By Connor Sanders, News Correspondent
Everyone’s welcome to rock out to bands and DJ jams at GLOW Boston. This nightlife event is open to the entire college crowd, including underage weekend fun-seekers. Eric Spicuzza, a senior psychology major, is the lead organizer for GLOW Boston, an 18+ dance party held at The Middle East Restaurant & Nightclub in Cambridge. The event sold out its first night at Middle East Upstairs in July, and has now moved to the larger capacity Middle East Downstairs venue. The organizers are also planning ahead for further expanding the event. The Huntington News checked in with Spicuzza to see how he put the show together and what’s next for GLOW.
Huntington News: How did the GLOW Boston event last night [Friday, Sept. 16] compare with the event in July?
Eric Spicuzza: It was tough to manage an event that big. It was only our second event. A lot of people were surprised we went from a smaller room in July of just 200 people to a much bigger [550-capacity] room. And they let more people in throughout the night, too. We wanted to really kick off the fall with a big event, even if it took forever to plan this. We ideally want to do something like this once a week, but it takes a while just to get that process together where you can consistently do huge events. So for now, we are just focusing on doing once a month. But we are going to be getting bigger and bigger and it is growing faster than I ever thought it would.
HN: What exactly is the process of planning a GLOW Boston night?
ES: My team and I basically take on the jobs of everyone in a nightlife event – from booking to promoting, to planning, to being management on the night of, to performers, we talk to sponsors. There are only five of us on the core team and we have to take on all of those jobs. Even graphic design, we do everything.
HN: How do you get an event like GLOW Boston started?
ES: I was in a band for two and a half or three years and we traveled a lot. Over time I was frustrated because I felt like a lot of people were not doing things the best way they could have been done. Over time, I realized ‘I think I can do this better.’ So the idea was to do it better at every step of the game. That’s what this is – taking everything I’ve experienced and doing each step the best.
HN: Are you looking to do this event in different locations outside Boston?
ES: Right now we are just focusing on once a month in Boston to be as detailed as we can be for each event. But at the same time, we are starting in Providence at the beginning of November and after that we are talking to people in Portland [Maine] and we already have places in Philadelphia and D.C. that want to start. Those would also be like semi-regular events.
HN: How do you get your foot in the door for getting this event started in other clubs?
ES: It is very difficult. These clubs get hundreds of hundreds of emails a week, so it is very difficult to convince them. For the most part, all they really care about is getting bar sales, so it is hard to convince them that you will make them happy, while at the same time, keeping your own agenda. I think over time you just learn what to say and what not to say. Sometimes everything will be great and then you’ll accidentally say one sentence that will really turn them off and [they] just won’t contact you back.
HN: How do you recruit bands to play at your events?
ES: We don’t have to look too far because we have ads for that now. We only are interested in working with bands and DJs that are on the same page as us as far as making this a special night — it’s not just another show where they just show up and play. We want everyone to help each other out to make the show even better. This last time, the three bands did a really good job of just promoting each other, for example, and mixed their fans together while helping us out as well for playing at the event.
HN: Why did you want to do an 18+ event in Boston?
ES: Boston has pretty much no 18+ events. A lot of people want to go out and see a DJ and go dancing. You can’t really do that if you’re not 21. There are very few places. So that means that people are at frat parties and we wanted to cater to that audience and fill a gap that we saw. Though not all our events are under 21. It is usually about 50-50. Friends that are 21 or 20 don’t go to the same places as 18 or 19 year olds, and this is great because the whole group can go out. If you’re 21, you can get a bracelet and drink and if not, then you can still be at the same event.
HN: When you were planning this process, did you know what you wanted to do for the show to make it more special?
ES: Yes, we bring in all custom lighting. It comes from the system I developed when I was in the band, and I thought that would be a great thing to bring over when I was starting out because it was a lot different than what you see if you just went to see a DJ. We want it really to be more a a show than just a DJ and a dance floor.
HN: Are you planning your next event?
ES: The next GLOW Boston event is Oct. 20 at the Middle East is called “Masquerave.” [It’s] for Halloween where everyone is in masks. At the same time, we are also working on some 21+ events in a different area.
