On a nice Summer Sunday night, on the 3rd of July, the Hornblower Infinity Yacht set sail from Manhattan’s Pier 40. The sky was a bit overcast, the heat not overly oppressive and there was a nice breeze off the water keeping all of the guests on board cool as they enjoyed the sights of the New York skyline from atop the Hudson River’s murky depths.
But this was no ordinary evening cruise off of New York City. No, the views and the weather were ancillary to what was set to happen on the 210 ft. yacht that evening. It was the inaugural Ship Faced - Party At Sea cruise in NYC featuring an electronic dance music lineup to entertain the some 1,200 people on board the sold out night. Headlined by producers CAZZETTE and Thomas Gold, the open water whipped the America themed festival clad party-goers into a frenzy, dancing on the yacht’s top deck and impressively large dance floor just two floors below, as the DJs of the night spun hit after hit filling the nighttime air with dance music.
A 3-hour open bar whet the dancers pallets for the 5-hour cruise. In all, it was a really fun evening and between the venue, views and the music, New York is lucky to have gotten Ship Faced.
I had the opportunity to catch up with Brian Arteca, the Promotional Director for Area Event - the company behind Ship Faced and many other EDM events.
Ship Faced, was sold out. How many people were on the boat on July 3rd? What were your immediate takeaways?
Yes, you heard right we sold out the Inaugural Ship Faced event which equates to 1200 tickets. My immediate take away from the event was how we some times forget how picturesque the New York City Skyline is and seeing the Statue of Liberty on 4th of July weekend made me feel like a proud American. It sure is great here!
How did the Ship Faced - Party At Sea event come into creation. How was the decision to take an EDM party/concert to the open water formed?
Doing “EDM” or boat cruises is certainly not a revolutionary idea. Due to the lack of club venues currently in New York City my team decided collectively to start a boat party series. Boat’s as a venue add a certain novelty aspect to any show. I think that anything that has an outdoor component in the North East is a surefire winner.
You’ve found a way to marry the fun of EDM shows/festivals with the adventure yacht dance party, and the beauty of the NYC skyline. What were some of the main challenges faced in getting this event together and executing at awesome level you did?
Shows on boats present an interesting array of challenges that are unique to sea. The fist challenge is doing our best to make sure that all guests make it to Ship Faced before the boat disembarks. The artists have to stay on the ship the entire time which can affect their already tight schedules. Aside from that we have to ensure customer’s safety and be extra cautious since we are at sea. At the end of Ship Faced someone willingly jumped in the water from the dock not the boat, he was fine and not harmed I guess you can say he was Ship Faced.
How were your headliners - CAZZETTE and Thomas Gold picked to launch the inaugural event?
We have worked with Thomas Gold and CAZZETTE a multitude of times around the US and both have always delivered top notch performances. We have been working with Thomas Gold since his NYC debut performance at Roseland back in 2011. Thomas Gold has always been a favorite in the NYC-Tristate area and his sound was conducive with the vibe and feel we wanted Ship Faced to have.
Can we look forward to getting Ship Faced again in 2016? Will there be other locations you target?
Yes, we certainly can. We have a couple more Ship Faced dates in the works for 2016 and several planned around the USA in 2017.
Can you give us a sneak peak of what Ship Faced 2.0 will look like, or what other unique events that you may have coming up?
You can expect to see increased production value, performers and many other surprises.
Our next big event is Electric Adventure which is returning to the ocean front beaches of Atlantic City, NJ on September 24th and 25th. This is the 5th anniversary of the festival so we are pulling out all of the stops this year.