DJ WAAI's Người Nhà Collective Built Saigon's House Music Home on a Rooftop

Twenty-six floors above Saigon's District 3, a sign glows sickly green against the night: HỢP 合, two words stacked in English and Chinese characters. Three people lean against it for a photo like they own the place, because on house music nights, they basically do. DJ WAAI, Dekay and Fanglanx are Người Nhà, Vietnamese for "family" or "household," and they're the resident crew that turned a cocktail-forward sky bar into one of the only places in the city where you can count on house music every week.

From Hanoi Sound Systems to a Paris Street Party

WAAI didn't start in house. He cut his teeth as a reggae and dub DJ around 2010, chasing the sound systems that Hanoi's Skank The Tank and Sub Elements collectives built their names on, the kind of rigs where you feel the bass before you hear it. By 2014 his sets had widened into broader dance territory, basslines still front and center, and that same year he played Paris's Techno Parade, the city's enormous street-party techno festival, alongside DJ Jase and DJ Jin in front of a reported 350,000 people. "Big, crazy" is how he's described it. That's a long way from a Hanoi warehouse, and it's the kind of credential Saigon's house scene doesn't get to cite often.

The Room Above District 3

HỢP 合 sits on Level 26 and the rooftop of Centec Tower at 72-74 Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai, open 5pm to 1am, dress code smart and elegant, under a disco-leaning, '90s-Hong-Kong-inspired fit-out. Downstairs is its sister venue, DẠ 夜, a dumpling-and-cocktail room that feeds the same crowd upward once the kitchen winds down. HỢP's bookings lean tech house, Afro house and melodic techno, and the room has pulled in bigger names too, past guests include three-time DMC world champion DJ Craze. None of that is unusual for a rooftop bar chasing a good Friday. What's unusual is that Người Nhà gets the room every week, not just when a headliner needs an opener.

More Than One Room

WAAI isn't only a DJ for hire. He directs CỘI Saigon, a wood-heavy live jazz bar built around a curated vinyl collection, cellos and vintage pendulum clocks on the walls, proof he's as interested in building rooms as playing them. Người Nhà extends past HỢP too: in 2025 the collective threw its own night at The Observatory, a Saigon club, Fanglanx on the bill alongside guests Luffy, Gỏi Cuốn and Baobei. A sky bar residency pays the bills; the Observatory date is the one that says the crew has a scene behind it, not just a booking.

Thirty Percent Planned, Seventy Percent the Crowd

Ask WAAI how he builds a set and he'll give you a ratio: "I go in with 30% of what I'm going to play roughly planned out, then you read the crowd, and increase the momentum accordingly, and make sure the 70% is more fire than even the part you had all planned out." It's a pragmatic way to run a residency, too, built for a room full of regulars rather than a festival crowd that showed up once. He's not precious about the why of it, either: "I'm not a doctor, but I'm certain that listening to music is one of the best things you can do for your mind, body and soul."

HỢP 合 markets itself as a sky bar, cocktails and city views first. Người Nhà is the reason house music regulars treat it like a club anyway, on a rooftop that opens at 5pm and keeps the booth lit till 1am. Saigon's wider house and techno scene has plenty of other rooms worth a Friday, but this is the one with a family name on the door.

Cover photo: DJ WAAI, Fanglanx and Dekay of Người Nhà Collective at HỢP 合, Saigon. Credit: The Dot Magazine.