DJ Vladi is in the house at The Red Bar on Friday nights starting at 9pm just as The Red Bar Jazz Band wraps it up for the night. It's a blast.
DJ Vladi was voted the area’s Best DJ at the Beachcomber Music Awards.
“I’m from the Dominican Republic,” he says. “I was born there and pretty much raised in New York. I was doing house parties and stuff like that. Then, from Orlando I moved here. My first job at the beach was working at the Red Bar.”
A weekend excursion egged on by classmates (who happened to be nephews of Oliver Petit, owner of Grayton Beach’s Red Bar) changed the course of Vladi’s life. “It was one of those weekends like Memorial Day weekend and they are like, ‘We have off, you should come up to Grayton Beach and come see us.’ I came here for the weekend and fell in love with the beaches and everything. It was just such a beautiful weekend,” says Vladi.
In 2001, Vladi began waiting tables at the Red Bar. The transition to full time DJ status took time, but by 2009 he knew he was ready. “I stopped waiting tables and decided to open my own company, Gulf Coast Entertainment and Productions. We do pretty much anything that revolves around a wedding.
“This year has been the best year,” says Vladi. “I’ve booked so many weddings—80 weddings this summer, and I’m still booking more.”
But his relationship with the Red Bar and the Petits didn’t end when he gave up waiting tables. He can be found in the DJ booth Wednesday through Friday for the entirety of the summer, and Vladi is the featured entertainment for most major holidays.
What kind of music should you expect at a DJ Vladi event? Pretty much anything. “When I first started DJing, I didn’t want to just play just house or just rock. I want to cater to everybody and all genres. Anything I can get the crowd into, I’ll mix in.”
The Red Bar Jazz Band plays Wed thru Sat from 5:30 til 9pm. The party gets cranked up a notch after the dinner crowd thins creating a more funky atmosphere. Dont be surprised to spot celebrities here late at night. But please, everybody just wants to chill at The Red Bar.
