Thousands of partiers boogie to 1970s hits at…
On one stunning August night time in NYC, disco rose from the useless — and hundreds of dancing queens got here out to have a good time, including me.
Back in the galvanizing style’s late 1970s heyday, I used to be just a couple of years too younger to squeeze my manner into Studio 54, or any of the other golf equipment that shook up nightlife in the Big Apple at the time.
But this past Saturday, I finally bought my probability to boogie with the best of them on the Pier 17 rooftop deck at South Street Seaport.
Here, properly into the night time, the annual Gimme Gimme get together gathered everybody from teenage women to old-timers reliving their youth, dancing under the celebs to an infectious tune record, courtesy of a mustachioed and hairy-chested DJ in sequined jumpsuits, flashing gaudy earrings.
The Gimme Gimme Disco Fest dance get together and music show at The Rooftop at Pier 17. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post
There was Abba — tons and tons of Abba — but also other ‘70’s superstars like Donna Summer and Gloria Gaynor, Kool & the Gang and Blondie.
There had been hundreds of arms waving in the air, New Yorkers belting Anita Ward’s “Ring My Bell” at the top of their lungs, adopted by the easy-to-remember refrain of “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang, and of course, Abba’s “Waterloo.”
Dancing ladies sparkled in form-fitting jumpsuits, males in shimmering fits. Platform footwear abounded, plus bell-bottomed pants and polyester shirts, star-shaped sun shades and sparkly headbands. Colors had been brilliant and tie-dyed designs in all places.
Unfortunately, my own white, three-pieced go well with from the period no longer match — but that didn’t stop me from letting fly with my best John Travolta on the dance ground impression.
But there was so a lot more to see than a Gen Xer from Maine busting out strikes no one’s ever seen —just like the DJ-led conga line that snaked through the viewers as the Weather Girls’ “It’s Raining Men” reverberated across the East River.
Young event-goers partying to the music of the 1970s. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post
Party-goers, who paid between $30 and $65 for a ticket, excitedly raced to be a part of the road’s end, with the entire thing turning into so common it cannibalized itself, the pinnacle of the road cutting through other elements of it until nothing but joyful bedlam was left.
That’s the sort of factor Gimme Gimme organizers Alex Badanes and Ethan Maccoby told The Post they need to see at their annual do — New Yorkers forming a neighborhood of socializing and pleasure.
“When you meet someone you share a love for the same music with, regardless of different backgrounds or beliefs you can have an instant connection,” Maccoby said.
The pair, who grew up together abroad and based an occasions company, Burwoodland, have caught more than a few eyeballs with their common events — including those of their latest, third proprietor, Mark Cuban.
Seeking an investor, the pair cold-called the billionaire (his electronic mail is publicly out there) and had been pleasantly shocked when the “Shark Tank” alum purchased in.
“Our expectations were low, but we ended up blown away,” Maccoby said.
Dancers on stage at the show. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post
Anyone current at the pair’s latest event may see why it may appeal to such a high-profile investor — so festive, vigorous and enjoyable that bottling it up and promoting it appeared like a no-brainer.
Gimme Gimme was launched in New York City in 2018 and has since occurred in almost every major market in the U.S. and Canada, not to point out worldwide locations including London, Paris, Singapore and Amsterdam.
As many as ten of these disco events occur every weekend now, including one scheduled for Tokyo next month.
As somebody outdated enough to bear in mind what 1977 truly seemed like, I don’t suppose it ever seemed as good as it did on that Lower Manhattan rooftop last Saturday — properly, not this facet of “Saturday Night Fever,” anyway.
A pair of twenty-somethings from upstate, Sophia Pacheco and Kiki Edwards, confessed to attending almost a dozen of Gimme Gimme disco events throughout the state.
Brianna Clark (L), Ky Marengo and Connor Davidson (R) partying the night time away. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post
“Everybody’s moving and dancing, everybody’s getting along. There’s such a nice sense of community,” Edwards said.
Ky Marengo, a 25-year-old banker from Amityville, New York, agreed. Clad in a spectacular “Yellow Cab guy” outfit, he goes to every Gimme Gimme event he can discover.
“It’s my favorite … I had so much fun at the first one, I just keep coming back,” he told The Post.
Yessa Thostesen and Hope McCarthy had been dressed for the event. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post
The event was fully family-friendly, too — not precisely the standard Saturday night time after-dark fare in Gotham. The Cetrullos of Lawrenceville, New Jersey had been back for their second time, father Craig celebrating his birthday with his spouse and two pre-teen daughters.
“We love the dancing and the outfits. It’s all just so much fun,” he told The Post.
Rebecca Maciag, a 27-year-old accountant from central New Jersey, was in a related scenario. While she danced, her mother and father had been doing the same some other place in the gang.
“I told them they had to come because they love this music.”
Curissa Jones at the Gimme Gimme Disco Fest this past Saturday. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post
From the dance ground, an illuminated Empire State Building might be seen, plus the fogged-in top of the Freedom Tower. Above the stage, a mirrored disco ball spun and glittered. Massive screens confirmed nostalgic videos of ’70s and ‘80s “American Bandstand” reveals, not to point out the retro arcade sport “Space Invaders.”
Indianapolis’ Curissa Jones, a 29-year outdated nanny and home supervisor, comes to New York every yr, she said, “to eat.” But on this journey when she discovered about the disco dance get together, she had to come.
“I’m here for a good time and to hear the music I grew up on,” Jones explained, decked out in high heels and short shorts with a period-perfect afro atop her head.
Attendees diversified in age. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post
Few people appeared to be having more enjoyable than Rachel Mia Ackerman, program coordinator of the American Ballet Theatre. She and her best pal are common attendees at retro dance nights at the Hotel Chantelle on Ludlow Street, so Gimme Gimme was just the show for them.
When the 29-year-old Astoria resident Ackerman burst onto the rooftop on Saturday night time, she immediately danced her manner into a photographer’s line of sight.
Rachel Mia Ackerman and Kat Katona dancing the night time away. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post
“I can’t help it because I just love dancing on camera,” she said, explaining that she and her pals “wanted to come here for a year and are so glad we did. It’s such a good time.”
Surely no one appreciated the night time’s theme more than lifelong Inwood resident Kimberly Payne, who was at Gimme Gimme with her brothers and sisters-in-law, her cousins, and their complete pal group. The 61-year-old remembers disco when it first got here around and is thrilled to see it back.
“I was really into it when it happened, really into it. Now our kids even love the music because we raised them on it,” she said
.Payne and her crew recurrently get down at the Vinyl Nights at Pier I Café on West seventieth Street, so the possibility to escape their strikes at Gimme Gimme Disco was too good an alternative to cross up.
“It makes us feel young again,” Payne says. “Makes me feel like a teenager.”
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