Good Deeds on the Dance Floor: Local EDM DJs break it down for a good cause

Do you love electronic music? Do you also care about people in need in your community? What about 48-hour dance parties with myriad talented DJs? If you answered yes to two or more of those questions (or even one!), then you need to get your life by dancing all day and/or night at Good Deed DJs’ (GDDJ) upcoming Christmas Marathon!

From December 14 through 16 (for the third consecutive year), the RI-based professional organization will raise money for Cumberland Happy Basket, a charity that distributes hundreds of baskets of food to families in need during the holiday seasons. This year, the event is supporting Toys for Tots as well, by hosting 48 hours of continuous music, a promoter discussion and more.

This year’s event will be held in two Massachusetts locations. The first 24 hours will he hosted (as in, they are lending their business space for free!) by Hennessey Sound Design (Taunton) and the second 24 will be hosted by Supreme Sound & Lighting (Charlton).

Nearly 60 DJs from New England and beyond are booked to spin some funky beats throughout the weekend. Local EDM event producers, promoters and partygoers — including members of Tight Crew, the Mutiny, Rabbit Revolution and Nexthype Providence — will gather to stir up some money for the charities.

This year, GDDJ co-founders Jack McDevitt and Michael Savant are extraordinarily ambitious, and for good reason. “With a staff of nearly 90 people, this is the first year we will have a full staff with tech, hospitality and general assistants in place,” says McDevitt. “We expect it to be our best event yet… To date we have raised more than $10,000 in our last two events, I think making us the largest donor to their amazing program.” They are hoping to raise $17,500 from this year’s Christmas Marathon. For the next year? $30,000.

Also on the docket for GDDJ in the near future (2019): becoming a registered 501(c)(3) organization. This could spread awareness and boost donations by helping to certify GDDJs’ legitimacy as a nonprofit.

As for what sparked their nonprofit organization, McDevitt and Savant were initially inspired by seeing folk music icon Jenny Lewis raise money for MS research and treatment with telethons.

“We also saw the amount of people we could bring together through music, and really wanted to push for a change in how that influence was yielded,” explained McDevitt’s partner, GDDJ co-director Michael Savant. “New England has an incredible amount of talent in its electronic music scene, and its backbone is rock solid; what better place to start making a change than from within?”

For more information on Good Deed DJs and their 3rd Annual Christmas Marathon, visit Facebook.com/gooddeeddjs