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30
TRAVELLER
MASHED POTATOFOR
lunch is
usually a culinary option, rather
than a dance-move reference, but
the times they are a changing. At
least, they are in Stockholm, where
one group of disco-hungry Swedes
are leading a revolution against
lunchtime dining
al desko
in favour
of throwing somemidday shapes.
Lunch Beat, the group in question,
have decided that staring at a
computer with a sad, pre-packaged
sandwich is noway to get through
life; they’re campaigning for workers
to clawback their rights to amidday
break, filling it with big fish, little fish,
rather than boring, old tuna fish.
What started off in a Stockholm
garage at the end of 2010, with a
meeting of just 14 eager dancers,
has now evolved into a Europe-wide
series of lunchtime parties. There’s
no booze – just vibes – as a varied
mix of 20-to-40-somethings, mostly
creative industry types (and even the
odd baby, clad in red ear-protectors)
drop by for a night’s worth of
clubbing squeezed into 60minutes.
Forget any half-hearted shoe
shuffling in a community hall: Lunch
Beat is a full-on rave. A recent
event in Kulturhuset Studion (
top
right
) saw a crowd of almost 500.
At midday, the blinds were pulled
down on the windows, giving the
art-house space a dark, authentic
nightclub feel and DJ Johannes
Drakenberg stepped up onto the
stage and dropped his first track,
Out to lunch
DISCOVERIES
ON THE SCENE
If you thought the lunchhourwas for sitting
at your desk, thinkagain. InStockholm,
one very special disco is turningoffice
commuters intodaytime clubbers
‘90s dance classic ‘Give It Up’. His
banging electro-house set had the
crowd jumping up and punching the
air in the packed-out venue for the
whole hour.
“Lunch Beat is, quite simply, a
dance club at lunchtime,” Molly
Ränge, the founder, explains. “One
hour, one DJ and one takeaway
lunch. It startedwithmy curiosity
for seeingwhat happened if my
passions for work and dance, when
combined, could in some way give
to each other.
“Arranging a really good nightclub
in the day and then returning to
work seemed like an interesting
solution for bringing dance energy
into afternoons – while at the same
timemaking sure that your working
week was
balancedwith
some work-free time,”
she says.
The club even has its own
10-point manifesto, including the
rules: “Don’t talk about your job at
Lunch Beat”, and “You have to dance
if it’s your first time”. There’s also a
sternwarning for clubbers – if you’re
too tired to dance, go and eat your
lunch elsewhere.
Despite the events being
The banging
electro-house
set had them
jumping up and
punching the air
in the packed-
out venue