After Clapton comes Tiesto

It's the turn of the young music lovers to flock to Yas Island

ABU DHABI - 17FEB2011 - Audience enjoy the performance of DJ Genie and DJ Startraxxx yesterday at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. Ravindranath K / The National
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ABU DHABI // Thousands of dance music fans flocked to Yas Island last night to hear the Dutch DJ Tiesto play to a capacity crowd at the Flash Forum venue.

Tiesto's performance was part of the Yas Island Show Weekends 2011, which last weekend saw guitar legend Eric Clapton delight music lovers with some of his classic hits.

Last night a slightly more youthful crowd packed the venue in anticipation of the DJ set, which was due to start at midnight.

Rada Temirkanova, 22, a student from Russia, who is visiting Abu Dhabi with friends, said she was particularly looking forward to the show because she had won a competition and was due to meet her hero ahead of his performance.

"I've been a fan for five years and I've always been waiting for the moment to see him and just tell him how much I like his music."

Tiesto's performance last night came after a year-long wait following a cancelled performance at Adnec last year.

Those who still had their tickets from that show, which was cancelled for technical reasons, could exchange their tickets last night at the box office or by contacting the promoter Flash directly.

Mohammed Qaddoura, 26, and his 20 friends said they had booked tickets for the last concert and despite having no tickets for last night's show, were still hopeful they would be able to see the DJ.

"Last time we had our tickets, then when we heard the news we decided we would just have to make our own party at the pool of the hotel where we were staying, said the Palestinian senior accountant.

The 41-year-old Dutch musician, DJ and record producer, whose real name is Tijis Michiel Verwest, released his first solo album, In My Memory, in 2001.

He was the first DJ to perform at the Olympics when he played live at the opening ceremony of the Games in Athens in 2004 after the release of his second album, Just Be. He also won the UK-based DJ magazine's "world's No. 1 DJ" title three times in a row from 2002 to 2004.

In 2007, he played in front of an audience of 250,000 on Brazil's Ipanema Beach, and he played 175 gigs across the world in his Kaleidoscope World Tour 2010, in collaboration with Nelly Furtado, Sean Kingston, Busta Rhymes and Flo Rida.