06/23/2026
Shadowland was originally coordinated and executed by two folks. When Dave Ghoul and DJ Kiltboy stepped back, we knew I only had one butt for two chairs. We agreed I’d leave the door open for Dave to step back in if he became able and, in lieu of that, we’d focus on our shared goal to highlight different dark alt sounds from around town and the region.
In the past (nearly) 3 years, Shadowland grew significantly and many hands stepped up behind the scenes to meet that growth. We have a fantastic team who shows up early and leaves late to move furniture/supplies, run safety and security, and help execute smaller community-building projects outside the monthly party. We have a solid, supportive home / partner in Zoetropolis. We’re within 2-3 hours of a wealth of talented DJs. I’m in the privileged position to offer them and local, (primarily) professional gogo dancers a place to do their art in a city where professional gigs with a reasonable, industry-appropriate base pay are rare. These are all signs of progress, growth, and your faith and trust in me over the past 2.5 years. I’m so grateful, and will never be able to express that enough through anything but continuing to do my best.
To come back to butts and chairs, Shadowland’s growth includes its ah… back end: the organizational stuff, the administrative stuff, and the content / graphic design stuff. This is in addition to my other DJ and entertainment gigs for which I do the back-end stuff, my work at the local cat café, local mutual aid efforts, and my being a chronically ill, chronically depressed little dude who occasionally likes to rest.
To keep things fun and sustainable, I needed a hand who is as familiar with what we do, what we’re about, and who we’re here for as anyone else on the team. Luckily, there’s a guy I left the door open for, in accordance with his ability.
Long story short, Dave Ghoul is stepping back in as a co-organizer starting now and will share that growing back end to keep things feeling good and running smoothly for us all.
Starting in 2027, when he is able - AKA when we’re in months where COVID transmission rates are typically lower - Dave’ll be my DJ co-summoner as we always wished would be the case. Outside those 4-6 months, we’ll keep bringing guest DJs and their fresh takes through as that remains a non-negotiable priority to me and Dave.
How does this impact your monthly party? It’s a lot of small-but-mighty changes. You’ll still deal primarily with my face and bu****it AND we’ll have another brain in the game with decades of experience as a promoter, DJ, and like-minded pal when it comes to doing this nightlife thing with a shred of integrity. Promo will be more digital-accessibility oriented, as is one of Dave’s specialities. There’ll be other accessibility-related changes we’ll talk more about when everything’s in place. Overall, things will be more consistent, timely, and intentional, and the back-end workload shift means my quality life will improve in a manner that will enable me to keep doing my best.
Thank you, Dave. Thank you to the setup/strike/safety team, our guests, dancers, and photogs, and to Zoetropolis.
And: THANK YOU! I’m so excited for all the rest of 2026’s guests and shenanigans and look forward to what’s ahead for us all.
Stygian
