move out from its 24-year-old location in Jiak Kim Street in May next year and relocate to Clarke Quay by September next year.
With a confirmed new venue for the popular home-grown nightclub, ZoukOut will remain a marquee event in Zouk's calendar.
Ms Chandra says: "We couldn't be more proud to be able to continue to take the Zouk spirit and energy outdoors.
"The first edition of ZoukOut in 2000 saw a mere 8,000 revellers attending the festival, but it has since grown to attract 50,000 people last year."
She adds that more than 40 per cent of last year's revellers were tourists who flew in from as far as Europe and the United States.
Zouk estimates that more than $4.5 million will be spent on organising this year's ZoukOut with "more elaborate production set-up, pyrotechnics and artiste line-up and entertainers".
In all, about 30 international and local dance music acts will hit the stage over the two-day event. Other crowd-favourite acts include Grammy-winning DJ and record producer Tiesto, seasoned American DJ Kaskade, and Australian dance duo Nervo.
And like last year's edition, local DJs will perform alongside international acts on the festival's two main stages. They include Zouk's resident DJs such as Formative, Hong and Lincey.
The second wave of acts is slated to be announced in August or September, when ticket sales start.
