The sixth annual Love Eternal party happened the night of Valentine’s Day. For those of you not familiar with the Love Eternal series, they are an annual event thrown by Sunset Til Sunrise. This organization has created many events over the past few years that, for one reason or another, always seem to leave a bad taste in the mouths of seasoned electronic-music enthusiasts. This can usually be chalked up to the reports of unpaid or underpaid performers, sky-high ticket prices, or promises left broken regarding the extent of work put into the entertainment.
The venue was the ever-morphing Gallery on Third Avenue downtown. In order to get to this venue on any given party night, you must wander down the poorly lit alley of Third Avenue, marching past the metal-slab backdoors of businesses and apartment buildings until you happen upon one of two things: you walk past a set of doors that vibrate with the force of a million subwoofers, or you happen to see someone running in or out, letting the Technicolor wall of sound and lights spill into the streets.
I arrived at the party right before 10 pm, a little less than 2 hours before the opening acts started. At the door, I knew there was a 50/50 chance that I could be on the guest list. I asked if they had me on the list, to which Tall grumbled “there is no list.” This, I knew, was a lie. But, not wanting to start the night out on a bad note, I paid the full price.
In the advertisement preceding the event, Sunset til Sunrise promised $5 off if you came wearing a bracelet from a previous Love Eternal. I went through security before I realized they short changed me that $5. I went back to let them know of their mistake, only to be told they didn’t have any fives. Instead, they gave my girlfriend and I the equivalent of VIP badges, but with no actual perks surrounding them. This was not a VIP pass, nor was it a drink pass. It was literally just two pieces of cardboard with yarn strung through them, with absolutely no benefit. I was given two 50 cent pieces of card and yarn to cover the $5 I had just lost.
I let all of this slide. “If I want to do this event any justice,” I thought, “I need to keep my mind open.”
I check out all the rooms. Ground floor, main room has some interesting music. Hardcore, Hardstyle, hard beats. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. Everyone seems to be smiling.
The 21 and up bar area was completely packed almost all night. The event, being BYOB, only allowed for alcohol to be enjoyed in this room. At least, this is how everything was told to me. Everyone was drinking wherever they pleased anyway. I was told that this venue has a bar open every once in a while, but is mostly BYOB. This confused many people, but did not seem to be a major issue.
Finally, I meander down the narrow, one-way set of stairs which are the only way to get to the largest dance floor of the venue. There were easily a few hundred people downstairs alone, so it took about 5 minutes of waiting to get up or down. Had a fire broken out (which is not outside of reason, as people smoke everywhere and die their cigarettes out on the floor right next to the trash they throw down) the vast majority of patrons would not safely be able to get out of that room.
DJ Baloo, a friend of mine, began his set at 10:30, so I decided to see what he had in store. His set was insanely high energy, combining house, drum’n’bass, hardstyle, and a just a dab of trap. The high energy combined with the massive crowd to make me quite aware that there were some serious stability issues in that floor. At times I was standing perfectly still and yet felt as if I was going to fall over from how everyone else’s movement was bending the floor.
I bounced around from room to room, catching bits and pieces of everyone’s sets after that. As the night went on, the energy changed. I began to realize that many patrons seemed to be entirely out of their minds. People would walk past with wild eyes, gritting their jaws, looking ready for a fight.
Between 11:30 and 12:30, it was impossible to move to anywhere I was trying to go. The crowd was so packed into the narrow hallways connecting the rooms that I was forced into a corner with multiple other people and could not get back into the crowd to get anywhere. At this time, those who I believed to be management at the Gallery would force people out of their way, run into the crowd, and yell at those who had no control over the situation. I later found out that these were not employees of the Gallery but rather people hired by Sunset til Sunrise.
It was right before 1 AM that the tone drastically changed. Security guards pushed through the sea of patrons to get downstairs. I was told about, but did not personally witness, two fights breaking out simultaneously downstairs. In the 150+ EDM events I’ve been to, I’ve never heard of a single fight. One patron told me that he personally witnessed six different fights, one of which was of his friend who was jumped and robbed by multiple people.
Around 1:30, screams of “MAKE ROOM” filled the air as multiple people carried a limp, unconscious teenage girl out the door. This, I was told by an employee of the Gallery, was due to heat exhaustion due to the massive amount of people.
A bit after this point, I personally witnessed the owner of the Gallery becoming angry with a personal friend of mine, which I at first misjudged as the worst. However, after talking to one of his employees, it became clear as to why he and the other staff were on edge. According to this source, over the course of the night there were multiple fights, holes punched in walls, the private upstairs bathroom was sneaked into and then flooded, and people were throwing their garbage everywhere. Had this been my venue that I worked day in and day out to improve, I would be very on edge as well.
At around 2 AM, the venue was filled with bug-eyed, emotionless, almost fearful expressions. It was very obvious at this point that many people had gotten access to something that was tearing their minds apart.
I know when a situation is going downhill fast, and when to remove myself from it. This was that time. As I was leaving, there was still a line for people just coming in. Despite the fact that the venue was clearly packed over capacity to the point of being a massive hazard to itself, they were gladly taking people’s money and shoving them through the door. Meanwhile, the security guard refused to let us out, instead spending his time slowly pretending to search those awaiting entry. This was a very typical sight at a Sunset til Sunrise party.
Is this really what we’ve stooped to as a city? Should we accept this as “the norm,” allowing rampant drug abuse, massive egos and widespread disrespect to govern our ability to enjoy ourselves on a Friday night? Events just like this one will continue as long as those who organize them are getting paid. They get paid by people settling for empty promises and overpriced admission.
I will leave you with this little bit of advice: if you are sick and tired of seeing electronic music events treated as free-for-alls, if you are tired of coming for the music and leaving due to feeling unsafe, vote with your money. If you want to see venues remain safe and upscale, help the staff as much as possible. If you want to be able to go out without worrying about being the victim of an uncomfortable situation, do what you can to be part of the solution and not the problem.
-Dylan Bob
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