At a time when even mid-level concert tickets sell for extortionate prices, finding an affordable night of music can be a challenge.
But the New York-based Burwoodland entertainment company has found an alternative with its thriving themed DJ nights, which range from Emo Night Brooklyn and Gimme Gimme Disco to Broadway Rave and many more, drawing as many as several thousand people who dress up and bring their friends to sing along — and more often scream along — with their favorite songs. And on Friday, a new themed night called “All Your Friends,” aimed at the millennial-era indie sounds of the ‘00s, is launching at Babys All Right in that genre’s birthplace, Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood.
The nights have become so popular that artists from those respective genres, from Avril Lavigne and Darren Criss to members of the Village People, have been attending and even performing at them — and Friday night’s show will feature special appearances from Passion Pit and the duo Matt and Kim.
Burwoodland’s biggest show to date was a Gimme Gimme Disco installment at Pier 17 in New York (above), which drew 4,000 people; it’s returning to the venue this summer. To date, the company has sold approximately 1.5 million tickets.
“It started with one brand and one show, ten years ago,” says co-founder Ethan Maccoby. “And now we’re averaging more than 1,100 shows every year in 60 cities across the U.S., Canada and the U.K. It’s amazing.”
Like a lot of great businesses, Burwoodland started with no plan to become a business: Maccoby and Alex Badanes, who have been friends literally since childhood, began throwing house parties when they were both attending college in Boston, and then did the same when they moved to Brooklyn. Both grew up on emo, as did many of their friends, so when the party got too big for their apartment, they moved it to a now-defunct bar in Williamsburg called Cameo — and Emo Night Brooklyn was off and running.
The pair began expanding and experimenting with other genres of music and other cities, and now Burwoodland (named after the area outside London where the two American expats grew up) has a full-time staff of eight and hires DJs, contractors and venues all across the country. They realize, most of all, that the key to the events’ success is a sense of community united by the music, the memories and the scenes.
Badanes says, “Especially with Broadway Rave, it’s about creating real connections for theater kids across the country, and bringing out a crowd that isn’t necessarily your typical big party crowd. I think that [event] is exceptionally passionate because the music might not have always been accepted when the fans were growing up, and this is an awesome safe space to meet and party and celebrate with other Broadway fans, without the cost of going to Broadway show.”
The duo’s “eclectic musical tastes” — emo, disco, ‘00s indie rock and “we were theater kids in school” — play a major role in their anchor parties, and for others they team up with specialists.
“We partnered up with a company that worked in reggaeton and were successful in one location, so we consulted with them to help them grow,” Maccoby says. “And we’ve done different genres that haven’t necessarily been ones that we’ll do again and again, but with all the awesome venues and promoter partners we have, oftentimes they’ll reach out with openings, so we’re willing to branch out. Like, we partnered with [rapper] Fetty Wap’s team to throw a kind of 10-year anniversary for him, so it’s always a moving target.”
Yet it’s not always about nostalgia: Along with Emo Night Brooklyn, Gimme Gimme Disco and Broadway Rave, their other anchor franchise is Party Iconic, which is less obviously titled but focuses on current female pop artists, “from Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift to Chappell Roan and Charli xcx,” Badanes says. “A good percentage of fans come to our shows because they’re nostalgic for this music that they grew up with it, but there’s also a lot who connect with today’s artists. And as we see a crowd getting older and starting to age out — we’ve been doing Emo Night Brooklyn for 10 years and Gimme Gimme Disco for six — we see new fans coming in, 18 years old or whatever the venue’s minimum age is, whether it’s current or older music.”
While the duo has had to expand — they were able to quit their day jobs in 2022 — they maintain tight quality control over their events.
“We own and operate all the brands, so we’re not franchising or licensing anything,” Maccoby says. “And we personally hire every DJ. We take it really, really seriously: It’s multiple rounds of interviews with the prospective DJ’s, and for those who [pass muster], we’ll have them shadow one of our current DJs and co-DJ with them. And once they pass that kind of training session, we’ll set them up for their first solo gig.”
Of course, the presence of artists at the events is a major draw, and those performers are usually paid. “For all of our shows, we really try to ingrain ourselves in the scene and create relationships with the artists — at one of our Broadway Raves in New York, almost the entire cast of “Six on Broadway” came out and performed a song with choreography, which was amazing. And for other artists, if they’re actively touring, this is a great way for them to promote whatever they’ve got going on, have fun doing it, and make some extra cash as well.”
They also aim to keep their events, which usually have a significantly lower overhead than events with live musicians, affordable. “Our tickets are generally around $20 to $40 per show, which is a fraction of what it cost to attend the tour for major artists,” Badanes says, “and for our bigger events we sell between 1,500 to 3,000 tickets.”
But the forthcoming opening night of All Your Friends will be free. “We wanted to do this launch similar to our first Emo Night Brooklyn launch 10 years ago,” Maccoby says. “Like, ‘What’s this free show?’ and tons of people lining up. We think this can be a fifth primary brand for us.”
But at the end of the day, it’s all about building an audience that keeps coming back. “We’ve had people meet future husband or wife at these shows,” Badanes says. “We’ve had marriage proposals, we’ve done people’s weddings. The most amazing thing about this is bringing people together and helping to create these communities.”
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