Features / Festivals
Swapping desks for the dancefloor
An unlikely crowd of dance-ready office workers congregated at Big Chill Bristol on Thursday lunchtime for Déjeuner Disco’s second event.
Jess Jardine Crymble launched the city’s only lunchtime disco last year in a bid to draw office workers away from their desks for a lunchtime boogie.
Jess said that she heard about the concept in Stockholm, where a movement called Lunch Beat has swept across the Swedish capital.
“I thought it would be cool to bring to Bristol. There’s no money involved, there’s no charge to come in, the DJs are doing it for free and the Big Chill are hosting it for us.”
Behind the decks was Ujima Radio’s Tommy Popcorn, playing a feel-good selection of funk and disco classics including Blondie, Le Freak and KC and the Sunshine Band.
While the room was hardly packed out, the people there were committed – no one tried to shrink to the edge of the room or loiter by the happy-hour bar.
30-year-old pensions administrator Stephen Holly came on his lunch break and was one of the main perpetrators on the dancefloor.
“I just like dancing,” he told Bristol24/7. “I invited my work mates but no one else wanted to come! I met one of my other mates who works in town here, but he had to get off early.”
Also on their lunch break was 29-nine-year-old Elizabeth Somerville, who works for an international development charity in the city centre.
“It’s wonderful to be able to dance around where there aren’t too many drunk people, the music is wonderful and the atmosphere is friendly and everybody will come over for a chat.”
Lunchtime disco events will be taking place once a month. Follow Déjeuner Disco on Facebook for details of the next event.
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