Dream Boat: Party on the Popeye has been given the ok from SA Health to host boozing and grooving simultaneously while floating down Karrawirra Parri River Torrens.

Nick Gencarelli got the enviable green light from SA Health last week, allowing his Adelaide Fringe event Dream Boat: Party on the Popeye to host both drinking and dancing.

“How’s that for timing?” Nick texts CityMag, also sharing some celebratory emojis.

Dream Boat is an Adelaide Fringe dance party happening on iconic CBD vessel, the Popeye.

The 14-metre boat regularly travels down the Karrawirra Parri River Torrens, offering those on board views of Tarntanya Wama Pinky Flat and the Adelaide Oval. But Dream Boat will offer something entirely different.

Some of the city’s finest deejays – such as rotary mixer manufacturer DJ Mehdi, wine and “booty-shaking” enthusiast Mark Kamleh, and nightlife stalwart Felicity – will mix sun-drenched funk, soul, disco and house bangers to riverfarers, with LOC Bottle Bar natty wines and Pikes Beer on deck for refreshments.

Dream Boat made its Fringe debut in 2020, with Nick saying he was stoked with the energy and varied demographic.

“Last year there were some older ladies that got quite drunk and started pole dancing,” Nick laughs. “There were some pretty rowdy parties.”

Nick is excited to facilitate drinking and dancing at Dream Boat (a combination of activities currently banned in most SA nightclubs due to COVID-19 restrictions) although there are some rules the event is bound by.

The boat’s capacity has effectively been halved due to the social distancing requirements in hospitality venues (or party boats). So instead of catering to 40 ticket-holders, The Popeye can only host 20.

This has a detrimental impact on the event’s long-term viability, and because of this Nick was a successful recipient of an Adelaide Fringe grant. The money subsidises half the losses incurred due to the reduced ticket sales and means he can continue throwing events under the Dream Boat banner.

As a deejay in the entertainment industry, who sits at the helm of the Endless Grooves club night series, Nick says working within significant constraints has become the new normal.

“We’ve had to up the number of sessions to basically cater for the reduction in capacity. It’s just the environment we’re operating in at the moment,” he says.

If dancing and drinking at a slow-cruising party atop the Karrawirra Parri River Torrens sounds like a good time to you, find tickets for the event here.