Scenes from Sunday's steamy Soul Summit dance party in Fort Greene Park

Temps in the high 90s didn't deter hundreds of house heads from dancing for hours at the 22nd annual edition of the party

By Scott Lynch

According to the weather apps, the “real feel” in Fort Greene Park on Sunday was a staggering 98 degrees when the needle first dropped at one of Brooklyn’s great summer traditions: the free house music dance party from the Soul Summit DJ collective.

But if you think such steamy conditions would dissuade the house music community from getting together and getting down, you would be extremely wrong. Within an hour the dance floor (well, the stone plaza next to the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument) was as packed with bodies and as filled with joy as ever. As one old head shouted with delight when the beat first kicked in, “I’ve been looking forward to this day all year!”

Photo by Scott Lynch

“Soul Summit means community,” the music collective’s co-founder Sadiq Bellamy (along with Tabu and Jeff Mendoza) told Brooklyn Magazine. “It’s one of the most wonderful social lubricants, and we’ve spent 22 years now bringing people harmoniously together here in Fort Greene outside of the club. It’s a safe space. This is where I live. This is my home, and it’s very special to me.”

Photo by Scott Lynch

The beverage vendors were out in droves on Sunday, doing a brisk business slinging nutcrackers and other cocktails, beer and bottled water. And as stiflingly hot as it was in the middle of the crowd, no one seemed to mind.

“The house music community looks at this day as a spiritual cleansing,” Bellany said. “So the sweaty conditions only add a physical variable to the cleansing effect.”

Photo by Scott Lynch

Soul Summit Sunday — an intergenerational, super-diverse, freeform house family affair — is about more than just dancing. Large groups gather on the grounds surrounding the plaza for barbecues and get-togethers. Vendors set up tents near the monument selling food and drinks as well as clothing and accessories. The next and final Soul Summit dance party of the season will be at the same location on Sunday, August 4.

Here are a few more scenes from Sunday’s party.