San Diego nightlife · Pride · approximately 2007–2020

DJ Will Z

Before the founder, author and podcast chapters, William Zakrajshek built rooms full of energy as DJ Will Z—moving between Hillcrest clubs, Pride celebrations, radio experiments and early mobile nightlife technology.

Explore the archive Read the story

Top 40 + hip-hopAccessible, crowd-first sets

Rich’s + FlicksLong-running Hillcrest presence

Regional bookingsSan Diego, San Jose and Long Beach

DJ Will Z smiling with headphones around his neck — **DJ Will Z**William Zakrajshek’s nightlife era

The origin chapter

Before the founder story, there was nightlife.

After moving to San Diego in 2006, William entered Hillcrest nightlife and began learning to DJ after an invitation from DJ Nikno. What started behind the booth grew into years of club sets, Pride-related bookings, promotional experiments and community-centered nightlife work. The schedule eventually extended beyond San Diego to Splash in San Jose and Executive Suite in Long Beach.

The DJ years taught him how rooms feel, how audiences move and how trust is built in real time. Those lessons later became part of the foundation for Hillcrest Social, Out at the Fair and William’s broader work creating spaces where people feel seen.

DJ Will Z working an outdoor Padres-themed DJ booth — Out in the cityNightlife moved beyond the club walls.

DJ Will Z performing in a nightclub DJ booth — Behind the boothClub energy, crowd reading and live mixing.

DJ equipment and red nightclub lighting during a DJ Will Z set — After darkThe visual language of the Hillcrest club years.

Clubs, Pride and public stages

From packed rooms to open-air crowds.

The archive shows a career that crossed formats and cities: intimate club booths, themed nights, community events, regional bookings and Pride stages with thousands of people in front of the music.

DJ Will Z performing on a large outdoor Pride stage — DJ Will Z performing on an outdoor Pride stage.

Large Pride crowd viewed from the stage — The crowd from the booth.

Wide view of DJ Will Z and performers on a Pride stage — Music as part of a larger community celebration.

Career highlights

Built for nightlife. Booked beyond it.

DJ Will Z grew from a San Diego club presence into an established LGBTQ nightlife brand—appearing on major Pride lineups, recognizable stages and regional bookings while building digital tools around the music.

Pride festivalsSan Diego + Minneapolis

Recognizable venueHouse of Blues San Diego

Signature home baseRich’s San Diego

Regional bookingSplash San Jose

San Diego Pride 2011 Bud Light Stage lineup listing DJ Will Z — **San Diego Pride**Multiple featured appearances, including two Saturday sets on the 2011 Bud Light Stage lineup.

Club Lucky House of Blues San Diego webpage listing DJ Will Z in the Lucky Lounge — **House of Blues San Diego**Featured in Club Lucky’s Lucky Lounge.

ElectroPop flyer at Rich's featuring DJ Will Z and Erika Jayne — **Rich’s San Diego**Home-base visibility, including an ElectroPop event featuring Erika Jayne.

San Diego Pride festival dance party lineup listing Will Z — **Pride dance programming**Booked across festival entertainment and dance-stage lineups.

Regional reach

Not just one city.

Additional guest bookings included Minneapolis Pride, Splash in San Jose and Executive Suite in Long Beach—enough to show the reach without turning the page into a venue directory.

Digital innovation

The brand extended beyond the booth.

Recorded mixes and podcast episodes streamed directly to phones, while DJ WillZ-Mobile gave clubgoers event information, photos and a live request form. It was an early example of a local nightlife brand building its own digital ecosystem—later recognized in William’s 2016 San Diego Metro 40 Under 40 profile.

DJ Will Z podcast streaming on an early smartphone — Podcast streaming on mobile

DJ Will Z Mobile app home screen and song request form — DJ WillZ-Mobile and live request form

DJ Will Z podcast artwork — Recorded mix and podcast artwork

Recorded-live branding

The Mixcloud archive

More than a decade of mixes—still playing.

What began as recorded club sets and themed releases became a living audio archive. Today, 98 DJ Will Z mixes remain online, preserving the sound of Pride weekends, nightlife eras and late-night ideas from across the years.

98 mixes archived

2013 → today

A soundtrack to the era.

Club sets. Pride soundtracks. Artist tributes. Themed mixes. Each upload captures a moment—not only what was playing, but what the room, the city and the community felt like at the time.

PrideClub nightsArtist mixesLive sets

“The flyers show the nights. The mixes let you hear them.”

Listen to the Mixcloud archive ↗

Flyers & promotions

The flyers tell the story.

These flyers promoted club nights, Pride events and community celebrations across San Diego. Together, they capture the venues, visual style and energy of the DJ Will Z era.

Circuit Pop promotional flyer featuring DJ Will Z — Circuit Pop at Rich’s

CityFest DJ Will Z promotional graphic — CityFest

Club anniversary event flyer — Club anniversary celebration

Beat Night promotional flyer featuring DJ Will Z — Beat Night

Furrageous promotional flyer featuring DJ Will Z — Furrageous

Welfare Wednesdays flyer featuring DJ Will Z — Welfare Wednesdays at Flicks

Festival entertainment lineup flyer including DJ Will Z — Community festival lineup

Working the room

The person behind the branding.

Beyond the polished flyers, the archive preserves the actual work: equipment, headphones, improvised booths, outdoor stages and the concentration required to keep a room moving.

DJ Will Z performing at a nightclub booth — Nightclub booth

DJ Will Z performing on an outdoor stage — Outdoor stage

DJ Will Z performing at Rich's — Rich’s performance

DJ Will Z promotional wristbands photographed at Rich's San Diego — DJWillZ.com wristbands at Rich’s

The legacy

The booth was training for everything that came next.

DJ Will Z was not a disconnected past life. The nightclub years trained William to understand audiences, create energy, market experiences and build belonging in public. The tools changed—from turntables to fair stages, books and microphones—but the purpose stayed remarkably consistent.

Continue to William’s full story → Explore the books and podcast →

Selected public sources

Public profiles and interviews help connect the surviving visual archive to William’s larger professional story.

The Word SD: Out at the Fair interviewDJ-to-founder narrative San Diego Metro 40 Under 40DJ WillZ-Mobile and Hillcrest Social

Speaking · Media · Partnerships

Let’s build something people remember.

For interviews, speaking inquiries, creative collaborations or partnerships with William Zakrajshek.

Contact William