Brief
BOOGLE is a Web3 members’ club and investment syndicate — entry by NFT ownership and approval from existing members. Rooted in DeFi, and aware that cultural capital isn’t something you can mint. The Asia tour was the attempt to build it in rooms instead. Four events across three cities, timed to Korea Blockchain Week, Solana Breakpoint and the Singapore Grand Prix. The brief was to reach past the crypto crowd into fashion, music and art, and to know who actually turned up without making an invite-only night feel like a data exercise. The relationship went back further than the brief. BOOGLE’s co-founder had advised DEPARTMNT during its inception; I’d DJ’d their events since the first one at Breakpoint 2022. The tour was agreed over Christmas dinner in London, December 2023.
What We Built
I ran the tour end to end. — Venue selection and management across Seoul, Tokyo and Singapore, negotiating revenue splits directly with clubs — Talent booking across all four nights, working with local promoters in each city — Sponsorship acquisition, covering half the budget — Production and logistics across three countries and sixteen days — A custom ticketing platform with a live dashboard, so BOOGLE could see attendance as it happened rather than reconstruct it afterwards — A guest list curated with Yeti Out, built to pull fashion, music and art into a room that would otherwise have been all crypto Seoul, Cakeshop, 5 September — Elli Arakawa and Yeti Out headlining, Verdy and A$AP Twelvyy in the room. Seoul, Pistil, 6 September — smaller, rawer, Acidwork, Sol and Miu. Tokyo, A Bar, 13 September — invite-only, 100 capacity, hidden beneath Club Enter and owned by the rapper Anarchy, private dinner at Matoi Ginza first. Singapore, Tuff Club, 20 September — the closer, against Breakpoint and the F1 weekend.
Outcome
The tour was possible because of a different tour. I ran Asia in 2017 as business manager for a UK artist — Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, nine days across five territories. Every promoter relationship, every venue contact and the Yeti Out partnership all date from then. Seven years is a long payback period on a network. It’s also the only reason a London members’ club could get into the right rooms in Seoul and Tokyo at all, rather than the rooms that take bookings. The second thing: I’d have weighted the whole thing differently around the anchor events. Seoul during Blockchain Week and Singapore against Breakpoint did the heavy lifting because the audience was already in the city. Tokyo was the best night of the four and the hardest to fill, because nothing else was drawing people there that week. Cultural credibility is built in the small room. Numbers come from the week the city is already busy.
205% increase in event registrations against previous BOOGLE events. — 1,200 unique sign-ups — 26 countries represented — 78% engagement rate through the ticketing platform — Sponsorship covered 50% of a six-figure budget — Audience widened past Web3 into fashion, music and art — Alex Turnbull of the original Stüssy Tribe among the Singapore guest list
