End of an Era: Brooklyn Museum Ends Popular ‘First Saturdays Dance Party’
Farewell to Brooklyn Museum’s “Targets First Saturdays Dance Party.” Beginning this weekend, the monthly event will not include the “Dance Party” feature. Area residents complained about noise and foot traffic.
For years, the Brooklyn Museum’s free Target First Saturdays event ranked among the city’s premiere people-watching destinations, drawing an eclectic crowd of parents and partiers, hipsters and Hasidim, longtime residents and enthusiastic newcomers.
But many are fretting that the more than a decade old event will come to an end, after the museum announced it will suspend its ultra-popular dance party beginning this weekend.
Museum staff said the decision came in response to complaints about foot traffic, after nearly a year of perpetually record-breaking crowds of as many as 20,000 people. But many regulars see it as the end of an era, and a body blow to the event’s inclusive spirit.
“The only thing everyone can enjoy is the dance party,” said Stephanie Morgan, 30, who said she and her friends have attended First Saturdays religiously for years. “Without it, I don’t need to go to the museum every month. It’s a waste of time.”
“Dance Party” is not the first community gathering in Brooklyn to be suspended because of complaints. In 2010, Ft. Greene Park’s popular “Soul Summit Music” summer dance party met a similar fate. Area residents also complained about the noise. Citing unauthorized vendors, lack of restrooms and other problems, the City’s Parks Department shut down the event.
(Photo: Oswaldo Cabrera) Ft. Greene Park’s Summer Soul Summit
