A pop-up disco for Hong Kong early risers that’s part fitness class, part dance party
Daybreaker dancing is an early-morning dance party without the drugs or the drink. Morning’s when we’re most optimistic, explains global movement’s founder Radha Agrawal. In Hong Kong, it’s got competition
A DJ is pumping out tunes to a packed house and the sweaty crowd is dancing wildly, their arms in the air. It looks every bit like a big Saturday night on the dance floor at a hip club, but it’s not. It’s almost noon on a Sunday – and no, this party crowd hasn’t been going all night. They’ve had their beauty sleep and didn’t start dancing until 9am.
Welcome to Daybreaker: a pop-up disco for the health conscious. It’s a global movement that began in New York in 2013 and has spread to 16 cities around the world from Toronto to Sao Paulo. Hong Kong had its very first Daybreaker event in October and there are plans to make it a regular fixture.
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Daybreaker is the brainchild of Radha Agrawal, who describes herself as a long-time entrepreneur and “community builder”, and co-founder Matt Brimer. They were both fed up with the New York nightclub scene, which was focused on alcohol and the latest designer drugs.
“We couldn’t find anywhere you could go to connect with [the] community. Clubs were full of mean bouncers and everyone on their cell phones, there was a level of judgment. It was a disconnected experience. We wanted to create a safe space where people could let their hair down and dance,” says Agrawal.
And so the idea to create an early-morning dance party without any drugs or booze was born. The events are usually held on a weekday morning – Hong Kong’s Sunday morning event was an anomaly – and are a mix of fitness class and dance party.
