Carriageworks—Sydney’s industrial cathedral of culture—is buzzing. Inside its cavernous halls, the energy is already electric. Vivid Sydney has turned the city into a neon dreamscape, but tonight it’s not the lights pulling focus—it’s the sound. And that sound belongs to Moktar.
As the crowd shuffles in under the vast steel beams and faded brick archways of the old Eveleigh railyards, the atmosphere is thick with low-end rumble and possibility. Moktar, the Egyptian-Australian producer making seismic waves in global club culture, is about to take the stage—and no one here is standing still.
Opening tonight is Tash LC, a genre-blurring DJ, broadcaster and selector whose sets fuse the rhythms of the underground with the pulse of contemporary club culture.
Moktar’s music is a hypnotic fusion of techno, UK club rhythms, and traditional Arabic instrumentation. Growing up in the post-Cronulla riot haze of Sydney’s Shire, Moktar turned pain into propulsion, transforming cultural pride into dancefloor revolution. Tonight, the bass kicks like a heartbeat, and every oud sample cuts through the fog like a memory resurfaced.
The venue—equal parts heritage site and sonic forge—is the perfect host for this cultural alchemy. Carriageworks, built on Gadigal land, becomes the container for something ancient yet immediate, a club night that feels like both protest and celebration.
As the first drops of his set cascade through the speakers, the crowd moves as one, caught in the crossfire of tradition and futurism. And tonight, under Vivid’s glow, that world feels gloriously limitless.
Images Deb Pelser
