Dear Donovan Friends & Family:
I just wanted to take a moment to say "THANK YOU" to all of you who have supported me and my events in 2004. As I've always said, none of my success has been achieved without the incredible support of so many of you... I am truly blessed to have a lot of wonderful people who believe in me and believe in what I'm trying to create in San Francisco. In 2004, we came along way "TOGETHER" in shaping a new party scene in San Francisco. A new scene that is about fashion without pretentiousness, about classy, upscale venues opening their doors to house music, and about reaching beyond the "underground" and preserving our city's music culture by educating the masses on the beauty of house music. I appreciate those of you who "get it". So "Thank You" for your incredible support in attending my events and spreading the word about my parties. We are changing "San Francisco" together... 2005 holds a lot of wonderful new plans and opportunities that I cannot wait to create with you... However, before we embark on these new adventures, I wanted to take a personal moment to look back on 2004 and the many incredible times and achievements we shared... It's pretty remarkable. So I hope you will enjoy my tribute to our 2004's greatest defining moments together. If you have any friends that ever wanted to know what Donovan and his parties in San Francisco are all about, please forward this on to them....
The "Top Of The Mark" Private Parties
For 8 magical months, The "Top of the Mark" Parties on the 19th floor of the famous Mark Hopkins Hotel have dominated Thursday nights in San Francisco as the most "exclusive" private invitation affair drawing the best looking, most A-List crowd in all of San Francisco. These parties were in a league all their own where nobody could get in unless you were "on the list". These exclusive parties set an all-new party standard in San Francisco, attracting celebrity types from the movie, fashion, and sports industries. Thank you to the entire management staff of Mark Hopkins for believing in me and allowing me to introduce a new flavor of upscale nightlife in Nob Hill to my closest friends and most loyal supporters.
The Mark Hopkins Halloween Masquerade Ball
On Saturday, October 30th, I was blessed to be a part of one of the biggest success stories of the year as we hosted the 3rd Annual Halloween Masquerade Ball and introduced the breathtaking Grand Ballroom of the Mark Hopkins Hotel to over 1,100 people. Beyond our wildest expectations, we completely SOLD-OUT of tickets several days in advance and raised thousands of dollars for The "Gifts Within" Charity Organization for Children with Learning Disabilities. From the incredible feedback we received from many, this might have gone down as one of the best Halloween parties of all time. I wish to say THANK YOU to Sunwoo Hwang of NNOO Production who co-promoted this event with me, Jeff Slayter of the Gifts Within Organization for his incredible support, Sean Olmstead of the Mark Hopkins for, once again, taking a chance with me, and to all of my wonderful hosts (Juan Arenas, Steven Hill, Anthony Poston, Peter Popjevalo, and Valerie Britt of the A-List) who made this party the phenomenon that it was.
The "Sofia" Private Parties @ The Fairmont Hotel
Back in March of 2004, after the demise of the legendary "nu W" Thursday parties at the W Hotel, I was introduced to a beautiful upscale restaurant called SOFIA inside the Fairmont Hotel in Nob Hill. It was a small, intimate space that was extremely elegant with an upscale Miami flavor. I decided to experiment with a new private party concept where I only invited my closest friends and most loyal supporters that I personally knew. Every Thursday Night, we would convene at Sofia at the Fairmont. Slowly, but surely, the word got out about this private invitation party and everyone wanted in... Our doorman was getting $200 bribes at the door and these uninvited guests were getting shut down. I knew we had something special on our hands and the SOFIA Party is what ultimately gave birth to the bigger, more grandiose TOP OF THE MARK private parties later on. I wish to say Thank You to Franky Boissy for introducing me to Sofia. I also wish to say Thank You to Lucas, the GM of Sofia, who believed in me and supported what I was trying to create. And a special "Thanks" to Christian Fernandez for being our door person guinea pig who had to put up with a lot of egos at the door.
