Charivari Detroit, WestCoast Weekender, The Chosen Few Picnic, and House in the Park are four dance music festivals that are produced and curated by persons of color. The founders are longtime purveyors of dance music and are committed to keeping it alive while honoring its legacy.
These four brands recently announced a one-of-a-kind brand partnership, designed to bring down the house-Literally! The international reach of these events intends to bring together artists, fashion designers, filmmakers, international deejays, media, and thousands of music lovers.
“We look forward to bringing a worldwide unified vibe of house music lovers to our events. Working as a team will allow us to refresh our perspective and reach audiences across the world while sharing innovative ideas about our future. Many of the festival favorites – Delano Smith, Osunlade, Kai Alce, Oscar P, Wayne Williams, Alan King, Ramon Rawsoul, and Bruce Bailey, will play at more than one of the festivals. This will be game-changing.” Todd Johnson, Director of Marketing/Promotion Charivari Detroit
The founders of these festivals believe that this partnership will create engaging festival content and expand the reach of each festival’s brand, associated partners, and sponsors. While spread out geographically, each festival intends this partnership to expand and amplify the audience reach by jointly sharing Artist relationships, curating sponsorships, and sharing cross-platform media buys. In addition, they hope to reach dance music lovers through their collective social media platforms, word of mouth, and media sponsors.
The Chicago Defender spoke with Todd Johnson, Director of Marketing and Promotions for Charivari Detroit about the new partnership and why it’s so important in preserving the culture and history of dance and electronic music.
About West Coast Weekender • San Diego • June 10 -12, 2022
West Coast Weekender lovingly nicknamed the Soul of the West Coast is a celebration of music, dance, and culture in Southern California. Celebrating its fifth-year anniversary, this annual music conference and festival is blossoming right alongside San Diego’s incredible cultural renaissance. WCW promises world-class performers from the underground scene, stunning art, healthy recreation, and old-school hospitality. Festival co-founder Oscar P, says, “Our festival is an all-encompassing celebration of a unique and diverse dance
music lifestyle. We want to continue to push the envelope and develop what we feel is an ever-changing landscape to what the event experience is today. Our team which consists of Jessica Poche, Justin Navalle, Cris Herrera & Eric Medina are excited to be part of this new venture.” https://westcoastweekender.net
The Chosen Few Picnic • Chicago • Saturday, July 2, 2022
The Chosen Few Picnic & House Music Festival is the world’s longest-running event dedicated to House Music, drawing thousands of fans to Chicago each July. Nicknamed the “Woodstock of House Music” for its family reunion vibe, the event began in 1990 as a small reunion of high school friends and family who gathered behind the Museum of Science & Industry to reminisce and celebrate the culture that birthed House Music on Chicago’s South Side. Today, the iconic event attracts House Music lovers from across the globe.
This year, the Chosen Few DJs – Wayne Williams, Jesse Saunders, Alan King, Terry Hunter, Mike Dunn, Tony Hatchett and Andre Hatchett – return to Jackson Park for the 30th Anniversary Picnic featuring guest DJs and performers including Osunlade, DJ Spen, Natasha Diggs, and D Train. Chosen Few founder Wayne Williams, says, “it’s a blessing to finally be able to celebrate our 30th Anniversary Picnic live and in-person, and we think it’s going to be our biggest and best Chosen Few Picnic ever. We also look forward to supporting our brothers and sisters in House, West Coast Weekender, Charivari Detroit, and House in the Park, in this unique promotional partnership.” https://chosenfewdjs.com
Charivari Detroit • August 11 – 14, 2022
Charivari Detroit is a celebration of Detroit culture and its contribution to electronic dance music. We believe music is the binding factor for everyone. Detroit, one of the most musically diverse cities in the world, has been at the forefront of electronic dance music since its inception. Charivari Detroit is known for showcasing House and Techno luminaries and breaking new talent hailing from the D. We also invite a diverse group of artists from around the world to enhance our musical presentation. In addition, they host the only all-women DJ stage putting a spotlight on female talent. Going on its 9th year, Charivari Detroit welcomes house music lovers to experience the VIBE in Detroit on 10 acres of green space over four days. The festival will also feature food trucks from Detroit’s burgeoning restaurant scene, local retailers, a pop-up record store, yoga, and programming focused on entrepreneurship, wellness, and art.
Detroit favs gracing the stage will be enigmatic Moodymann, Father of Techno Juan Atkins, and the Queen bee DJ Minx. Also, the legendary Ultra Nate, mixologist Karizma, Lars Behemoth, Jazz House extraordinaire Glenn Underground and so many more. Each of the other festivals will have some artistic and performance expression both on the stage and in the VIP activations. Come experience our VIBE. https://www.charivaridetroit.com
About House in the Park • Atlanta • September 4, 2022
House in the Park is a musical exploration of the soul and a vision to see House Music become a unifying movement, transcending every stratum of society-ethnic identification, race classification, age, and lifestyle. DJ Ramon “Rawsoul” Guyton, the visionary behind Rawsoul Entertainment, and Kai Alce, the man behind record label NDATL, launched House in the Park in 2005, as a gift to the city and the community that supports the monthly music-social offering “The Gathering.”
HITP is always the Sunday of Labor Day weekend and adds much-needed variety to the Atlanta music scene and features a range of House Music’s emerging local, regional, and international talents Guyton, Alce along with DJ Kemit and Salah Ananse as the four horsemen of House make up this iconic line up that hasn’t changed in over a decade. Cofounder DJ Ramon Rawsoul, “I orchestrated this effort simply for the joy of bringing my favorite music genre to life in a tangible, meaningful way.” https://www.houseinthepark.org
About Post Author
