It's 10:20 am on Monday morning following the first weekend of Minitek Festival in New York City. I am at work. I am not well rested one bit, and before I venture any further into a more in depth look at the weekend, I will say that I had a lot of fun dancing to extremely good music.
Now, on to the good stuff. This weekend was very close to being a huge disaster. We arrive into NYC's dainty La Guardia airport with very few problems, albeit our own. Thursday saw us toting from club to club to see what the city had to offer on a normal weeknight; Layo + Bushwacka @ Cielo and New York City's own Derek Plaslaiko at A.P.T. While Cielo was visually a more stimulating experience, Derek took the cake with his thumping tune selection.
Friday...the worst happened. After procrastinating for a while at night, we made it down to Penn Station, only to find that the line for the Plaza was around the block and not moving. While there was very obviously music and some festival attendees inside, it was apparent that the "dedicated" boys in blue, the NYPD, wasn't going to let anybody else inside until a few things were straightened out. After about an hour (the time now being close to 2 am), the staff finally started honoring those who had tickets. We happened to have VIP access, so we were honored before most everyone else. Inside, however, we found new problems. The computer system to access all of the ticketing information supposedly crashed. The separate VIP bracelets were not being handed out. None of our "discounted drinks" ever happened. There was no designated smoking area, and if you left the building to smoke, you weren't getting back in. The music was great, but the set times were all sorts of out of place. Come 3:30 am, the visuals being projecte all the way around the room came off and a short message that read "It will take a lot more to stop us" adorned the walls. For some reason this encouraged people to cheer, however at this point I had friends messaging me that they were told to leave the property even though they had purchased tickets and nobody else was getting inside. Then, another message that read "Paul Ritch, Paco Osuna and Marco Carola @ Rebel in 10 minutes" came onto the screen. This festival was getting more confusing by the minute, but without haste, we sprinted towards Rebel which was, thankfully, a few blocks away. Another cover charge and 15 minutes of drinking wasn't exactly what I was hoping for by this point, but I took what I could get. Again, a lot of shutouts for Rebel Nightclub due to capacity issues.
Saturday was a new day. My experience with Coney Island has been dismal up until this point, so I'm kind of looking forward to this. Coney Island has that whole early 20th century, eery, sideshow freak aspect to it which has seemed to wane crowds over the years. However, I am thinking this will be a great setting for great techno music. A nice, scenic one hour train ride into BK sets the stage for the rest of the day. The staff at the ticketing booth seemed a little confused as to how we had already received our wrist bands, and then proceeded to inform us that a weekend pass was only good for friday and saturday night. After a quick burst of laughter and telling them how wrong this seemed, they found their error. We were in. Two stages were set up: one to the immediate left and one straight all the way back. The first stage had no music and hardly any equipment, so it was clear that this stage was not operational at the moment. Afternoon Coffee Boys had just started on the purple stage and the sound quickly drowned out the sorrow that had taken us this far into the weekend. Saturday was a great afternoon for music, even though a few rain drops seemed to fall for about a 30 minute period. No halts in the music. The music ended around 10:00 pm, not Midnight. Before leaving Coney Island and after hearing numerous rumors that this festival was not going to take place at Penn at night, we asked the staff where to go for the rest of the festivities. We were told "Mandy, Troy Pearce and Audiofly @ Webster Hall; Magda + Monoblock @ Studio B". Official event staff told us this.
We headed out once again to see what the night was going to bring us. Nothing could surprise me at this point in time. Since Brooklyn was so far from our hotel (and we had not planned on returning there until later), we hit Webster Hall first. At 2:30 am, even though the marquee confirmed what we were told, there was no techno being played at Webster Hall. Not even house music; top 40 music. The cover was $30 and not one single person at this particular nightclub had attended Minitek at Coney Island earlier that day. The cashier at the door gave very vague information regarding any of the djs that were supposed to play this night, so we decided not to chance it. We then spent the next 2 hours trying to hail a cab to take us to Brooklyn with no luck. This was the end of our Minitek Festival experience, for we could not make Sunday's trek out to Coney Island due to our flight booking.
From what I've heard, Sunday at Coney Island went off without a hitch. It only took the staff 3 days to get their act together and actually have scheduled time slots run effectively! If the music at this festival had not been half as good as it actually was, this would have been a complete waste of time and money. The unprepared, amateur staff at this festival made for quite an experience though.
-Infernal Techno Aministrator
Now, on to the good stuff. This weekend was very close to being a huge disaster. We arrive into NYC's dainty La Guardia airport with very few problems, albeit our own. Thursday saw us toting from club to club to see what the city had to offer on a normal weeknight; Layo + Bushwacka @ Cielo and New York City's own Derek Plaslaiko at A.P.T. While Cielo was visually a more stimulating experience, Derek took the cake with his thumping tune selection.
