Miami has its famous annual Winter Music Conference. Barcelona has Sonar. And now Bangkok will be joining the ranks with Moto Rising Soundz. Movie and music promoter Memotion, in collaboration with mobile-phone producers Motorola, invites everyone to the two-part event.

"We found a chance to get into the dance-music business. It is backed by the Tourism Authority of Thailand and will be an annual event," says Yod Sukwiwat, managing director of Memotion.

Britain's Spin Com and Ten Alps will also be joining in to help make the project a reality.

The event will also be an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the most DJs spinning songs in one night at one venue. The first even, on June 16, will have DJs making music at two RCA clubs - Slim and Flix.

Aiming for the record will be local spinners Dawn, Dusk, Nor, Seed, Dragon, Tul, Oatawa & Kolor One, Short Kut, Spydamonkee and Jedie. On the international side will be BodyRockers, the people behind last year's hit "I Like The Way (You Move)" and Cash Money, who is considered quite a legend on the turntable. To set the record, 60 DJs will play one track each, beat-mixed into the next, within three hours. Tickets are priced at Bt400.

Buyers of Motorola mobile phones PEBL U6, SLVR L6, SLVR L7, RAZR V3 and RAZR V3I by June 15 will win free tickets to the event. For more information, call (02) 351 8666.

The second part of Moto Rising Soundz event will be Asia's biggest street festival scheduled for November 24 and 25 in RCA. This event will also be sponsored by Virgin Radio Thailand and MTV magazine.

Forty top international and local DJs will provide dance music for the event, combining house, techno, break beat, trance, hip-hop and drum and bass.

"Most Thais just go to a pub to have a good time and don't care who the DJ is as long as the music is exciting. In the US, people go crazy about knowing who the DJ is and what kind of music they play," says Yod.

"In general, locals don't really know what a DJ really does, so we will try to share our knowledge and also have the DJs spin several categories including hip-hop, house, break beat, techno and trance.

"Nowadays there are many popular clubs with an overall capacity of 3,000 to 4,000 people. We will be expecting a crowd of some 20,000 to 30,000 people dancing in the street," says Yod, adding that the budget for Moto Rising Soundz is Bt25 million.

"It has taken Thais more than 10 years to enter the international world of DJs," explains DJ Seed. "We are confident in our ability to compare favourably with foreign DJs and now have a chance to show it."

Kitchana Lersakvanitchakul

The Nation

For more information and tickets, visit www.motorisingsoundz.com.