The party promoter who got himself and two disc jockey pals arrested for throwing a giant shindig on the Manhattan Bridge this weekend said he will continue to organize illicit bashes because young Brooklynites are strapped for nightlife.
“We saw a bunch of young people with nothing to do and we gave them something to do,” said Alex Shlaferman, a 19-year-old Bensonhurst native who goes by Alex Xander and hosts un-sanctioned parties around the borough.
The Manhattan Bridge event started at about 10 pm on Friday night. A Facebook invitation instructed revelers to walk up the pedestrian path from the Brooklyn side and gather near the middle, where the walkway is wider. What they found was a booming, generator-powered sound system and a young crowd waving bottles in the air. Close to 400 people were there by the time the last disc jockey got rolling at midnight, according to one report, many of them teenagers, according to another, though Shlaferman puts the number at 1,000.
“Will I get arrested?” asks a hypothetical attendee in the party invite.
The organizers’ answer:
“No, but we might.”
Cops from Downtown Brooklyn’s 84th Precinct raided the party at about 12:40 am, arresting Shlaferman and a disc jockey duo called Bear Sauce, charging all three with disorderly conduct, trespassing, and reckless endangerment. One of the arrested mix masters said the criminal charges are not going to stop him from pumping up the jams at future parties.
“When you are doing something you love and spreading happiness, something like getting arrested does not matter,” said Robert Melendez, one half of Bear Sauce.
Shlaferman says that it is the sixth event he has thrown since last summer and that each party has been free and un-permitted, including one in a hangar at Floyd Bennett Field and one in a big, open lot in Bensonhurst.
For some of the parties, Shlaferman says he hauled in toys like bouncy castles, mechanical bulls, and slides. The bridge bonanza was Shlaferman’s last for the summer, but he will be back at it next year, he said. The just-busted teen guru said his fun-hungry peers are counting on him.“It’s a movement more than a party,” he said.
Reach reporter Danielle Furfaro at dfurfaro@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2511. Follow her at twitter.com/DanielleFurfaro.
