Tomorrow Lunch Beat LIC opens up for New Yorkers working in Queens. Sarah Reynolds, who first got to know about Lunch Beat thanks to an article in Slate, is the women behind the US start up;
Hey Sarah, how are you?
”I’m lovely! And incredibly thrilled to be part of the Lunch Beat movement!”
Why do you take the initiative to start Lunch Beat in Queens, NYC?
”One of my greatest passions in life is to go dancing, and when I read about Lunch Beat it captured my heart, mind and soul. I was volunteering with an artspace called Uncanny Valley, just one block from an office tower where tens of thousands of office workers (the Citibank building in LIC Queens) flood in and out every work day, and it just clicked into place in my mind. I know several DJ’s and have a lot of connections from living over 10 years in NYC, so the time just felt right to put it all together and make something happen. I talked to Craig Flanigan, who co-runs the space with his wife Normandy Sherwood, and said ”we have to do this!”. He agreed.”
Together they have sure designed a really impressive event; The first Lunch Beat LIC will feature a multimedia art installation on the ceiling above the dance floor, provided by the mysterious duo known as ’Patriots’ who have spent many a lunch hour crafting this work while at their jobs in the Exhibitions Department of the American Museum of Natural History. Sound is provided by Julie Covello, a.k.a. DJ Shakey, who is one of the top 15 event DJ’s in New York according to Sarah. And last but not least, food will be served by the 2011 Vendy Award-winning food truck The Cinnamon Snail offering their signature vegan, organic Korean BBQ seitan sandwich.
Do you have any advice to others who want to start Lunch Beat in the US?
”I think that the best advice for people wanting to start Lunch Beat in the U.S. specifically, is to start small and try to grow the movement without expecting to recreate the level of success that the event has grown to in Europe. It will need to start organically here too. Without any buzz yet from a successful event here (and we hope to change that soon!), it seems like it may be somewhat difficult to garner the resources–in our very profit-driven American culture–for a successful nonprofit event. But I can’t wait to see what happens!”