A popular weekly summer roller-disco event in Brooklyn\u2019s Prospect Park has gotten the wheels pulled out from under it \u2014 and locals are in an uproar.<\/p>\n
The Dreamland Roller Disco \u2014 filled with DJs, dancers and drag queens \u2014 was scrapped earlier this month when organizer Lola Star refused to accept a 50% pay cut from the new operator of the LeFrak Center at Lakeside, according to a Change.org petition to \u201csave\u201d the event.<\/p>\n
The center, where Roller Disco was held for 11 years during the summer, underwent a massive $74 million renovation and opened again this past weekend \u2014 without the disco on its calendar.<\/p>\n
Dreamland Roller Disco will no longer be offered at Prospect Park\u2019s LeFrak Center at Lakeside. Dreamland Roller Disco<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like a three-ring circus \u2014 it was a vibe and energy that I honestly have not seen anywhere else,\u201d longtime Dreamland attendee and skate guard Billy Tyler Smith, 60, told The Post, referring to Roller Disco.<\/p>\n
Roller Disco fans have flocked to the event for 11 years. Dreamland Roller Disco<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were my other family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott Lindeman, who had been skating at Dreamland events with his wife since 2015, said, \u201cIt blows my mind that they would throw something away like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are going to lose out on one of the greatest social events that occurred every Friday night.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
The petition to try to save the event has amassed more than 1,200 supporters so far.<\/p>\n
Locals have launched a petition to try to save the event. Dreamland Roller Disco<\/p>\n
Star claimed to The Post that the rink\u2019s lowball offer was an act of retaliation because she previously called out safety issues at the venue such as understaffing, hazardous debris and a \u201csignificant decline\u201d in security.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it would rain, they wouldn\u2019t want to cancel the event because they didn\u2019t want to lose money, but water from the rain would blow onto the rink and be slippery,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n
In a statement to The Post about the nixed Dreamland event season, the Prospect Park Alliance, a nonprofit that works with the city to help maintain the famed green space, said it is looking to \u201cwork with a range of producers on a rotating schedule of Roller Disco events.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing that I love about Dreamland is the community that Lola has created over the years,\u201d a fan said of operator Lola Star. Dreamland Roller Disco<\/p>\n
The alliance claimed it \u201cattempted to engage in good faith with Lola Star to bring back the Dreamland Disco, but at every step she has made this untenable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Star retorted that she was ignored after an in-person meeting in July in which new rink operator Ekstein Development Group \u201cdemanded to see our financial history \u2014 despite our proven success \u2014 and said their accounting department would decide if and how Dreamland would be allowed to return to our home for 11 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Star said she is already in search of a new home, visiting potential spaces for the larger-than-life event series.<\/p>\n
Fans flock to the colorful event. Dreamland Roller Disco<\/p>\n
Smith said of Star\u2019s opponents, \u201cIt\u2019s classic \u2018penny wise, pound foolish\u2019 business practices.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew York City cannot lose Lola. \u2026 She\u2019s majorly responsible for the popularity of roller skating and its slow resurgence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A popular weekly summer roller-disco event in Brooklyn\u2019s Prospect Park has gotten the wheels pulled out from under…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":116788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1121,5248,405,403,7619,5226,5225,5228,5227,73151,73152,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-116787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-city-life","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-prospect-park","19":"tag-skating","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-us-news","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114967456238327798","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}