{"id":268763,"date":"2025-10-01T09:01:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T09:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/268763\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T09:01:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T09:01:26","slug":"riot-nerd-an-event-planning-company-founded-in-2016-says-its-on-the-verge-of-closing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/268763\/","title":{"rendered":"Riot Nerd, an event planning company founded in 2016, says it’s on the verge of closing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Riot Nerd, a Philadelphia-based event planning company known for hosting niche, inclusive dances, drag shows and themed parties, is raising warning flags that its business may not survive the next six months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Owner Megan Hawkey, who started the company in 2016, claims economic turmoil has led to declining attendance at events and says she’s begun to fund business operations with her day-job salary to keep it afloat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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In a “PSA” message posted to Riot Nerd’s nearly 12,000 Instagram followers on Monday, the company shared that in the past few months, it has been “riding the struggle bus.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Rising costs and economic challenges have hit us hard, just like they’ve hit so many others,” the post<\/a> reads. “… If things don’t turn around soon, we may have to scale back our events … or stop throwing them altogether in 2026.”<\/p>\n

Riot Nerd was established after Hawkey noticed a strong sense of community among “fandoms.” She began to host events at smaller venues around the city, usually putting on about a dozen per month for between 100-1,000 people. In the upcoming weeks, the company will be holding\u00a0Taylor Swift album release parties, “Glee”-themed drag brunches, and Doja Cat and Cardi B dance parties.<\/p>\n

The strategy proved so successful that Riot Nerd was recognized by\u00a0Philly Mag<\/a>\u00a0in 2023 for the “Best Dance Party,” which Hawkey\u00a0said led to a surge in interest.<\/p>\n

“What makes us stand out is that we focus a lot on inclusion and fandoms,” Hawkey said. “I throw most of my events at venues that aren’t regular nightclubs because I want to make sure that we’re not getting standard foot traffic that isn’t there for the theme.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

But since April,\u00a0Hawkey said\u00a0attendance has dropped anywhere between 30-55% compared with last year, depending on the size of the event and venue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hawkey, who also works a full-time corporate job, has no employees on her payroll so she’s typically the only person who plans and organizes the events and enlists contractors to cover their marketing, setup, security, music and more.\u00a0She also said she’s dealing with pricing increases from venues and contractors, which has forced ticket prices to modestly increase.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Attendance is going down, sales are low, people just aren’t spending as much money going out,” she said. “We try to really make it seem like a whole production, but we have been working on slowly scaling back on those things so we can drop the prices. It’s led to cancellations. It’s also caused us to move to smaller and smaller venues.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hawkey said that if attendance doesn’t increase in the coming months, Riot Nerd could have to be shut down.<\/p>\n

“I understand that money’s tight, people can’t go out,” she said. “But maybe if people can afford to sometimes try to support these small businesses where they can … otherwise we’re not going to be able to keep it going.”\u00a0<\/p>\n