Boombox-powered dance party takes to the streets at SxSW

Milling under an overpass on ground still soggy from the day's rain, 100 or so young people prepared to party. Spraying on glitter and wheeling around on rollerblades, they awaited their call to action.

Minutes later, a Toyota Rav4 drove up with a U-Haul trailer in tow. Some dude wearing a Power Glove opened the trailer and began handing out boomboxes to the crowd as the electric throb of a Justice song played on a nearby sound system. As the boomboxes were powered on one at a time, the Rocky theme song began playing from each one in unison.

As soon as everyone was ready to go, a pair of disembodied voices came over the speakers of each boombox: "I'm Tom," and "I'm Gary," and "This is the Decentralised Dance Party!"

As far as South By Southwest Interactive events go, the impromptu gathering was one of the more creative in recent memory -- more of a party-starter than a startup party. No long lines, no trying to text friends inside to gain entry. No open bars stocked with investor dollars. Just an iPod, some battery-powered gear, and bunch of participants who learned when and where to show up by following updates on a Facebook page.

 "Every startup tries to pick the most exclusive [club] and tries to make the biggest splash, and we kind of wanted to do it at a different angle," said Bryan Jowers, co-founder and CTO of Giftiki during a break from inflating balloons before Saturday night's event.

 Giftiki, a group gift-giving startup, partnered with mobile rewards startup Kiip to set up the DDP, as the kids call them. The two companies partnered with an additional 31 startups to make the party happen. They also raised an additional $4,000 (£2,550) online to help pay for a few party favours -- presumably, the balloons patrons eventually began sucking helium from -- and to fly in the aforementioned Tom and Gary (no last names) who live in Canada and throw the parties semi-professionally.

 The idea was to involve a lot of smaller startups, companies that maybe don't have a lot of venture capital cash to throw around, and make the party inclusive.

"We wanted to give the opportunity to as many startups as possible that normally wouldn't be able to throw a startup party at South By Southwest," Jowers said.
The party itself was powered by Tom and Gary's hacked-together gear. As the party moved around Austin's downtown core, Gary controlled the music from an iPod in his fanny pack and MC'd from a mike hanging from his ear. The music, along with Gary's instructions to the crowd, was piped to all of the individual boomboxes -- some constructed out of suitcases -- using a pair portable FM-transmitters. The mobile radio transmitters, with their candy-cane-looking antennas, were strapped on Gary's back and the back of another young woman. The various boomboxes, including giant one carried by the mustachioed Tom, were all tuned to the proper frequency to pick up the broadcasted signal. Voilà : Instant party.


The theme of the flashmob-style gathering was "Extreme Physical Fitness," and all of the participants were decked out in Flashdance-inspired outfits. As the night continued, more and more people joined the fray and the atmosphere grew increasingly festive. At one point, a 25-year-old partygoer named Margaret Spear approached this reporter unprovoked, put a glow-stick bracelet on my wrist, and said, "I hope you have the most epic time tonight."
The group, which was also joined by DDP-aficionados from Occupy Austin, started under the overpass and marched through Austin. The party first passed the city's Long Center, then headed to a hill in Butler Park. The crowd eventually made its way down to the city's famed Sixth Street -- Austin's bustling strip of bars and nightclubs -- before being dispersed by the police just after midnight.
"It's so beautifully all-inclusive and it's through the streets, so everybody is invited," said Sofia Taboada, a 24-year-old San Francisco resident who works with Procter and Gamble's marketing team. "It's not like a closed venue, it's just better."

 Check out Wired.com's images from the SxSW Decentralised Dance Party on the US site.