On one beautiful August night in NYC, disco rose from the dead — and thousands of dancing queens came out to celebrate, including me.
Back in the galvanizing genre’s late 1970s heyday, I was just a couple of years too young to squeeze my way into Studio 54, or any of the other clubs that shook up nightlife in the Big Apple at the time.
But this past Saturday, I finally got my chance to boogie with the best of them on the Pier 17 rooftop deck at South Street Seaport.
Here, well into the night, the annual Gimme Gimme party gathered everyone from teenage girls to old-timers reliving their youth, dancing under the stars to an infectious song list, courtesy of a mustachioed and hairy-chested DJ in sequined jumpsuits, flashing gaudy earrings.
There was Abba — lots and lots of Abba — but also other ‘70’s superstars like Donna Summer and Gloria Gaynor, Kool & the Gang and Blondie.
There were thousands of hands waving in the air, New Yorkers belting Anita Ward’s “Ring My Bell” at the top of their lungs, followed by the easy-to-remember chorus of “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang, and of course, Abba’s “Waterloo.”
Dancing women sparkled in form-fitting jumpsuits, men in shimmering suits. Platform shoes abounded, plus bell-bottomed pants and polyester shirts, star-shaped sunglasses and sparkly headbands. Colors were bright and tie-dyed designs everywhere.
Unfortunately, my own white, three-pieced suit from the era no longer fit — but that didn’t stop me from letting fly with my best John Travolta on the dance floor impression.
But there was so much more to see than a Gen Xer from Maine busting out moves nobody’s ever seen —like the DJ-led conga line that snaked through the audience as the Weather Girls’ “It’s Raining Men” reverberated across the East River.
Party-goers, who paid between $30 and $65 for a ticket, excitedly raced to join the line’s end, with the whole thing becoming so popular it cannibalized itself, the head of the line cutting through other parts of it until nothing but happy bedlam was left.
That’s the kind of thing Gimme Gimme organizers Alex Badanes and Ethan Maccoby told The Post they want to see at their annual do — New Yorkers forming a community of socializing and joy.
“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 overseas and founded an events company, Burwoodland, have caught more than a few eyeballs with their popular parties — including those of their newest, third owner, Mark Cuban.
Seeking an investor, the pair cold-called the billionaire (his email is publicly available) and were pleasantly surprised when the “Shark Tank” alum bought in.
“Our expectations were low, but we ended up blown away,” Maccoby said.
Anyone present at the pair’s latest event could see why it could attract such a high-profile investor — so festive, lively and fun that bottling it up and selling it seemed like a no-brainer.
Gimme Gimme was launched in New York City in 2018 and has since happened in nearly every major market in the U.S. and Canada, not to mention international destinations including London, Paris, Singapore and Amsterdam.
As many as ten of these disco parties happen every weekend now, including one scheduled for Tokyo next month.
As someone old enough to remember what 1977 actually looked like, I don’t think it ever looked as good as it did on that Lower Manhattan rooftop last Saturday — well, not this side of “Saturday Night Fever,” anyway.
A couple of twenty-somethings from upstate, Sophia Pacheco and Kiki Edwards, confessed to attending nearly a dozen of Gimme Gimme disco parties throughout the state.
“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 find.
“It’s my favorite … I had so much fun at the first one, I just keep coming back,” he told The Post.
The event was completely family-friendly, too — not exactly the typical Saturday night after-dark fare in Gotham. The Cetrullos of Lawrenceville, New Jersey were back for their second time, father Craig celebrating his birthday with his wife 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 similar situation. While she danced, her parents were doing the same somewhere else in the crowd.
“I told them they had to come because they love this music.”
From the dance floor, an illuminated Empire State Building could be seen, plus the fogged-in top of the Freedom Tower. Above the stage, a mirrored disco ball spun and glittered. Massive screens showed nostalgic videos of ’70s and ‘80s “American Bandstand” shows, not to mention the retro arcade game “Space Invaders.”
Indianapolis’ Curissa Jones, a 29-year old nanny and house manager, comes to New York every year, she said, “to eat.” But on this trip when she learned about the disco dance party, 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.
Few people seemed to be having more fun than Rachel Mia Ackerman, program coordinator of the American Ballet Theatre. She and her best friend are regular 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, she immediately danced her way into a photographer’s line of sight.
“I can’t help it because I just love dancing on camera,” she said, explaining that she and her friends “wanted to come here for a year and are so glad we did. It’s such a good time.”
Surely nobody appreciated the night’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 whole friend group. The 61-year-old remembers disco when it first came 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 regularly get down at the Vinyl Nights at Pier I Café on West 70th Street, so the chance to break out their moves at Gimme Gimme Disco was too good an opportunity to pass up.
“It makes us feel young again,” Payne says. “Makes me feel like a teenager.”
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