Friday...the worst happened. After procrastinating for a while at night, we made it down to Penn Station, only to find that the line for the Plaza was around the block and not moving. While there was very obviously music and some festival attendees inside, it was apparent that the "dedicated" boys in blue, the NYPD, wasn't going to let anybody else inside until a few things were straightened out. After about an hour (the time now being close to 2 am), the staff finally started honoring those who had tickets. We happened to have VIP access, so we were honored before most everyone else. Inside, however, we found new problems. The computer system to access all of the ticketing information supposedly crashed. The separate VIP bracelets were not being handed out. None of our "discounted drinks" ever happened. There was no designated smoking area, and if you left the building to smoke, you weren't getting back in. The music was great, but the set times were all sorts of out of place. Come 3:30 am, the visuals being projecte all the way around the room came off and a short message that read "It will take a lot more to stop us" adorned the walls. For some reason this encouraged people to cheer, however at this point I had friends messaging me that they were told to leave the property even though they had purchased tickets and nobody else was getting inside. Then, another message that read "Paul Ritch, Paco Osuna and Marco Carola @ Rebel in 10 minutes" came onto the screen. This festival was getting more confusing by the minute, but without haste, we sprinted towards Rebel which was, thankfully, a few blocks away. Another cover charge and 15 minutes of drinking wasn't exactly what I was hoping for by this point, but I took what I could get. Again, a lot of shutouts for Rebel Nightclub due to capacity issues.
Saturday was a new day. My experience with Coney Island has been dismal up until this point, so I'm kind of looking forward to this. Coney Island has that whole early 20th century, eery, sideshow freak aspect to it which has seemed to wane crowds over the years. However, I am thinking this will be a great setting for great techno music. A nice, scenic one hour train ride into BK sets the stage for the rest of the day. The staff at the ticketing booth seemed a little confused as to how we had already received our wrist bands, and then proceeded to inform us that a weekend pass was only good for friday and saturday night. After a quick burst of laughter and telling them how wrong this seemed, they found their error. We were in. Two stages were set up: one to the immediate left and one straight all the way back. The first stage had no music and hardly any equipment, so it was clear that this stage was not operational at the moment. Afternoon Coffee Boys had just started on the purple stage and the sound quickly drowned out the sorrow that had taken us this far into the weekend. Saturday was a great afternoon for music, even though a few rain drops seemed to fall for about a 30 minute period. No halts in the music. The music ended around 10:00 pm, not Midnight. Before leaving Coney Island and after hearing numerous rumors that this festival was not going to take place at Penn at night, we asked the staff where to go for the rest of the festivities. We were told "Mandy, Troy Pearce and Audiofly @ Webster Hall; Magda + Monoblock @ Studio B". Official event staff told us this.
We headed out once again to see what the night was going to bring us. Nothing could surprise me at this point in time. Since Brooklyn was so far from our hotel (and we had not planned on returning there until later), we hit Webster Hall first. At 2:30 am, even though the marquee confirmed what we were told, there was no techno being played at Webster Hall. Not even house music; top 40 music. The cover was $30 and not one single person at this particular nightclub had attended Minitek at Coney Island earlier that day. The cashier at the door gave very vague information regarding any of the djs that were supposed to play this night, so we decided not to chance it. We then spent the next 2 hours trying to hail a cab to take us to Brooklyn with no luck. This was the end of our Minitek Festival experience, for we could not make Sunday's trek out to Coney Island due to our flight booking.
From what I've heard, Sunday at Coney Island went off without a hitch. It only took the staff 3 days to get their act together and actually have scheduled time slots run effectively! If the music at this festival had not been half as good as it actually was, this would have been a complete waste of time and money. The unprepared, amateur staff at this festival made for quite an experience though.
-Infernal Techno Aministrator
4 comments:
Webster Hall had another floor where MANDY, Tief and Audiofly were tagging. The music was great though not crowded at all. It's too bad that the staff at the door were such idiots. You missed a good time.
yeah nail on the head,
i stopped going to minimoo parties after been dicked around with long lines, expensive entry, drinks ticket (mooney), and one toilet per venue fiascos
for them not to have their paperwork in order for the nighttime event is beyond comprehension
for them not to tell people who bought tickets that party was moved to rebel is ridiculous
coney island event was thrown together, location was a rough looking gravely lot,,,,,,,, running out of booze on sat. a few hours into the busic after things start of 4 hrs late is a joke
plus whoever pens there emails sounds like they rolled into town from europe to save techno in new york......if you read what they have said about local new york techno in their email lists its a plain disgrace and disregard to everyone doing something constructive in this city...............these people are in it for the big hit and have no idea of the history of techno
good music and great artists for sure but the people running the show really need to step up and give some sort of refunds to everyone who forked out for tickets and got to see nothing,,,, no apologies, no emails informing people of change of venues
absolute disgrace and embarrassment for new yorkers to see people travel from all over and pay top dollar and not get any respect..........a sham
i hope miss moo and her moo friends keep their heads down for some time
Minimoo stopped being good after about a year from it's start. If you ask me they totaly missed the point. Miss moo's (Jenny Tan) arrogance and bad karma finally cought up. It's not about the money sweety! I'm glad I didn't buy tickets cause I knew it'd be a clusterfuck based on logistics. You cant' fit 5000 people in a midtown hotel blasting techno and you cant start producing the event two weeks before it starts. I hope your elecronic dream includes electronic refunds.
lulz
keep the comments coming! <@:o)
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