We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sierra Mcmahon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Sierra thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Big Fish Little Fish is about families dancing together. So many things change after having a child and I don’t think access to an amazing dance floor should be one of them.
The last festival I attended was when I was pregnant. After having my daughter, I was too focused on tummy time and sleep schedules to even think about running away to a festival. I kept dancing at our own living room dance parties, but it just isn’t the same as a live DJ.
The Family Rave allows parents to combine their love of music with their newfound responsibilities as a parent. Instead of separating rave life and parent life, families can create memories together on the dance floor.
Sierra, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a mom who missed dancing, so now I rent out nightclubs during the day for families to dance together. Big Fish Little Fish is the OG Family Rave!
We bring in live DJs that play electronic music at safe sound levels for little ears. We set up a craft table, a toddler play area and a baby chill zone. The venues provide a licensed bar and snacks.
What sets Big Fish Little Fish apart from what people have seen before is the authentic club experience. We do not play kiddie music. We do not have MCs leading games. It is like a mini-festival in the heart of the city!
We provide a safe space for families to dance together. Each venue is risk assessed in advance and safety stewards are posted throughout to provide an extra set of eyes and to ensure no speedy toddler can leave without their adult in tow. The Family Rave is an all-ages event, but every group must have a child to enter.
I started throwing family raves so that I could dance with my family, but it is creating a community of fun families! Some parents are old ravers. Some parents have never been to a rave. But they all love to dance!
We may be in the next stage of life, but we can still party! Big Fish Little Fish; 2-4 hour party people.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
You know when you find something online that speaks to you and you go down an internet rabbit hole to figure out how to connect with that thing? That was me when I first saw the OG Family Rave on TikTok.
The reel read, “this is the year you bring the kids raving.” And I instantly thought, “yes, please!”
I found the Big Fish Little Fish website and realized they were in the UK. So, I started searching ‘family rave near me’ and couldn’t find anything anywhere in the United States.
I decided to email the founder to encourage them to bring Big Fish Little Fish to Los Angeles and I offered to help in any way I could.
Hannah, the founder of Big Fish Little Fish, told me that each region is run by a local parent. I wanted to be that parent!
We met on Zoom and chatted about our favorite DJs and our raver origins. She told me how Big Fish Little Fish began because she wanted a place where she could listen to live DJs and get a little silly with her kids. I told her about how my friends and I used to rent huge speakers and throw raves out in the deserts and mountains. I signed on to the BFLF family and I started looking for local venues.
I am so lucky to have found Big Fish Little Fish. The SoCal region is my own business, but I have the knowledge and support of an international team that has been throwing family raves for over a decade.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
The first time we went viral there were a lot of hateful comments. The Family Rave is something entirely different from what people know and I understand there is fear in the unknown.
The reel showed exactly what we do. Families dancing at a club. People ordering drinks at the bar. Toddlers playing with balloons. An LED dancer dressed in a disco ball leotard.
Comments claimed, ‘the world is morally bankrupt,’ and that ‘these parents need to grow up,’ and others that were more extreme. I chose to not engage and I tried not to take it personally.
About a week later, I heard a mash up combining the laughter of a Gorillaz track with a DnB track of kids singing, “Think you can stop what we do? I doubt it!” It was too perfect. I had to figure out a way to use this track with all the hateful comments.
With the guidance of my 9 year-old tech guru, I created a reel thanking all the trolls and haters. I overlaid their comments on the same reel that had displeased them. One of them had asked, “who would take their kid clubbing?” and I was able to shower the screen with the responses people had posted of “me,” “me,” “right here.”
This gratitude to the haters reel took more time than I had ever spent on a post before. It taught me video editing techniques that I didn’t know existed AND I was able to see how many people actually love what we are doing.
The haters can’t stop what we do and I am grateful to them for commenting and helping us find our people.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bigfishlittlefishevents.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bflf_usa/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BigFishLittleFishUSA/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bigfishlittlefishevents8935
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@bigfishlittlefishevents
Image Credits
LAURASPERCEPTION
La Petite Photo