06 Jan 2014
Posted by admin 
By Ki
MMegastar DJs: like traditional pop stars, they tour the globe pocketing every last cent they can from any venue willing to pay. It used to be that even big name DJs booked a gig once or twice a week at best or, more commonly, held an exclusive residency at a single nightclub. Their rise in popularity has significantly increased demand.Now, megastar DJs book enough dates to refer to their schedules as tours. Many of them still have residencies so calling it a tour may not be entirely accurate, but they rack up a ton of frequent flyer miles going back and forth between their anchor cities. For example, this past summer Avicii and David Guetta flew back and forth between Las Vegas and Ibiza once a week.
First class and private jets seem glamorous but these luxuries don’t entirely assuage grueling travel requirements. Think about the typically linear tour schedule of an entertainer like Jay-Z who works his way across countries in a logical way. A weekend of dates in Boston precedes a weekend of dates in New York City, with a stop or two during the week in Connecticut or Long Island. DJs, on the other hand, jump all over the globe. Las Vegas and Miami are the epicenters of their activity year-round with periodic Ibiza trips thrown in during the summer months.
Over the New Year’s holiday, Tiesto and David Guetta were in serious demand. The two biggest names in EDM gave new meaning to the word “jetlag”:
Tiesto and David Guetta’s New Year’s Eve Holiday Tour Schedule
| Date | Tiesto Tour | David Guetta Tour |
| Friday Dec 27 | Toronto (Direct Energy Centre) with Steve Angello, Laidback Luke & Max Vangeli | Las Vegas (XS) |
| Saturday Dec 28 | Atlantic City (Borgata) | Miami (LIV) |
| Sunday Dec 29 | Las Vegas (Hakkasan) | Atlantic City (Borgata) |
| Monday Dec 30 | Denver (Decadence Festival) | Dominican Republic (Hard Rock) |
| Tuesday Dec 31 | Miami (LIV) | St. Barths (Nikki Beach) |
| Wednesday Jan 1 | Off | Off |
| Thursday Jan 2 | Off | Camboriu, Brazil (Green Valley) |
| Friday Jan 3 | Off | Guaruja, Brazil (Arena Verao) |
| Saturday Jan 4 | Las Vegas (Hakkasan) | Punta del Este, Uruguay (Parque El Jaguel) |
| Sunday Jan 5 | Las Vegas (Hakkasan) | Florianopolis, Brazil (Music Park) |
Takeaways:
- Both DJs work super hard. Their schedules impress because neither just spins, sleeps, eats and repeats. Each has a full dance card away from DJing that includes production, remixing, radio shows, appearances, and other business endeavors.
- Both Tiesto and Guetta logged a lot of airtime on their private jets: over 7,000 miles for Tiesto and a whopping 10,000 miles for Guetta, discounting other quick stops.
- They both do a good job of squeezing in smaller shows in advance of the big headline grabbing shows in Miami or Las Vegas. Tiesto did a 90-minute set at Decadence in Denver on a day that could have easily been a travel day from Las Vegas to Miami. On that same day, Guetta played the Hard Rock in the Dominican Republic when he could have easily gotten to St. Barths a day early for some fun in the sun.
- That was one serious party weekend at the Borgata. Tiesto on Saturday and Guetta on Sunday. While Revel Resort in Atlantic City has continually tried to establish itself as the place to be in Atlantic City for club kids, the Borgata isn’t making life easy. HQ at Revel had Afrojack and Hardwell on those two nights – both big time DJs, but a tier below Tiesto and Guetta. Quietly, Atlantic City had a DJ lineup that weekend that compared favorably to Miami and Las Vegas.
- You have to wonder if the Hakkasan/Tiesto combination is starting to get tired. Tiesto played seven times in ten days and three of the nights were at Hakkasan. Meanwhile Guetta didn’t play the same venue twice. In fact, he played in five countries!
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David Guetta at work at Nikki Beach in St. Barths on New Year’s Eve. Nice to see him at work with a DJ setup akin to what most mere mortals use.
Guetta seems more willing to play smaller, off the beaten path venues. Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic is a great resort town but it is not a place one would expect Guetta to play. Nikki Beach in St. Barths is a wonderful venue but is like everything else in St. Barths (other than the yachts) – quaint.
- Everyone needs to take a trip to Camboriu in Brazil to check out Green Valley. Brazil is EDM crazy and this small beach town in the south has developed into a favorite stop for all of the big DJs.
- Tiesto’s schedule feels more like a typical DJ with a residency, while David Guetta’s reads like a real tour. Guetta is the bigger star so this makes some sense. He is off playing for the who’s who in St. Barths while Tiesto still does sets at somewhat random festivals.
- While difficult to calculate because several of these appearances are part of larger long term deals, it is safe to say that each of them made well over $1 million in this ten-day period. How about that for a Christmas bonus?