The "Butterfly on the Bay" Parties
After the incredible success of the CHILL Parties @ Ozumo (see below), our community wanted more upscale party experiences and the enchanting "Butterfly on the Bay" Restaurant over the water was the next supperclub creation that was destined to deliver. In May 2005, I threw my first Butterfly Party w/ world-famous DJ Behrouz headlining. We packed the place to the gills with over 600 of the most gorgeous, most ethically diverse people this city had ever seen and this party immediately gained a reputation for being "The Most Beautiful Party in San Francisco". Month after month, your incredible support kept delivering. We hosted one of the most incredible and most magical 4th of July Parties in all of the city w/ Naked Music's Andy Caldwell. We have also had the honor of San Francisco's famous fashion magazine SOMA MAGAZINE hosting their holiday party with us in December. I wish to thank my hosts Juan Arenas, Aaron Parrish, and Chris Pessy for all of their support with helping build this event. I also wish to say THANK YOU to Butterfly owner Robert Lam for always having my back and being such a breath of fresh air to work with.
The Ozumo "CHILL" Parties
Although the Ozumo CHILL parties ran most of its life in 2003, two of the biggest and most phenomenal CHILL parties were the last two parties of its life in January and February of 2004. During the slowest party months of the year, we hit Ozumo capacity for the frist time in January w/ special guest DJ Franky Boissy. We came back in February with our CHILL 1 Year Anniversary and, this time, filled the venue to over capacity where Ozumo finally decided our little CHILL party had grown "TOO BIG". After an incredible run of 12 months, we ended the CHILL party at its peak. However, after a 9 month hiatus through 2004 and after missing our beautiful crowd, Ozumo invited us back for a special December holiday party that once again proved there is still a lot of magic left in CHILL. A special Thank You to Ozumo's Andrew Generalao and Heidi Larsen for bringing CHILL back to life. So look out for more Ozumo CHILL special events in 2005!
The "BEDROOM" Parties
Fluid Ultra-Lounge approached me in June 2004 to help them revitalize and redefine their foothold in San Francisco nightlife culture. There were a lot of critics who questioned Fluid's future; however, I had a vision for a new party experience like nothing Fluid nor San Francisco had ever truly experienced before. It wasn't an original idea by any means, but original to San Francisco and Fluid was the perfect venue for it. I proposed the Amsterdam/ Miami inspired "bed" concept and Fluid loved it. I also proposed that we move the DJ booth out into the front bar and make the back dance room a "MASTER BEDROOM" VIP Section filled with beds for bottle service. When we launched the party in June, little did we know that we were revolutionizing how Fluid would operate its business. That night, we broke every record in the history book on Fluid door sales and bar sales, reaching capacity well before midnight with with hundreds of people outside trying to fight their way in. The vibe was so thick in the air you could feel it. I remember having one of the best DJ sets of my career at the Grand Opening because I was so intoxicated by the energy of the crowd. A tear coming to my eye at one point in the night when I looked around with pride and saw everyone having such an amazing time. In that incredible moment, I remember saying to myself, "This is why I am in this crazy business". The BEDROOM Parties have made such a name for itself that people fly up from LA just to party at it and Fluid has been on fire ever since. I owe a big thanks to Fluid's Derek Bonner for making my idea a reality, for his sacrifices, for his integrity, and all of his hard work. I also wish to thank the entire bar staff and management at Fluid for being so amazing to work with. And a big heart-felt thank you goes to Nadia Patel for her breathtaking design work every month where she completely transformed Fluid into an entirely different "bedroom setting" world for us all to play in.
