Superstar DJ Carl Cox visited Gran Canaria this weekend for the first time, to the delight of those in the know, headlining a little publicised event named La Misa, at the newly reopened outdoor music venue attached to Sioux City, in the Barranco del Águila, now called Oasis Sioux, on the south of the sub-tropical island paradise.
World famous 59 year-old British DJ and producer, Carl Cox, has been a leading figure in the global dance music industry since rising to prominence in the late 80s, working with the likes of Paul Oakenfield and Danny Rampling, having started his career some ten years earlier with a humble mobile disco. He is credited as being one of the pioneers of the global rave and dance music scene and has won numerous awards through the decades for his innovation and contribution to an entire music movement having entertained audiences for nearly three generations.
The inaugural La Misa (Mass) festival event on Sunday June 19 formed an exclusive culmination to this year’s Maspalomas summer carnival events, and was held at the Oasis Sioux, in Maspalomas, which forms the latest iteration of perhaps the islands least known night club and festival venue, just out beyond San Agustín just 5km from the beaches of Playa del Inglés and the southern tourist heartlands of Maspalomas in the valley entrance to the wild west theme park Sioux City. This was the first time that Cox, world renowned as the pioneer of the underground dance music wave that swept the globe from the 90s clubs of Ibiza, has visited the island of Gran Canaria.
The all day festival-style event ran through the entire afternoon and was reportedly supported by the Government of the Canary Islands, the Ministry of Tourism and the Canarias Viva project.
Cox has only performed in the Canary Islands once before, back in 2012, as part of the prestigious Sunblast Festival, and this time round had also played Tenerife, one day earlier, in a three party series of events that the promoters called “the most epic musical odyssey created to date by our production company”, with complete light show and staging for a carnivalesque crowd of less than 1000 people who spent Sunday afternoon worshiping their ‘God’ as the Barranco del Águila once again made history on Gran Canaria.
It is hoped that the arrival of one of the world’s most influential DJs and producers will pave the way for more events of this type.
The upcoming long weekend ahead is already promising to deliver some heavyweight blows here on the island with a 90s hits festival offering up 3 of the biggest names from the dance pop scene of that era, headlined by Alice DeeJay (Better off Alone), Haddaway (What is Love) and Whigfield (Saturday Night). Tickets are still available for the extraordinary event scheduled for Saturday June 25 as part of the main “puente” weekend in honour of the San Juan foundational festivities across the island.
