Twenty years of Kol Cambridge: a night at Capella Tel Aviv

I had been thinking about a Kol Cambridge birthday party for years before I actually did one. Twenty years on air felt like the right excuse to stop overthinking it.

An idea I had been carrying for a while

The brief I gave myself was simple: a real Tel Aviv night with proper sound, the friends of the show in the room, and a charity hook so the evening was about more than nostalgia. Capella in central Tel Aviv said yes, and from there it became a matter of working backwards into a date in late November. DJs, lights, ticketing, a flyer, a plan for the door.

The night itself

We sold out. That still surprises me. Most of the room were patrons or long-time listeners I had never met in person, which is the strangest and best feeling. People had flown in from London and New York. A couple even drove down from Haifa!

I played a set myself, which is something I have been doing more of lately. There’s a different muscle to mixing live in a room than putting together the monthly show, or even the quarterly mix on headphones, and I love it. I love the live energy, the sense of danger of getting something wrong which spurs me on to greater heights, and seeing the reaction of the dancefloor when I drop a banger.

Sundors and Biblical Beats

The two guests I asked to play are people whose taste I genuinely trust.

Sundors has a way of weaving older Mizrahi tracks into modern productions that always lands. Biblical Beats, who came in from London, was incredibly strong and an amazing cap to the night.

Patrons can hear my own set from the evening on Patreon, at the Allenby tier and above, together with the sets from both other DJs.

Six thousand shekels for Makor

We charged for tickets and put the proceeds towards Makor, a charity that supports young people in Israel who are struggling with mental health. The final figure was a little over 6,000 shekels. Thank you to every person who bought a ticket.

On to the next twenty

I would like to do this again. Probably not annually, because these things are a lot of work, but every couple of years feels right. If you have got a venue, a community or a city you would like Kol Cambridge to come to, get in touch via the contact page.