Nothing gets a party started better than music. Helping to get the 20 years of Dew Tour celebration underway each day has been live DJ sets right in the thick of the action. Dew Tour’s own Jonathan “DC” Oetken is pulling double duty this week, holding down the live announce booth during the contests and keeping the vibes high from the DJ booth in between.
“I get to incorporate two passions of mine in one day of work, doing some storytelling and sharing the stories of these athletes and this culture that I love, and then also playing some music,” Oetken says. “Dew Tour has always been a celebration of culture, and the music and what we’re witnessing out here on the Superpipe and Streetstyle courses go hand in hand.”
The Summit County local took the first slot in the DJ booth on both Friday and Saturday, and says Saturday’s crowd is one of the biggest he can remember in the Dew Tour Experience zone.
“It’s a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon and Copper is packed full of revelers here on the weekend, and people are out dancing, so the vibes are good!”
Denver-based artist KDJabove held down the second shift on the decks on Saturday, and says his set was as fueled by the crowd as the other way around.
“I love the energy here at Dew Tour,” KDJabove says. “I love seeing everybody decked out in their snowboarding and skiing gear, and the weather’s beautiful today, and everybody’s here to party. It makes it easy! As a DJ, I love that give and take where it’s about paying attention to your surroundings, paying attention to the people out in the crowd, seeing who’s moving, seeing who’s not. The goal is to get everyone in sync, dancing and having a good time, and this crowd and I definitely achieved that together today.”
While his music is on all the major platforms, KDJabove says he’s been putting a lot of work into his Soundcloud page, including a new 90-minute mix, Solitude Sessions, released this week. For fans who enjoyed themselves during his Dew Tour 2024 set, he encouraged them to check it out.
“One love to everybody that supports me and all the people I’ve met this week, and everybody at Dew Tour who brought me up for this: I had a great time today,” he says. “I also want to give a shoutout to my son, who came up here with me––this is his first time in the mountains––and I had some good friends that showed up as well. I’m leaving here inspired to try snowboarding for the first time, and hope I helped inspire some of the fans and athletes here, too.”
The DJ set ran straight into the Women’s Ski Streetstyle final, and the crowd didn’t skip a beat with bringing the energy from the stage to the course. And following the adrenaline fueled final, the crowd swayed their attention directly back to the stage for a performance from Snakehips!
The British electronic duo–consisting of Oliver (or Ollie) Lee and James Carter–definitely drew their own crowd out to Copper Mountain, too. With more people packing in tight around the stage, the crowd expanded well beyond the snow.
As far away as the cafeteria where tables became viewpoints and the stairs were standing room only, the night turned electric.
Near the stage a yeti dressed in a Mountain Dew Baja Blast jersey and beanie taking photos with people and working the crowd. Actual waves of bodies jumping to the beat turned into a true sea of people. A night nobody will soon forget.
When asked what they did to prepare for the evening, the duo jointly replied, “Handwarmers, just lots of handwarmers and a couple of White Claws. We’re a couple of English boys, we didn’t come prepared for this level of cold.”
“I wanted to get out today but we didn’t have a chance,” said James of Snakehips.
“I’ve never been skiing or snowboarding in my life but it is very lovely to be here. It is cool to watch. I’d love to do it—one day I’ll learn,” said Ollie of Snakehips.
Looking back on the evening both agreed, “we’ve done some good ski events before, but nothing quite compares to this. This one has been the rowdiest. They were just going HAM. People were crowd surfing and you felt the energy from start to finish. That was fun as fuck.”
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