BRO submission by Craig W. Staszak:
I am the owner of darkpartys and organizer of buffalogoth.com. darkpartys is an event promotion company that regularly holds a Thursday night alternative dance party called EKG at Broadway Joe’s, geared toward the alternative and Goth community – primarily the crowd that used to frequent clubs like The Sanctuary and The Continental. It features some very unique Djs from Buffalo, Toronto, New York City and Detroit, playing EBM, industrial, new wave, trance, hardstyle and all of their sub genres.
Darkpartys has been in Business since 2005 and promotes and plans events in US and Canada. I also hold specialty themed events about once a month, The one in March is the first in a series of regular events to be held on the 3rd Saturday of every month, and it is the very unique genre of steampunk that it will be representing, followed by a future military sci-fi rave style themed event in April, a Gothic lolita and Victorian tea party in May, and a medical themed kink event in June.
Broadway Joe’s, the host of these events, is re-inventing itself under the new ownership of Bryan Parker. It is no longer a hippie bar as it was for years. It is now a live venue for cutting edge musicians, and an alternative/Goth/rave culture nightclub – also hosting 25 cent wing nights, rock band hero nights and a hardcore music night on Wednesday.
Finally, Buffalogoth is a community organization that was formed in May, in a (so far) successful attempt to bring the alternative culture community together before it completely deteriorated due to lack of an identity once held together by The Continental night club. Upon its closing, the community no longer had a common place to call home and started a slow collapse. I saw this and created Buffalogoth.com hoping it would organize the community once again and create events geared towards it, while disseminating information regarding our community’s interests (and bring an awareness to events and news that interests it). Through this organization it spurred the creation of EKG Thursdays and other events. The supporting community all works together and people volunteer their time to help promote these events in many ways. I have been living in Toronto and upon my return to Buffalo noticed this problem and wanted to do something about it before I returned to Toronto again.
I hope this is of interest to BRO readers since these are vital issues pertaining to the survival of the alternative community, and the few places we are welcomed into without ridicule.
Broadway Joe’s
3051 Main Street
Buffalo, NY 14214-1333
(716) 837-3650