It wasn’t a calling or vocation. There was no parting of the heavens or an omniscient voice proclaiming it was our life’s purpose to come up with a K-Pop club night and turn it into a fun and highly personalized experience. Nah… I like to think of it more like a charge. A charge against the same boring club nights that play the same top 20 songs and do not truly care about people coming through the venue’s door and their experience. A charge against seeing ourselves, our friends, our family members complaining about Vancouver’s dull party scene and the lack of options.
A charge means you’re pissed off about the status quo and feel the urge to take matters into your own hands in order to bring about change, to have an impact and move things forward. Something you go to bed thinking about and wake up the next day ready to take on the world. A feeling that… well, you get my point, don't you?
My co-founders Bryn, John and I started Soju Events for two reasons: it seemed fun and we thought that most of the club nights out there were garbage.
They pushed the same concept to appeal to masses rather than to put their devoted fam base first; they treated their loyal customers like a bunch of strangers, had obvious agendas and were poorly run businesses.
Our motto from day one has been to treat you like our best friends, our family (which you became throughout these years) — not just a number that makes us revenue. In those three years we learned a LOT – yes, Soju Sundays are SO MUCH fun but all the hard work and stress that takes place behind the scenes can be depressing and feels like you’re failing MOST of the time (even when you’re not). But, we press on because seeing your happy faces keeps us motivated, reading your positive comments gives us encouragement and coming into a club full of our Soju friends on monthly basis is always so so so worth it.
January is special to us not only because it marks the start of a new year but mainly because Soju Events turned from an idea into a business project on January 27, 2016. I am beyond proud to announce that we are 3 years old today and still going strong. We’re also looking forward to what the future holds with bright eyes and in full anticipation that it will be amazing. We would like to thank our friends and family for all the love and support when things were going south and also when things were going north (or east and west, whatever that means).
And mainly we would like to thank you - our family, our reason for pushing through, our motivation to try harder and be better, our Soju fam. Truth be told, we wouldn’t be here without your steadfast support and belief in what we do and we cannot thank you enough for being a part of our Soju journey.
Here’s a hearty CHEERS to the first 3 years and the many more to come. We can’t wait to celebrate with you on February 17.