Giant Steps

At the New Year‘s bash, red-cheeked daredevils dangled in a Ferris wheel 100 feet above the asphalt of Hollywood Boulevard. Grinning hard, they were too far up to hear wise-ass catcalls of ”splat“ from fellow celebrants passing below. A wide-screen beamed an image of Van Dyk huddled over his turntables onstage while cradling headphones in the crook of his neck. Close to 15,000 bodies writhed, rocked, pushed and humped in disorganized unison to the thunderous sound emitted from various mega-size speakers that dotted the boulevard.

Dean’s commitment to L.A. and his success with Giant is pretty remarkable considering he‘s only been a resident of the city for the last two years. While his New Year’s Eve party raked in over $800,000 before expenses, Dean through his Giant Kids nonprofit organization donated some $300,000 to the favorite charities of civic movers ‘n’ shakers such as state Assembly member Jackie Goldberg -- a smart business move that has already paid dividends in Dean‘s being awarded an extra block on the Hollywood strip for Giant’s 2002 New Year‘s event.

Already in his second year hosting limited runs in Las Vegas and Ibiza, Spain, Dean is busily laying out plans for clubbing events at the ”Giant Hotel“ during dance music’s annual Winter Music Conference in Miami in late March. After that, Giant hits the road again, this time for a tour of Japan to promote the release of Giant‘s compilation CD California Dreamin’. Mixed by Mark Tabberner and featuring tracks and remixes from Sandra Collins and Christopher Lawrence, the disc is slated to be sold exclusively in Japan. Not that Dean‘s leaving home turf out in the cold -- Giant’s domestic CD will be released here in late June, with Collins doing the mixing honors. Around that time Dean plans on hitting 15 cities in a cross-country tour, with three stopovers in Canada.

Giant has brought something more to the city than just being the latest flavor in the nightclub scene. Besides helping L.A. gain attention within the global clubbing community, on the local tip people are coming out in droves, and it‘s making an impact on the growth of the local club economy. Other superclubs, such as downtown’s recently opened Funktion, have stepped into the arena with hopes of getting a slice of Giant‘s pie by offering a similar rotating calendar of DJ superstars.

Dean, however, says he’s more flattered than concerned about the competition. ”I don‘t consider myself a club promoter. A long time ago I was, but now it’s about developing a concept, and that concept is Giant. What‘s really keeping me focused is how far we can go with this thing. When we do clubs in Ibiza and clubs in Las Vegas, people come up to us and say, ’Wow, a club from L.A.? We never knew there was a scene there.‘“

Neither did we.