A laser sound-and-light show preceded a performance by Indus Creed on Thursday. Beefy local DJs, a clutch of cackling veejays, music that got into your feet and an unlimited supply of booze set the mood for Friday night.

Caliche, an all-girls' band from Mumbai -- and wrongly touted as the only such band in the country -- belted out cover versions by the dozen. Veejays Nikhil and Shehnaz played bartenders till their arms dropped. Well-known faces included theatre person Shivani Wazir, cosmetologist Blossom Kochhar, model-cum-VJ Marc Robinson and hair stylist Sylvie who was undisputedly the best-dressed woman on the floor, clad in a fire-engine red gown with a royal blue train.

Sunny Sarid, Ghungroo's pied piper, had also hotfooted it down to check out the competition.

By midnight, the air was so thick with smoke (a cigarette company being one of the sponsors), it beat Delhi's flyash haze hollow. But the overflowing discotheque continued to puff away unaware of the fact that a couple of press photographers were using special fog lenses to capture the jiving crowd.The rave party stretched into the wee hours of the morning. Outside, to the sound of convoys of trucks rumbling down the highway, a man picked up his tipsy friend and bodily flung him on the lawns. The laser strobes picked up his dazed expression, and he gave a maniacal hoot of laughter before punching the ground with his fists.

The inaugural bash was just a blip in the city's social calendar. It, however, proved to be a symbolic event of sorts: A pop of a champagne bottle not far away from the less loud unscrewing of the evening bottle by a farmer under a tarpaulin shed in the twilight. But beat his fists on the ground he probably will, before the night is over and another wet day has dawned.