Love Fever Loft Party

Providing a modern take on the sort of parties David Mancuso used to thrown in New York in the seventies, the Love Fever guys booked a small upstairs room of a warehouse in Curtain Road and decorated it with blue hellium balloons, a massive glitter ball and wrote the word “Love” on the wall. They also booked Chigaco’s DJ Rahaan to bring out a tidy mix of disco edits and a load of Chicago house.

Here are five memories of the night, in chronological order:

1) The tickets came in a plastic baggy (see above), containing a small piece of card with a sketch of a woman holding a red balloon in the shape of heart on it; also inside was a loveheart sweet, and a small mint (about half the size of an Extra Strong Mint). One friend had his ticket delivered by post to his parents house. His Mum wondered what the crushed up powder was.

2) The room was hot, sauna hot; my entrance (at about about 1am) was met by a skin-piercing heatwave that was at first pretty dreadful. Once I got a bit further in, I was pleased to find the room – decked out with 70s-style artwork – was washed with a crowd older than you’d expect in Dalston on a Friday night.

3) Rahaan played an edit of Loleatta Holloway’s Hit and Run . It went off – the dancefloor at the mercy of a soundsystem as bassy and as deep as the DJ’s collection of Chigaco house records; the mood heightened by the intimacy of the small space.

4) The smoking area was a terrace converted into an extremely cramped side passage about six feet in width, so any relief from the heat was interrupted by traffic of people.

5) The doorman was really friendly.