While the digital age has made the world seem smaller than ever, global culture remains endlessly diverse. Even if you’re intricately familiar with what your own culture has to offer, you’d have to travel extensively to experience everything people do for fun on this (still quite sizable) planet. To celebrate that diversity, and to bring a taste of the foreign to locals worldwide, Smirnoff unveiled the Nightlife Exchange Project — an impressively ambitious program that finds cities in 14 countries swapping the people and things that drive their late-night pulses with a selected sister city in another country.
A curator was chosen from among the tastemakers in each city, tasked with collaborating with an international counterpart to create the best cultural-exchange party possible. On November 27, the parties will take place in all 14 countries — which are as widespread as Lebanon, Poland, Venezuela, and Australia — with artists including N.E.R.D., Bonde do Role, Spoek Mathambo, Boys Noize, Los Amigos Invisibles, King Britt, and Zane Lowe (himself the curator for the UK) among those representing their countries as musical ambassadors in the exchange.
The US event is taking place in Miami — but we’re actually going to be heading out on the road with the folks behind the project to explore more exotic locales. Next week, we’re going (way) east to experience the nightlife of some faraway places firsthand. Check back for updates as we start off in Bangkok, Thailand, before heading to Mumbai, India, and finally to Bangalore for the official Indian event on the 27th. We’ll report back with our favorite cultural discoveries and well-kept secrets along the way. But in the meantime, if you want to attend the Miami event, just hit “like” for Smirnoff US on Facebook and then check your updates for RSVP info.
You can also get the rundown on all 14 parties, including the full musical lineups, explore the ideas that were submitted for the project from around the world, meet all of the international curators, and see which cities have been paired up for the exchange. And if there’s any particular city that’s calling to you, tell us which one and why in the comments below.