“The people are the glue”—Rosie Ama on the party that changed her life

Sometimes a dancefloor experience stays with you forever.

That’s the idea at the heart of The Party That Changed My Life, our series where DJs and producers open up about the nights that shaped them—as artists, and as people.

Following our first instalment with Kiimi, who spoke about the legendary London queer party Adonis, up next is Rosie Ama. A DJ, radio host, and label owner based in London, Rosie recently stepped away from being one half of Kiara Scuro—a decade-long partnership—to focus on her solo projects. These include Melodic Odds, a bi-monthly residency on Noods Radio that stitches together everything from library music to synth-pop, and Human Endeavour, her label mining the deeper, darker corners of the electronic spectrum. Most recently, she's launched Pleasure Unit, a new club night with friend Harry James.

The party that changed Rosie’s life is Dresden, the travelling club night put on by Ivan Smagghe and Manfredas that’s quietly become one of the most revered events in underground club culture. It’s a night that gets everything right: the music, the space, the sound, the people. But what keeps drawing her back is the community. 

“It’s something I try to foster with my own record label and DJ sets,” Rosie says of Dresden’s loyal crowd. “It’s nice to think that, five or six years down the line, we could have a group of people that keep coming, whether it’s just people from London or from all around Europe.”

In episode two, Rosie takes us to a Dresden two-nighter in Vilnius in 2023—Manfredas’s home city and the birthplace of the party. On the first night, at Gallery 1986, something shifted at 6 AM when they opened up a second space, the Red Room. “It’s really magical in there,” Rosie says. “There's nowhere like it in the UK.”

For Rosie, it always comes back to the people. “It just needs to be in a good space, with good sound, good production,” she says. “But the main thing is the crowd. The people are the glue that holds it all together.” 

Words by Felicity Martin 

Video by Ray Ampofo