New York’s fourth Wire festival treated those with enough stamina to a weekend full of unrelenting dance music
In all-black outfits dripped out with metal chains, polarized cycling glasses, and bejeweled vapes, throngs of techno disciples descended on New York City’s Knockdown Center ready to put in work.
It was Friday at midnight in the 50,000-sq-ft former glass factory turned arts center, and dancers were already clocking into their shifts as unrelenting bass drums reverberated against the pitch-black windows overhead. For the first time, programming at the venue’s flagship Wire festival, in its fourth edition, would extend from Friday evening to Sunday evening: 50 straight hours of music, presented by some of the world’s best in the electronic underground. The prospect of such a long stretch filled the space with an air of both commitment and mania; some local nightlife regulars I greeted throughout the weekend would stay for periods up to 15 hours. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” a friend reminded me as we settled in, canned yerba mates in hand.
