Jeremy Battle
Hundreds of party goers dance at the BOOTs party hosted by the Metro on Friday, March 28, 2025. Kirk and Abhijeet have been throwing the BOOTs party for three years.
The line down North Clark Street in Wrigleyville only kept getting longer as the hours inched into the early morning. Latex, glitter, sunglasses and knee-high boots were the outfit of the night. Partygoers and Chicago club kids were shoulder-to-shoulder in the Metro, celebrating the sold-out three-year anniversary celebration of the BOOTS party on Friday, March 28.
Club duo Abhijeet and Kirk combined live music performances of their original EP “Boots Bitch” with DJ sets and drag. The dimly-lit venue glowed purple, pink and blue with euphoria and whimsy through the Metro’s multiple levels.
But it wasn’t always this way.
What started as a project between duo DJ Kirk Dickens and event organizer, performer and drag queen Abhijeet Rane saw its beginnings in dim sum restaurants, rooftops, comedy clubs and art galleries in Chicago’s underground party scene.
“We came up with the idea of BOOTS to take over nonconventional spaces and turn them into a club for one night,” Kirk said. “Then the next day we were gone … we progressed doing that for over a year and started to think about, ‘how do we scale up?’ Our audience was growing with us.”
From pop-up clubs to an established cult following in Chicago, the duo has used their expertise in DJing, performing and event planning to continue to grow BOOTS around the city.
Abhijeet and Kirk originally met working in the Boystown club Scarlet in 2020. Kirk was beginning to rise up in the Chicago music scene after DJing house parties and small clubs on Lincoln Avenue during his undergraduate years at DePaul. Abhijeet, a former SAIC student, was introduced to drag and nightlife in the city, which led to a strong desire to produce her own events.
“I wanted to learn how it happened. I started working with different collectives and groups to figure out how to produce an event,” Abhijeet said. “I’m not just a performer. I’m not just a host. I’m also the person that puts things together.”
Kirk and Abhijeet work together to cultivate a vibe reminiscent of the early days of club kid culture, using what Kirk calls a “nostalgia” to combine their expertise to throw a party which encapsulates the diversity, joy and love in Chicago, and keeps people returning time and time again.
The most recent celebration featured “local heavy hitters” like Chicago DJ Prosperity Room, with performers from other cities such as rapper Rye Rye from Baltimore.
Even though BOOTS has taken to the mainstream in the past years, the duo still maintains the values it was originally founded on.
“It’s based on our friendship, our love for life and our desire to do stuff that’s different,” Abhijeet said.
Chicago is a significant hub for house music — the city was deemed the birthplace of the genre in the late 1970s.
House was originally invented by Black and queer DJs in Chicago, with house’s close relative of techno being invented in Detroit. Abhijeet also emphasized Chicago’s “rich history” in club kid and drag culture.
“There’s a reason why people move from other places to Chicago and fall in love with the city,” Abhijeet said. “Everyone here respects that history and wants to be a part of its growth and change. I think that’s what makes it so special.”
BOOTS has garnered a loyal following, with many returning to see the party’s latest installment. Kirk says he often talks to attendees who express that it’s their second or third time at BOOTS.
One returnee was UIC graduate student Marina Gianos.
In black knee-high boots and a black, lace-up latex top, Gianos was joined by her group of friends. The crew said they all dressed like spin-offs of Spice Girls, with each girl wearing a uniquely eye-catching outfit which glowed even under the fluorescent street lights of the outdoor smoking area.
“BOOTS is a great experience to dance with your queer friends,” Gianos said. “I love it, the DJs are great and you can watch the queens go off.”
Once Kirk and Abhijeet took to the booth, they performed hits from their EP such as “Gay Guys Drink Vodka Sodas, But Girls Do Poppers,” which combine Kirk’s DJing with Abhijeet’s vocals and performance to create a bop which had the large crowd singing along, and as Gianos put it, “shaking a–”
Even in the lines for the bathroom, ATM and bar — which snaked up and down the Metro, people made sure to always be dancing, laughing, taking selfies and complimenting strangers or old friends they bumped into.
There was a sense of shock when I told the friendly partiers it was my first time at BOOTS. But the crowd remained welcoming, happy and euphoric, even to newcomers.
Whimsy was not lost at the Metro on Friday night, and posed as a reminder to Chicagoans of the rich, diverse and boundary-breaking nightlife scene that exists in the city thanks to artists like DJ Kirk and Abhijeet.
“Anytime you do something, you’re uplifting the community as a whole,” Abhijeet said.
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