Is an appreciation party of a party a thing? In most of the world, it isn’t – everyone goes to the party and just enjoys the party, then tells everyone how much they enjoyed the party. And soon enough, everyone knows that everyone at the party had a, well, party.
However, Detroit’s techno scene doesn’t really work in the same way as the rest of the world. Whilst this isn’t a bad thing on the surface, it can lead to negative consequences when allowed to happen unchecked – as it largely has been throughout history.
On the extremes, it’s what allowed Derrick May to escape the consequences from his own city’s scene – when multiple allegations of sexual abuse were made against him in 2020, the scene’s big players failed to distance themselves from him. Indeed, in many cases, they actually came out in support of him – whilst failing to declare many of them wouldn’t have a career if it wasn’t for May.
And on a more moderate scale, it allows the development of a bizarre phenomenon called the appreciation party. Yes, it’s a party to appreciate another party – and it happened last weekend when Detroit’s TV Lounge hosted the Movement Detroit Appreciation Party.
Carl Craig and Stacey Pullen were amongst those to play the event, alongside… er, no one else…
A little over a week earlier, Craig was amongst those to receive a five-figure fee to play at Detroit’s flagship techno festival – and Detroit sources say Pullen received a similar payment for his set. None of the other names from Detroit were on the bill – yet the one person who is there every single year without fail is Carl Craig himself.
So, what’s going on? Is this simply an excuse for Carl Craig to get paid a little bit extra? Apparently not – entry to TV Lounge on the night is free and always has been. One of our Detroit sources who has connections with the club confirms that “Carl doesn’t get paid for this gig. All he gets is some free drinks from the bar. Then again, when Movement pays him so well in the first place, I guess he doesn’t need to worry about money for one night.”.
It remains to be seen whether an appreciation party of the appreciation party is the next development we’ll see in dance music – we’ve seen stranger things…
