We partied at the ‘Burning Man on a yacht’ party attended by the wildest part of New York’s tech scene

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The Burlesquerade is an annual costumed gala on a yacht that brings together 1,200 of New York's techies, bankers, and artists for a wild night of partying.
The Burning Man-esque party features a lineup of DJs, aerialists, burlesque dancers, and performance artists — as well as cacao ceremonies, sound healing, and more.
It began as a the birthday party of Timothy Phillips, the co-founder of Lightning Society, a self-described "community of changemakers."

By 10:30 p.m., I was ready to collapse on the dance floor. Everyone else was heading to an afterparty at a far-off warehouse. That's the kind of party New York's Burlesquerade is.

Now in its 7th year, the annual costumed gala has grown from a birthday party in a tiny apartment to an extravaganza on a 30,000 square-foot "super yacht" featuring an eye-popping lineup of DJs, aerialists, burlesque dancers, and performance artists.

The Burning Man-esque party attracts 1,200 partygoers ranging from bigwigs at Goldman Sachs and Facebook to Brooklyn's DIY fashion designers and filmmakers. Timothy Phillips, the man whose birthday started it all, says he hopes the event is "inspiring."

"The idea is really just to set this expectation that everyone should be surrounded by people who inspire and motivate them all the time," Phillips told Business Insider. "We try to create events that facilitate that."

Phillips recently invited me to attend this year's Burlesquerade. Here's what it was like.

At Phillips' insistence, I showed up at Pier 40 early so he could show me around the boat, the Hornblower Infinity. I was dressed in my costume gala finest, but in true New York form, no one batted an eye.

As I made my way through the security line, where guards studiously checked the videographers and volunteers' bags, I spotted Phillips waiting for me.

He was dressed in a black glistening jacket that evoked a raven's feathers and was flying back and forth a bit like a mad bird, talking to security or the caterer or picking up a cellphone for a harried call to an unknown person.

Phillips said that the Burlesquerade started because he had friends from so many different scenes that were often “intimidated by each other” or “stuck in their preconceptions about who the others were.”

By creating a massive party and forcing everyone to costume themselves, he thought he might be able to “break down those barriers.”

Phillips soon handed me off to Joe Che, his business partner and the man most often tasked with turning Phillips' high-flying ideas into, in Che's words, "practical realities."

Dressed in a kind of antique captain's jacket festooned with ornaments, Che gave me a tour around the boat so I knew where all the performances and activities would be. But as he warned me, there's too much to do for any one person to see everything.

Challenge accepted.

Che explained that he and Phillips formed Lightning Society three years ago to expand what they had created with the Burlesquerade and to find new ways to “bring people together for meaningful connections.”

So far, that has resulted in the current version of the Burlesquerade and a co-living space in Bushwick.

The co-living space, which houses 16 people ranging from a teacher to tech developer to an astrophysicist, hosts weekly programming, including yoga and dance classes and an ongoing speaker series.

Engineer Liam Tyler Griffiths and Lauren Sagador, a connectivity specialist for a booking platform GetYourGuide, were a couple of the first on board.

The event recruits more than 150 volunteers to put on the party, who do everything from set up to production and photography. Volunteering is a way for many who can’t afford the $75 ticket price to join the festivities.

It takes Che, Phillips, and the team of volunteers seven hours to set up the boat.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider