photo by Eddie Birk
For some of us, last night made up for being left out of the Penn Plaza Pavillion on Friday, and the late start to Saturday's events. Minitek by Night was rescheduled at Studio B, and arriving around midnight, there wasn't much chaos on the outside. At one point, the pre-bought ticket holders and guestlist folk were pushed aside, allowing only cash up-front paying customers to enter quickly. No one knew where the order had come from, but it almost seemed like it was an independent decision by the venue and its bouncers. This is highly unlikely, but considering how it was put together at the time, you could simply say "Yes, I'll pay $40," move up front and through the entrance, and then head right instead of left (cash window) to the will call table. For the next hour, things were difficult to decipher as everyone seemed to be settling in.
Magda at Studio B
2am, the music stopped for about two minutes. Some of us quickly debated leaving, and that's exactly when Magda came on deck. The immediate feedback was an explosive frenzy. Around 4am, Format:B quickly moved into their set, taking the night all the way to its 6am end as the sun started rising. It was during these four hours that the magic of Minitek happened, and sharing the dance floor with Mark Ingram and Patrick Barry, it's safe to say that we never left the dance floor. To what it seems, Pan-Pot never made it on, but they were standing in the booth behind Format:B. Unless the party restarted after the music shut down, the applaud ceased, and the house lights went on, we definitely missed it.
End of the night applause!
The night, in our eyes, turned into a success. Up in the lounge area, people were friendly and interactive, and many felt that everyone was there with a desire to see Minitek take over the night. Now 8pm on Sunday, Audion should be taking the stage at this very moment, and being the one act left that was high on the list, it's sad to say that I've already clocked out for this weekend. Presumably, those who attended and those who organized Minitek have much to think about and take home. All we can hope is that they decide to set this up again next year, and take it above and beyond its launch. Many kudos to those that invested so much time and money into making this happen!
Back to the office...
*9.25.08 11pm Note: Turns out the post-Magda set was Pan-Pot, and Format:B were moved to Club Europa. Apparently the night was split in two between Studio B and Club Europa. Excellent. If that is true, considering Studio B was the only advertised venue...well, that is just shite.
Festival Site: Minitek
www.basstown.net/spreadshirt.php
7 comments:
So happy to hear you guys were rockin out! With Ingy even!!! See you soon, frosty adult beverage before I leave!...... kiss kiss.... coppo!
Whoa. Let's call a spade a spade. This festival was a complete disaster. In ten years or so of going to parties I've never been to such a poorly managed event, and spent so much time, energy and money running around to get what was promised.
Friday night was a complete f*in disaster with thousands lined up outside Penn Plaza for endless hours, treated to the gruff pleas of security and cops to clear the sidewalk while we were trying to get some info on why the line wasn't moving. Whether it was some mixup with the RFID technology or non-compliance with the city's code, the promoters f*d big time, turning all away at 3 am.
To make matters worse, no apology email or update to the website the next day.
Then the slow start at coney island. pretty cool venue, i'll admit but definitely not as cool as promised. i did not see one art exhibit or any hint of an "innovation pavilion" anywhere. just some speakers and merch tents thrown up, with a few dozen ppl trying to get over the vibe from the prior night.
which was pretty hard to do when a kid had a seizure on the dance floor. uncontrollable but you'd think they'd have some medical staff at the ready instead of just a random security guard with a stethoscope... yikes, unfortunate.
and wtf with putting your headliners richie hawtin and francois k. late sunday night??
