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\nEven arriving under the cover of darkness can\u2019t help Skrillex slip under the radar.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s close to midnight when the boat carrying Sonny Moore, his girlfriend, label manager, photographer and an entourage of friends dock on the Fijian island of Malolo Lailai, but that doesn\u2019t stop a pair of very excited 20-something girls spotting him, screaming and immediately bursting into tears.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh my god! Skrillex just got here, we saw him arrive!\u201d they later stop me, a complete stranger, to relay this very important information.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re at Your Paradise, a boutique festival that sells itself as one of the world\u2019s most remote. To get here, punters first fly from Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane to Nadi, where they then hop on a\u00a0bus and a boat to reach their final destination. It\u2019s an easy enough trip for Australians used to schlepping 24 hours to get to European summer festivals, but requires an extra level of dedication for the international punters \u2013 hailing everywhere from the U.S. to Japan \u2013 who are looking at an additional 12-hour leg.<\/p>\n
But once you get here, it\u2019s not hard to see why punters are happy to travel all the way from Texas. As well as the music, those making the pilgrimage have the chance to swim, sun themselves and luxuriate. They can book add on trips to go surfing, snorkelling or skydiving, or party on floating barges and sandbanks that are only above water for a few hours each day. Your Paradise is more than just a festival (in fact, organisers shy away from using that very word) and more a week-long holiday that happens to include a bunch of first rate DJs.<\/p>\n\n
As well as its hysteria-inducing headliner, this year\u2019s line-up includes fellow OWSLA-mates What So Not, Anna Lunoe and LDRU, local heroes like Paces, Thomas Jack, Generik and Slumberjack, plus internationals like Justin Martin and Doorly.<\/p>\n
The proximity to those artists is part of the thrill for those who come along. On the flight over \u2013 which was 90-percent full of YP-bound punters and quickly\u00a0turned boozey, despite leaving Sydney at 8:30am \u2013 I heard one returning guest sell his mate on what was to come. \u201cLast year I was having breakfast and Emoh [from What So Not] walks up like ‘is this seat taken?’ I was like \u2013” he says, his mouth falling into an exaggerated O-shape.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year I was having breakfast and Emoh walks up like ‘is this seat taken?'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Those sorts of run-ins are par for the course at Your Paradise. Almost all of the artists stay at the same resort as guests, meaning you\u2019re just as likely to hit the pool with Paces as you are to run into Cut Snake at the bar. If you\u2019re What So Not, it means you’ll\u00a0get roped into doing a reluctant shoey with\u00a0a group of guys you walk past on the way to your hotel room.<\/p>\n
But 2016\u2019s true everywhere man was, of course, Skrillex. From the moment he got off that boat, Sonny Moore hit the ground running: he promptly jumped on the decks to go\u00a0back-to-back with Justin Martin, Miguel Campbell and Doorly, closing out the first night of music. Early the next morning, he joined Destructo for his Sandbank Sermon \u2013 a spin-off of the HARD head\u2019s popular Sunrise Sermon on Holy Ship \u2013 and that afternoon, took to the seas to lead the OWSLA cruise, playing again<\/em> later that night. Hell, at one point even officiated a marriage proposal.<\/p>\n