The "Las Sesiones" Parties
When Suite One8One opened its 2nd Floor Room back in February of 2004, they asked me to bring a unique sound into this room that would give San Francisco an all-new club experience. Famous for for its eclectic mixture of hip-hop, funk, rock & disco, Suite One8One wished to stay in tradition with providing an alternative to San Francisco's deep house. Hence, the "Las Sesiones" Parties were born were I got to showcase my all tropical sound of Latin, Brazilian, African, Jamaican, and Middle-Eastern house. We brought in live conga drummers, live saxophonists, and Brazilian dancers and, once again, another phenomenon had been created where we were packing One8One on a traditionally slower Friday Night. This was a party where people came to truly dance and got sweaty. The passion and sensual energy on the floor was something to see and to feel. The live element of the musicians accompanying me brought a whole new energy to the dancefloor. There were some very powerful, spiritual moments throughout those sessions where that upstairs room was literally in a frenzy with the music. It was an ethereal experience that I think many of us will never forget. Thank you to those of you who brought your dancing shoes and helped make those nights unforgettable. A special thanks to One8One's Andy Wasserman for giving me the opportunity. And Thank You to my hosts Aaron Parrish and Jeff Slayter for helping me build "Las Sesiones", one "Sesión" at a time.
The 4th Annual White Party
For the third year in a row, I had the great fortune of being asked to play the biggest, most famous party in Ruby Skye history: THE WHITE PARTY. This was the blow-out Ruby Skye party of 2004 with always one of the most beautiful crowds ever and another magical night created by everyone's "dress white" theme participation. Thank You Ruby Skye, Martel & Nabiel, Delicious Karma, and NNOO Production for continuing to make me a part of this annual San Francisco tradition.
Donovan's Birthday & "Seduction" CD Release Party
On January 30, 2004, Ruby Skye and Martel & Nabiel asked me to host my official birthday with them as well as celebrate my official CD release of "SEDUCTION: Sexy, Seductive Beats for the Bedroom, Vol. 2". The vision for this party was to bring an all-new sexy, intimate vibe to Ruby Skye. It was erotic exploration of music, dance, fashion and art. Ruby Skye went full-blown on production with a bedroom setting on stage, burlesque dancers, erotic visuals and chocolate covered strawberries at midnight. With the incredible support of so many of you, we packed the house with the most beautiful crowd Ruby Skye had ever seen and created one of the sexiest nights in Ruby Skye history. Thank You to everyone who came out to show their love and support made this one of the best birthday parties of my life. A special thanks to my dear friends Dimitris Mykonos and Sunwoo & Gordon Waze for helping make this evening such a success. And a big heart-felt Thank You to Ruby Skye owner George Karpaty for always going the extra mile for me, never ceasing to amaze me, and always making me a feel a special part of the Ruby Skye family.
Listen to Donovan's "SEDUCTION" CD Mix: Sexy, Seductive Beats for the Bedroom Mixed Live By Donovan (Windows Player)
New Year's Eve 2005 @ Circolo
There was no better way to end this incredible year than with my closest friends in a brand new space that was all my own. I was given the opportunity to first introduce Jon Mayeda's Circolo Restaurant to the San Francisco party scene on New Year's Eve. It was quite an honor and extremely meaningful to me as Jon Mayeda's past venture, the legendary Club Mercury back in the late 90's, set an all-new upscale party standard in San Francisco that I fell in love with and was the original inspiration behind the upscale party scene I have been trying to build in this city over the past several years. Jon pulled out all the stops to help me make our Circolo New Year's Eve Party one classy affair. Champagne, Caviar, Lobster Tails, Shrimp Ceviche... As always, the crowd was impeccable and true testament to my loyal community who came all the way out to Potrero Hill on a cold, stormy night to celebrate with me. The Midnight Countdown, without a doubt, goes down as the most incredible New Year's Eve experience of my DJ career. I have never felt such an overwhelmingly intoxicating rush of euphoric energy like I felt from all of you on that dancefloor as we counted down the last minute of 2004 together. I have never experienced such an explosion of excitement from a crowd as when I dropped AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long" at the stroke of midnight. I'll never forget that moment for the rest of my life. Thank you to those of you who were there on the floor and got to experience that magical moment with me. Thank you to Jon Mayeda and Steve Chen at Circolo for giving me this opportunity and being so amazing to work with. And "Thank You" to all of you who believed in me and helped make this evening such a beautiful success.
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