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Published: February 29th 2024
Roving dance party
Dancing around (and in!) the Greenway Fountain in downtown BostonTonight I attended a truly unusual art event. A few years ago a pair of Canadians named Tom and Gary came up with an idea for a
roving dance party. One would play music with a short range FM transmitter, while lots of other people played it on boom boxes. The group would form a roving dance party through the streets. Their events became a hit, drawing hundreds of participants across Canada.
This year,
they announced a tour through the United States. Any city where a group could pay their expenses could host a party. Tonight was Boston’s turn.
They released the starting location and time one day in advance, the end of Long Wharf. Its a concrete and brick lined park that sticks into Boston Harbor. Walking in, the location looked exactly like where I suspected the city would put a party like this; few neighbors to hear the noise, and hard for random people to discover it.
On arrival, I found a large number of boom boxes arranged in a circle, surrounded by people. The radios ranged all over the place, from 1980s blasters straight from an old school hiphop video to modern portables. There was no music yet.
Quincy Market
The party draws a crowd Scanning the crowd, I recognized many from other events I’ve attended. I’m definitely in the right place.
Eventually, Tom and Gary introduced themselves and went over the rules. Needless to say, a group of people wandering around with boom boxes gets noticed by the police, so following these rules keeps us (and them) out of trouble. The basics: stay with the group, stay on the sidewalk, no drugs or alcohol of any kind. They also mentioned to always bring every boom box. This was harder than it looked, the 1980s blasters were quite heavy.
With preliminaries over, they started the party. The first song was “Get Ready for This” by 2 Unlimited. Afterwards, the entire group moved. The form of the event quickly established itself: we went somewhere public and dropped the boom boxes. Some people danced for a few songs. We them picked them up and moved somewhere else. They had lots of reminders to grab every radio; its very tempting to just abandon one when people get tired of carrying it.
The music was a mix of 1980s pop and 1990s EDM. For this crowd, it was remarkably mainstream.
City Hall
Move to the fantastic bass On the other hand, radio hits probably do sound best on the equipment involved. Given the circumstances, the sound was great.
From Long Wharf, we crossed into Greenway Park, and headed for the fountain. Its a flat circular area where water jets shoot vertically, lit from below. Dave and Gary decided our first dance would be around the fountain. Some people decided to dance IN the fountain instead. A few even decided to bring their boom box with them! Dave and Gary warned to put them down first, lest people get electrocuted. Thankfully, despite their age, most of the equipment was still watertight and nobody got hurt.
From there, we moved into Quincy Market. One of Boston’s major tourist draws, this was a golden opportunity to get more people to join in. We proceeded to make multiple trips around the central building containing the food hall, blasting music the whole time. Lots of people watched, and a few even joined in.
The group eventually ended up next to Faneuil Hall, next to a plastic statue of a giant macaroni from an ad campaign. Here Tom and Gary had our next stationary
Center Plaza Archway
Jam packed, and incredible echos make the perfect dance spot dance. It did not attract any more participants. A few people decided to climb on the statue, and had to be shooed away.
From Faneuil Hall we crossed Congress Street and climbed the stairs next to City Hall. One of the more famous (some say infamous) Brutalist buildings in existence, its a maze of concrete surrounded by acres of bricks. All those flat surfaces make for great base echos. Tom and Gary blasted “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys, which took full advantage. Sadly, their exhortations to dance to the beats did not convince any new people to join in.
Afterwards, we moved into City Hall Plaza proper. Needless to say, a large group of people in this area attracted the police. Tom and Gary, thankfully, are very used to this situation. Once the cops saw we had no drugs or alcohol on hand, we were free to continue on. For better or worse, however, we had the city’s finest at a polite distance for the rest of the night.
From the plaza we crossed Cambridge Street to Center Plaza, a long curving building with multiple arches. We passed under one of
them and climbed the stairs on the far side. It lead to a plaza In front of a Beaux Arts courthouse, the home of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. It must have been a bad place to dance, because Tom and Gary led us straight through and down the next set of stairs.
We ended up under another arch of Center Plaza. This proved to be the best part of the night. It was a tight fit, with people squeezed into every possible space. This created more of a nightclub feel than the open areas earlier. Even better, all that concrete made for incredible echos, creating the best sound of the night. Benni Benassi’s hit house track “Satisfaction” succeeded in getting most of the crowd dancing. Three songs later, we moved again.
Heading down Tremont Street, we encountered really narrow sidewalks. Tom and Gary mentioned many times to stay out of the street. The group became a long and thin mob moving through downtown.
We ended up at Boston Common. Another huge open space, there was plenty of room to spread out. Tom and Gary moved away from the
concrete near the MBTA station to dance on the grass. This was a good move, as dancing on concrete gets tiring. No new people joined in, but we did attract still more police. Thankfully, they kept their distance.
Next, we climbed the steps next to the statehouse. Soon afterwards, the cops killed the party. It wasn’t due to being in the wrong area; it was now late enough that Tom and Gary were about to violate the city’s noise ordinance. To everyone’s credit, we quietly disbursed afterwards. I suspect holding the event on a weeknight certainly added to the desire to head home. A fun night.
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Dancing in the Streets
What a great idea, Ezra. Was it embraced in other USA cities in addition to Boston. Great photo that embraces the vibe. Glad you added a video as it helps the reader know what you are excited about.