Thanks to everyone who came out last night. We have never seen a crowd like that. Quantity and quality. Still mentally processing it. Still processing that another year has passed. New Years Eve, Ive learned over the years is kind of a weird night for a lot of people. It brings out the weird and wonderful into full display. (What other holiday bears such a heavy handed mix of self-reflection, vocalizing change and hopefullness, moving past regret and old habbits and everything else paired with dressing for prom and getting wedding drunk?) Its a lot to cram into a holiday. I dont know, right? What I can say is that, having a few New Years parties under the belt, there are a few metrics that guage a good night that might go unnoticed to most: 1. How much booze is on the floor at the end of the night. Less = people were elegantly wasted (borrowing that term from someone? Maybe Bryan Ferry?) Too much booze on the floor means too many emotions were pouring out = weird feeling in the room. Its like wabi sabi for parties. If you saw the floor at the end of the night - it struck a nice ballance of confetti, baloons and spillage from dancing vs deluge of the sorrows. The room felt good. At the end of the night, Jerry, (the super awesome and fantastically unwieldly enthusiastic owner of the bar) took us aside by the dancefloor (which by the way, various levels of exclaimation are Jerrys only form of verbal communication!) Exclaimed Look at the floor! THAT looks like a good party! See. Scientific proof. 2. The clueless persons at the beginning of the night asking for top 40 songs. One Rihanna song isnt going to make your whole night magical, only you and the company you surround yourself with are capable of that. More of those = you got press/promoted in the wrong places and they have no clue why they are at your party. They are not bad people, they are certainly welcome. Maybe their tastes will expand. Im an optimist. We only had one this year! Less of those people means more people are ready for how actually great and cathartic that 10 minute mix of Alright by Pet Shop Boys is for the last minutes of 2014. 3. How many faces you recognize. This is a personal preference really. But, like, we have been doing this for a pretty long time (relativly speaking) and there have been many waves of people who have supported us over the years. For me, success is when old friends are as present as the newer faces in the crowd. The fact that I see people that came to our earliest parties are still with us and enjoying our parties (as much as they have grown and evolved) is an indicator to me. Not sure exactly of what, but I dont take it for granted. 4. How many advance tickets sell is not really a high fidelity indicator of how good your party will be. Dont get me wrong. Selling out on NYE is awesome, it means our hard work has paid off. Your costs and energy are solvent - but - EVERYONE and their brother and their six cosins go out on NYE. They buy tickets more than you do. Its a fact. Its the worst feeling when your friends cant get into your party. I think we did alright this year at making sure everyone who wanted to get in could. Sorry for accidental humble-braggyness, but a good crowd isnt about size. We are lucky to have had really slow and steady organic growth over the years and it pays off in ways that cant be measured. 5. When the team who has helped you produce the same event for the past five or six years is still enthusiastic and supportive and generous with their time and the number of trips they are willing to take up and down a ladder to hang party stuff for you. Its a lot of work. Its a lot of people who help us get this thing together. People only see a fraction of what goes into planning and executing this stuff. Its a huge deal to us to have the support we do from Park Bar and our friends (many of which pulled thru in the latest of minutes for odds and ends) Major gratitude. 6. Working harmoniously with others on the bill. Tunde and his dancers killed it. We LOVED working with him on this party. He is an angel from another dimention in the future. His crowd was such a nice compliment to ours. Couldnt be more thrilled. I could keep going on. NYE is a complicated thing. Its a lot of work. Its a lot of stress. Its the fear you carry in your gut that no one is going to show up or something is going to not work etc. Its the endurance of hosting and DJaying and damage controlling a title wave. It paid off. Ash and I are really fortunate. Ive written an entire listicle about it and Im still struggling to find the words. I dunno, maybe its just: Thank you. Thank you, friends.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 03:33:49 +0000
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