Online Swing DJ Relay

11 AM Pacific / 12 (noon) Mountain / 1 PM Central / 2 PM Eastern / 8 PM CEST
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Have you ever been to a Swing event where a DJ is playing some great tunes for everyone and you wished you could do the same? If so, we have some great news for you. Everyone can be a Swing DJ (this includes you too!) and we aim to provide a platform to make this happen.

We are excited to announce a new kind of event for people who love Swing music. Consider a “DJ Relay” Zoom session where someone plays a song, mentioning the title, artist/band, album, etc. Based on these details and the song that is being played, another person uses the “chat” function to call dibs on playing the next song that somehow links to the current one playing. The next person then provides similar details of the new song, which enables us to pass the baton and experience music by various people. Think of it as a DJ battle where each of us can be a DJ for a song. We expect the event to be beginner friendly, educational, and most importantly fun for everyone involved.

Don’t be intimidated by the “DJ”. Everyone and anyone who’s interested can be a DJ. There’s absolutely no pressure and we aim for the event to have a lower barrier for entry. No one is compelled to provide any historical context and snippets about each of the songs being played. But if someone has something cool to say, we would be more than happy to hear it.

The event kicks off with a “Spotlight DJ” who would play a mini-set at the beginning for educational purposes. During this set, they talk about their music choices, giving out some details about the song they are playing. Based on the song that’s played, they also explain their transition choices based on what they are feeling. This could be any or a combination of multiple factors like energy, artists, year, arranger, album, etc. This is followed by the main event, “DJ Relay - Thread the Needle”. To make it fun, we will also do themed relays in the second half like - Women in Jazz, Food, Weather, Big Band, Small Band, etc.

Participants who want to call “dibs” on the next song will use the Chat function. Priority will be determined as follows:
1. Top priority goes to the person who has not yet had the opportunity to share a song during the event.
2. If there are multiple people who fit this criteria, the tiebreaker will be the time stamp of the Chat message.
3. If there are multiple people who have already DJed during the event, priority goes to the person who DJed “longer” ago

Note that this event will also be a fundraiser for different organisations every event like the ACLU, Doctors Without Borders, etc. The Spotlight DJs will also have an online tip jar (paypal, venmo, etc)
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Looking forward to seeing you all there!!