By Riley Brennan

The 2000s were alive and well at MilkBoy ArtHouse on Saturday, Nov. 16. Popular 2000s songs played all night long for the venue’s “2000’s Dance Party,” featuring some of the past decade’s most popular artists, including Usher, Lil Wayne, Rihanna, Blink-182, T-Pain, Destiny’s Child, Kanye and Missy Elliott.

The venue, sprinkled with funky colored lights, was packed with students and College Park inhabitants alike, enjoying blasts from the past and reminiscing about all of the music that defined their childhoods and adolescence.

“I think it’s super fun. I think he [the DJ] is definitely putting his own mix on it,” said Elizabeth McKenzie, a sophomore communication and English major at the University of Maryland.

Kendall Snyder,  a sophomore international relations and anthropology major with a minor in history, echoed similar sentiments: “I think it’s really cute … I feel like there’s not a lot of places where you’d find a 2000s dance party, I think that’s really fun.” 

MilkBoy, located on Route 1 in College Park, is a restaurant, club and venue that often hosts DJs and other performers, as well as themed nights. According to its website, MilkBoy is a creative partnership between The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at UMD and MilkBoy of Philadelphia. 

Its website describes the venue as “a local crossroads for dynamic entertainment, social gathering and creative dining. The only campus-community arts venue of its kind in the nation, MilkBoy ArtHouse is where emerging art and pop culture collide and where campus and community come together to celebrate!”

“I come to MilkBoy for concerts and stuff, and I think it’s a good change from the other places in College Park. I think it’s a lot more artistic and open to different artists,” McKenzie said.

The “2000s Dance Party” is one of the many themed events MilkBoy hosts, another popular themed night in the past being “Emo Night.” Sophomore international relations and anthropology major Kendall Snyder is a fan of the creativity behind the themed nights. 

“I feel like their staff is really good at coming up with ideas that you wouldn’t normally think of and stuff that would definitely draw in a crowd,” Snyder said. 

Featured Photo Credit: Courtesy of MilkBoy ArtHouse’s Facebook page.

Riley Brennan is a sophomore journalism major and can be reached at rbrenna1@terpmail.umd.edu.