Then sat. night we're forced to find out that the party's moved to brooklyn after making after making plans to be out in manhatten... wtf??? did we really need to go to penn plaza to get this info??? why wasn't there an email or update to the site, or at least a sign at coney island?? f*in rank amateur.
then arriving at studio b, complete chaos. a totally disorganized line on arrival, followed up by a 4 bus loads of heads that simply crushed the front door. trapped in a mass of guests several hundred deep while chaos ensues. thankfully the pro's at studio b take control of the situation by will let all in and actually do so promptly.
but to what avail? inside it's a maxipad suck fest with the same lame dj playing from mid-night to 3am and nobody having a clue where the talent went. i've never heard so much chatter at a club, the talking overtook the pro sound system because ppl were so bored by this guy.
music stops. lights go up at 3am and we left. several hundred poorer, a weekend lost and a load of bad vibes banked up on this minimoo/minitek bullshit crew, we depart.
i encourage everyone who went to cancel their charges and fuck these guys over so they never throw a party again. if they failed to planned so poorly once, and were so unscrupulous about, it's more than likely they will next time. let's not let that happen again.
It doesn't take much thought to find sense in what you're saying, ttreme. I went with high expectations, looking for Disenyland-meets-Watergate, and it was not what was given.
Personally, I only traveled from Boston and with a car full of friends. We met up with another and when the line wasn't moving we simply went down the street to have Irish Car Bomb face-offs. But not everyone - probably most of the crowd - was in that place. I spent about $50 for my commute, and had plenty of friends to stay with (over a hotel). The people that paid for flights, hotel, and full VIP passes (many, I overheard outside of Penn Plaza, had bought them 6 months ago or so!) were definitely the ones that kept coming up in conversations of concern. I wanted to see how the weekend would go because by Saturday night, we figured that the festival wouldn’t try to offer any sort of refund since it went THROUGH with the events, and none were actually canceled. Even the post-Penn Plaza fiasco resulted in Marco Carola and Paco Osuna spinning for 3-4 hours at club Rebel.
I will admit – I left out much of the negative in my updates. Over the next few weeks, I expect to see a lot of frustration and complaint come from blogs all around. The festival was disappointing, and while some of the updates seem very unbiased, they are, in fact, very biased because they’re coming from a source that grew up and lived around there, and has no lack of alternate ideas if Plan A falls through.
But Plan A had a lot of promise.
I hope the festival organizers explain and, for others’ sake, apologize. I also hope that refunds are issued, but I don’t know, like most people, what actually happened. I still stand behind the pockets of bliss that some of us found that weekend, but I can also say that if I could do it all over again, I would have stayed in Boston with our local dance parties, whether it was Estate, Rise, Privus, Enormous Room or the Phoenix Landing.
ttreme, well reviewed. I am sorry to hear that you were so disappointed in the event and I can understand why you would be. If not for my wedding this week I would certainly have been attending this one and would have been a bit upset as well. Ultimately, I believe until the facts of what went wrong come from the promoters, it's all up in the air. I would love to hear what they have to say......
it is understandable you would be upset that minitek did not deliver as promised, however, bear in mind that this is new york's first electronic music festival, and a lot of effort and money (from the organizers' own pockets) went into it...major things did go wrong, but in this city some things are beyond one's control--
nyc police & fire depts are also notorious for shutting down parties on minor technicalities, and there's not much that can be done about it.
and by the way--correction--paramedics were on the scene in under one minute when my friend had a seizure--they saved his life and took great care of him.
instead of urging people to 'cancel their charges and f*ck these guys over so they never throw a party again,' maybe you should consider volunteering for the next one to make sure it turns out better and stop badmouthing people who actually tried to do something cool for the new york techno scene.
i missed out on friday and saturday night parties for the same reason you did, but during the daytime events i heard some of the best music i've heard in this city in a long time. i bought my ticket late and paid 105 for a weekend pass, but i am not canceling charges out of spite simply because things didn't run smoothly. people who paid 40 or 60 for their presale tickets seem to be the ones complaining the most. really? you took a chance and supported a good cause...
what's a few dollars towards making nightlife here better?
lali- if i was interested in donating money to causes that further techno shows in nyc, the last place i would give it would be to a party promoter. no offense, but it's a business just like any other.
the facts are simple: this crew promised 2 days and 2 nights of music and art. they half-delivered on that promise, at best.
if you got half of something you paid for, wouldn't you want your money back, some kind of rebate or at least an acknowledgment of a misdeed?
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