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Don’t cry for me, San Francisco
By Daniel | January 25, 2010
Seems that the bad word-of-mouth, drama and various spurned lovers around the country have finally caught up with San Francisco plus-size promoter Big Boogie Nights, as its founder Darren Battle (a/k/a DJ Zulu) has thrown in the towel. From a statement on his website:
Though we are a party promotion, it isn’t easy to keep your numbers up as venues have one thing in mind regarding promotions: MONEY! If the venue doesn’t make what it needs to make then they aren’t interested in you anymore. While we’ve had successful partnerships with several locations starting with Main Street Tavern and ending with Crowne Plaza Hotel in Concord we realize it’s a business first.
Many hotels we’ve used have remodeled so that it’s not compatible for us anymore. Most hotels that had adjacent nightclubs that are of a major chain have been dictated to remove clubs from their premises due to the increase in insurance. The days of hotel nightclubs are ending and because many of our patrons that come to BBN require hotels, it has been hard for us to secure a venue that will fit our needs. Several nightclubs have approached us about moving our promotion there, but with the bar guarantee requirements and the lack of parking and hotels, we didn’t feel we could get the numbers we needed for it to be a success.
So we are a promotion and party family without and home and not a foreseeable anytime soon. Because of that and my relocation back to the East Coast, I regret to inform you that we are suspending operations of Big Boogie Nights.
No one knows more than me that it takes money to keep bar venues interested in your promotion. It’s how MANY people you can get through the door, how MUCH can you make the register ring, and how LITTLE drama goes along with it. From the dozens of people who’ve emailed me since I started writing about Big Boogie Nights (including several who made public comments) it seems that the latter might have been the actual cause of death.
But it also has to do with respect. Darren Battle’s personal ties to the sex and fetish communities were decidedly not in the best interest of “size acceptance” (why is an adjacent motel mandatory to the success of a BBW party) but perhaps more toward the goal of keeping his pants occupied. Fat chicks deal with enough unwanted sexual come-ons; ostensibly a promoter seeking to open minds and change those attitudes wouldn’t be one of the perpetrators.
Big People Promotions will continue and some will be a success. Many have started in the Bay Area after Big Boogie Nights, some because they felt there was another need, some because they were malicious. Many didn’t last, a few stayed because they were motivated and dedicated for the right reasons.
Over the years, I’ve also seen BBW groups started for all kinds of reasons. Women who’ll plan a few bar get-togethers and then as soon as they get a boyfriend of their own, they lose enthusiasm. Or members of an existing group who decide they don’t like the way that group is being run, and start their own. That is until they find out that any benefit to their ego isn’t worth all the actual work, and that organizers rarely get to “party” at their own party.
I might have felt better about Mr. Battle’s efforts (he did get significant press for plus-size parties) if he wasn’t so “my way or the highway” – the haughtiness he expressed during his few Northwest events. It didn’t matter what music the crowd wanted to enjoy, Zulu was here for Zulu. If you didn’t like it, then you weren’t supporting “the community”. (Not to mention Battle’s abrupt abandonment and disavowal of those Seattle locals who supported and promoted his events.)
Best of luck to the other Bay Area promotions still going strong, including Full Figure Entertainment and Sexy At Any Size – who apparently aren’t having trouble finding a venue and attracting a crowd.
Oh and speaking of music, I practically snorted coffee through my nose when the other day I read one BBW club promoter’s message to his group which said (sic), “Get it thru your Block head the Music Played isnt alway to your Liking.” Oh yeah, that really makes me want to go party with them.
Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
February 2nd, 2010 at 8:24 am
Dear Daniel,
I am an east coast guy and have been going to BBW parties and events since 1990. The reason that I am writing a comment on you blog is because I don’t think anyone in the size community should take pleasure when one of the long time party events goes under. I have been to many BBN parties and I know Darren is head strong and you either like him or you don’t. However I really think you are going over the top in by complaining about BBN’s “ties to the sex and fetish communities. BBN is no diffrent than any other BBW party, yes there are people there to hook up, but there are a lot of people that come for friendship and fun. You mentioned sexy @ any size as another group promoting parties, have you been to any of their parties, except for better music, they promote the same things Darren did, lot’s of people hook up in the hotel after the party. Here on the east coast the same thing goes on. In other words Darren ran a party and lot’s of people like to stay in the hotel so they could drink as much as they wanted to and keep the party going after BBN shuts down. That happens at almost any BBW event I have ever attended.
Although BBN has run it’s course and is no longer relevent, I think we can let go of our personal feeling towards the promoter in particular and remember that BBN in it’s hey day held a lot of great parties and also was one of the pioneer oraganizations in the Bay area for people of size. I can’t tell you how many people I met at BBN that had never been to a BBW party before BBN, Sexy @ any size has picked up the torch and is running with it now. Unfortunatly Darren was always looking at opportunities outside of the Bay area and steped on toes and in the end did not protect his home turf, but you can’t blame the guy for trying to expand the brand and that is not unusual in bbw club promotions. You complain about him holding an event in the NW that Abudance had used, that happens ALL the time, in fact it happened to BBN in Milpitas, it happens in NY all the time, so I thought that was a cheap shot complaining about Darren opening up in the same club that Abundance held events.
Bottom line is BBN is gone and the Bay area has one less place for people of size to party that sucks. Here in NY the same thing happened to a long time BBW club and it really messed the scene up. Like you said the BBW community comes in diffrent races, sizes, ages and gender, when you have several different parties people have a choice of where they want to go and that is good for everyone.