DJ Vladi. Voted as the area’s best DJ at this year’s Beachcomber Music Awards, Vladi’s journey began in Orlando.

 

“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.”

 

Few DJs accomplished crossing into household name status the way that the late DJ AM did. Vladi considers him a professional inspiration, citing AM’s fearless music choices. “He would play stuff that people didn’t know. He had a confidence that if he played it, some people would like it. They were being introduced to new music.

 

“When I’m doing an event, even if they don’t like that type of music, I like to introduce it to them for one or two songs. You have to mix it all up so you get at least 95 percent of the people happy with a little bit of everything. When you come to my parties, I try to introduce you to a little bit of everything.”