Nightlife promotions company Rach Events partnered with Rock the Vote and Metromix DC for the city’s first electronic music festival and water party. The 10-hour music event brought 20 local DJs and nearly 800 people together for 10 hours of music, water games, and a fashion show at the Yards Park on the waterfront.
“When you think of Miami, New York, and L.A., they have these identities that people perceive when they think of them, and D.C. is the political capital,” said event director Jordan Wanamaker Javier. “We wanted to bring something different [to the city].”
The event was originally planned to be the launch of Rach’s newest product, which provides users with online bottle service reservations at local nightclubs, but technical bugs prevented the launch from taking place. Then, the number of performers more than doubled just a week ago, when a group of 12 DJs banded together to bring an extra set of turntables to the park, which they combined with the sound equipment on hand to create a second stage on the boardwalk, in addition to the main area on the bridge over the pool.
Cooler temperatures outside also affected the day’s activities, including the foam party—which organizers canceled—and the number of people using the reflecting pool for the water-related portions of the day. On-site activities and entertainment that took place as scheduled included a swimsuit fashion show from South Moon Under, go-go dancers performing on pedestals in the reflecting pool, and a variation of beer pong played with oversize buckets of water, in place of traditional drinking glasses.
