THOUSAND SIGNED UP for the rave on top of a McDonald’s in the heart of hipster Hackney. There was one problem: nobody had told the fast-food café about the all-night party. And the rooftop terrace was made for 20 customers, not the near-3,000 who Facebooked they would go, let alone the near-6,000 who showed interest.
The event was organised by promoter Turn It Up — motto “We throw fun parties” — after it learnt, perhaps from this news site, that the Kingsland High Street venue was opening a roof terrace. Someone called Samantha Bear White was doing the catering for the “Dalston McDonalds Summer Terrace Party” and DJs Lol Cool J and DJ Kamikaze Love were lined up to do the sounds.
As for booze, ravers were advised “BYOB”, to bring their own, because McDonald’s was not licensed for alcohol.
Turn It Up added: “Bring nuggets” and, showing classic English understatement, “Limited seating available”.
Sadly — or happily, if you might worry about 9,000 or so people jammed on to a roof terrace for 20 — the party scheduled to run on Friday 7 July 2017 from 3pm to midnight was cancelled.
After a journalist asked McDonald’s head office what precautions were being taken for the event, the Metropolitan Police became interested. The fast-fooder moved fast, persuading the party promoter to cancel the rave.
Then in a rushed statement to Loving Dalston, Maccy Dee tried a down-with-the-kids style: “We’re usually more than happy to host a party, however they tend to be
for our Happy Meal customers and involve face painting and character visits!
“Our outside terrace in Dalston is a small seating area designed for up 20 customers to eat and enjoy their food with friends and family.
“We’re sorry to disappoint those who were planning to attend but we don’t have a licence for such an event, and for obvious safety reasons, Turn It Up has kindly agreed to cancel their unofficial party.”
(Punctuation, teenagery exclamation mark and missing words as sent.)
McDonald’s later told Loving Dalston’s editor: “It’s coincidence that we contacted Turn It Up in line with your email [enquiry].”
Turn It Up said online: “Ok so Maccers have emailed us and they’re pretty peed off… So we gotta pull the plug on this people.”
Hamish Scott 020717
* A water leak has delayed the opening of the roof terrace above McDonald’s at 36 Kingsland High Street, Dalston E8 2JP. When it opens, this site considers it deserves an invitation. After all, it was Loving Dalston that told McDonald’s of the party.
* Backstory: A McTake on the scenester roof bars of Hackney
* All pictures © DavidAltheer [at] gmail.com, and all for sale for reproduction.
* Emboldened underscored words in most cases indicate a hyperlink, a reader service rare among websites. If a link does not work, it is probably because the site to which the URL refers has not been maintained. Most photographs can be visually enlarged by pressing on them.