Party Crew JunXion Celebrated Their Fourth Anniversary With Buses And Boats

Fresh off their adventures at last week’s Elements Lakewood Fest, Bushwick’s JunXion crew celebrated their fourth anniversary on Saturday night with a party in four different locations, plus plenty of creatively designed buses. With help from fellow collectives Orijins, The Battle for Mau Mau Island, Ambrosia Elixirs, Ecstatic Dance, DOMLO, and BAE, JunXion’s founder Myk Tummolo led his organizers as the sun rose, partying until the morning.

Before the party started, I joined Myk as he, his crew, and the builders of the Badman Bus figured the best placement for the vehicle, which served as the Cookie Monster at last year’s Burning Man. It went towards the back of the lot with the DJ on top, and the music quickly followed. By 5 pm, it was a full-on dance party with plenty of sunshine.

When Tycho K Dan’s Bluebyrd Bus arrived around six, guests quickly boarded as performers danced topside. Tycho’s first two stops were Ambrosia Elixirs, where tonics were sold by manager Rebecca Antsis while music was spun by BAE’s Steffi Min, and the House of Words, where cocktails were served atop of roof to the tunes of a live band. The ambiance of the rooftop was created by host Lindsay Arden Cooper, whose pop-up lounge I visited last year. Sipping my drink from the same crystal my parents had bought in the 1970s, I looked over to a view of nearby Woodhull Hospital which was built in that same era. It occurred to me that these two differently styled things from back then were now both equally considered gauche.

The honking of a bus driven below by JunXion’s Brent Barker woke me from evening daydreams and I joined the guests as they descended from the roof to make our journey to the party’s last stop in Bushwick.  The party hit its height at 3 am when a downpour caused everyone to hit the dance floor at once to the music of Bushwick’s best. As dancers of every gender in various states of undress gyrated from a specially built platform, the body heat came down as fast as the crowd below could send it back up.

With dawn rising, the party finally wound down around 5am and Tummolo thanked his fans and friends. “I feel a beautiful sense of joy and gratefulness,” he said. “Like so many things [that] have been going for so many years, it’s the community showing itself. In the presence of greatness you see all your peers come in hearing the call.”