20 years of Cocoon

So here we are in 2016, Cocoon’s empire stretching across the globe. “The event department tells me this is their strongest year yet, looking at the number of events and also the variety of territories,” says Maurizio Schmitz, who took over from Talida as Sven’s exclusive agent in winter 2009/spring 2010. “This year we had the eighth edition of Cocoon in the Park in Leeds, residencies like Watergate in Berlin and Tomorrowland; we did Cocoon in Australia recently. We have a residency in Tokyo at Womb and festival stages all over the world, from Europe to Dubai, Australia and South America. At Sónar we do a Cocoon event and we have two other shows in Spain; in Italy we are really strong. In England we have Studio 338, we did Fabric and Electric Brixton. We are on every continent except Africa.” More happy people, more parties, a bigger platform for artists and DJs who share the Cocoon philosophy. But what is that philosophy? What’s the golden thread that has kept Cocoon surviving and thriving for two decades now?

“It’s about music,” says Luciano. “it’s about Sven, it’s about sharing, it’s about love, it’s about the experience, it’s about a musical genre and a musical philosophy.”

“A cocoon is a protective covering that envelopes and protects a creature while it grows and develops,” offers Josh Wink. “And perhaps Cocoon and Sven’s philosophy is that his brand envelopes and provides for a like-minded colony of creatures that are symbiotic and share a special musical bond and experience.”

“I’d say Cocoon is a lifestyle, says Maurizio. “Cocoon is a certain platform, a certain possibility. Everybody has the chance to express themselves: it could be an artist from the agency, it could be someone who’s working for Cocoon, but most of all it’s the people who join the party. We want people to express themselves, to be free, to live this experience.”

“Sven’s philosophy for Cocoon,” says Johannes, “is to create a platform for everyone to create our own metamorphoses. Without the possibilities that Sven gave me, I would still be a butcher somewhere in Germany. It’s the same for so many young artists. He gave us the platform to be creative, to start our own metamorphoses.”

The main man should, of course, have the last word. “We know what we do comes straight out of our heart, full-on, with our passion,” he explains. “The music is always the driving force in what we do because we all love to rave, we all love to dance, we all love to go wild – but we also want to deliver. We want to show people what we can do, to show them all this at its best.” And with that he finishes his champagne and bounds off to play his DJ set, ‘super-excited’, as always, to do just that.

Duncan Dick is Mixmag's Editor. Follow him on Twitter here

Carl Craig and Sonja Moonear’s two-disc Cocoon Ibiza mix is out now