Greeting the dawn of 2016 with fire breathers, aerial acrobatics and a 30-foot slide

January 8, 2016 By Scott Enman Brooklyn Daily Eagle

An ecstatic reveler glides down the slide on top of the party bus. Daniel Leinweber for Razberry Photography

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You had to be there to believe it.

While most Brooklynites retreated to the warmth of their homes around midnight following the ball drop and the firework shows this New Year’s Eve, thousands of young adults were just starting their evenings.

These night owls were partying among fire breathers, aerial acrobatics, a two-story slide, a human-sized birdcage, a party bus, interactive art installations and a 22-foot high cosmic pyramid stage.

The debauchery took place in an East Williamsburg warehouse for BangOn!NYC’s New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day Sunrise parties.

BangOn!NYC is an entertainment company based in New York that has thrown some of the city’s most extravagant parties; this past summer, the veteran party planners organized an all day outdoor event dubbed Elements Outdoor Music & Arts Festival which utilized the expansive and abandoned Red Hook Grain Terminal.

That party came complete with stunt bikers who performed airborne tricks with fire breathers underneath them.

While the New Year’s Eve and Sunrise parties did not have stunt bicyclists, there were fire breathers from Ash Pyrotechnics.

BangOn!NYC said that “in eight years of doing this in New York City, [the East Williamsburg warehouse] is the best warehouse we have ever found. The production on this one is literally the most intricate and spectacular we have done yet.”

The company transformed a 30,000-square-foot cavernous warehouse into a circus-like music festival that lasted 16 hours, from 9 p.m. on New Year’s Eve to 1 p.m. on New Year’s Day.

High above in the rafters was a human-size rocket ship with a woman dancing inside.

In another direction were gymnasts performing aerial acrobatics on zip-lines.

A custom made art car designed from the ground up called the “Lotus Temple” sat in a corner as ravers sat inside, danced on top and slid down a slide from the roof to the floor.

Revelers were adorned in eccentric costumes complete with lights, beads and elaborate headdresses.

BangOn!NYC installed resting areas with pillows and rugs and a breakfast station serving pancakes, eggs and bacon.

In the middle of all the commotion was a 22-foot cosmic pyramid stage, where a plethora of DJs acted as puppeteers, commanding the audience to dance.

At 5 a.m., BangOn!NYC ushered in a new crowd to take part in 2016’s first sunrise, which was a memorable one. The sun reflected luminously off the warehouse’s 20-foot high stain glass-colored windows.

Only in Brooklyn would partygoers commence the New Year in such a way.