Plenty of partying and PlayStation may not sound like a recipe for success, but when Afrojack plays Kelowna’s waterfront this weekend he’ll make the case for both.
Currently the seventh largest DJ in the world, with Paris Hilton as his girlfriend and a lifestyle that allows only the odd week at home, this 24-year-old clearly has the world by the reins.
The concert is slated for the official start of summer in Canada, timed as it is for the beginning of the Victoria Day long weekend, and coincidentally the kickoff for Afrojack’s latest tour; although Afrojack said his life is all about following the sun and having fun at this point, making weekends kind of a moot point.
“I basically live my life in really long weekends,” he said. “I don’t really have a specific start to the summer.”
From the South of France to the beaches of Miami, Nick van de Wall, a.k.a. Afrojack, parties until the sun comes up. He’s not into drugs and admits the extreme schedule can play havoc with his sense of time. Living life large has its advantages, though, and at six-foot-nine, having been featured on Pitbull’s hit single Give Me Everything and as an official contributor to Beyoncé’s Run the World, Afrojack seems to be taking the wild ride in stride.
This might be what caught the eye of his present girlfriend.
Whether Hilton makes the concert or not, it’s pretty sure she’s on hand when he finally gets a little time to himself and might even have witnessed him take a crack at his favourite pastime—PlayStation. There are four televisions in his house and the one in his bedroom is pretty well exclusively used for video games, he said.
Van de Wall grew up in a family of rhythm and despite the computer addictions, says his current talents really started as he got hooked to breakdancing. His mother ran a dance studio and staged street performances and dance-offs, taking her son along for the ride as she couldn’t afford to leave him with a babysitter.
Now an international success, the young performer likes being able to give his family “a little breathing room” with the money he earns—extra vacations, a new car when it’s needed and so forth.
Afrojack takes his family to his parties as the party really never ends in his world. When he’s not working, he’s surfing the Internet looking at the performances he’s missed and video from the ones he’s just returned from hosting.
The party of the year, thus far, was Ultra Music Fest in Miami, to his way of thinking. But that’s not to say this weekend won’t change his mind.
Afrojack plays Kelowna’s Waterfront Park on Friday, May 18. The show is being put on by Wet Ape Productions, the same group to bring in DJs Tiësto and Deadmau5 to the Okanagan, and the producers of the Centre of Gravity and Keloha Music Festival.
Tickets for Afrojack are $76.50.
jsmith@kelownacapnews.com
