All festivals require at least one headliner. For It’s The Ship (ITS) China, even though the event’s focus was on DJs from China and the Asia region, they still got big acts from around the world such as Blasterjaxx, Kill The Noise, Jeffrey (TAFKA Dash Berlin) Sutorius and, in particular, Sander van Doorn.

Even for someone in van Doorn’s position as a genuine global superstar, traveling all the way from his native Netherlands to China is a significant step, but, based on what he told CGTN, China’s EDM scene is too irresistible to turn down.

Taking part in China’s first sea-based EDM festival is a new step in his career, and that freshness is a big part of why he enjoys playing in the country. He says that, although the big cities like Beijing and Shanghai have the biggest scenes, on every visit he’s made to the country, he’s seen EDM grow in popularity on a staggering scale throughout China.

That said, he’s aware that a big part of the growth is the music’s newness, and Chinese EDM needs to put in more work in order to develop to the standards seen in his home country and throughout Europe. His main piece of advice is to focus on collaboration, not only in terms of collaborating with other DJs on tracks but to meet with other producers to hear other sounds and find out what’s being played on dance floors in different cities; even getting out to shows and seeing others perform and feeling the vibe from inside the crowd can provide new perspectives. ITS is a perfect place for this because of the large amount of DJs performing in such a small location.

As positive as he is, this could just be talk, and the proof van Doorn means everything he says is that he chose ITS to be where he would record the 500th episode of his Identity radio show. Almost every major DJ has a radio show which doubles as a podcast. Some of the most famous are Tiesto’s Club Life, Armin van Buuren’s A State of Trance and Above & Beyond’s Group Therapy (formerly Trance Around the World) and they all celebrate their anniversary shows in grand fashion – Above & Beyond recently recorded their 300th radio show at a festival in Hong Kong, a move that also emphasized the buzz in China for EDM.

Recording such a landmark in his career at a Chinese event is a very meaningful gesture, not just for himself – the actual show played out as a career retrospective delivered with an intensity that all but guarantees he won’t even think about stopping until Identity 1000 – but for China and its EDM scene too.

(Video by Wang Zeyu, Wang Yanan, Ge Ning)