Half-naked revellers, flashing lights, drinks around the dance floor, old reggae and pop classics coming from the speakers; on paper, Disco Loco sounds like any other club. Yet here, the booties being shaken were knitted by grandma and the only disco biscuits on offer are organic rice cakes. Disco Loco is a monthly club-based experience for parents and children to enjoy together, held at a nap-friendly time on a Sunday afternoon at the East London arts centre Chat’s Palace. Little boys, overheated by an energetic game of Follow My Leader, take off their T-shirts and run about like lunatics. Babes-in-arms stare transfixed at disco lights while being jogged about to tunes played by the resident DJs Broncofly and Chloe Lola. If “in the club” has taken on a different meaning for you in the past few years, then Disco Loco is meant for you.

The event was founded by the parents Nina Lyndon and Ola Aminashawun, who spend their days working at the Royal Court’s Young Writers Programme. This, however, targets an even younger crowd. “We used to spend every day at work discussing what we do with our kids,” says Lyndon, whose daughter is a year old, “and we found everything out there was a little bit twee. We thought, well, ‘our kids really enjoy it when we dance around to the Ramones or a bit of disco at home’, and the idea came from there. It’s got a bit of a punk edge to it really: there are no nursery rhymes, everyone gets on the dance floor together. You dance with your mum and breastfeed your baby on the dancefloor.”

Music for babies that looks beyond Barney the Dinosaur and The Wheels on the Bushas quietly gained popularity: Belle and Sebastian and St Etienne have both released albums of children’s songs, while the Atlanta-based website the Pokey Pup offers lullaby versions of rock classics as well as suggesting “adult” music that kids might enjoy. When it comes to live events, however, the trailblazer is Baby Loves Disco, founded in Philadelphia by the professional dancer Heather Murphy Monteith.

“Baby Loves Disco was born in my living room as a fun, alternative activity for my son and our playgroup,” says Murphy Monteith, mother to four-year-old Maxwell and nine-month-old Isadora. “Having had way too many experiences at our local children’s museum, the zoo and other ‘family fun’ environments, we were tired of exhausting ourselves and our wallets in the big trek out to places that almost always resulted in meltdowns and saying ‘no’ a million times to the junk food and gift shop temptations. I also felt that there were not enough opportunities for the family to participate together in these environments.”

Like Lyndon and Aminashawun, she looked close to home for inspiration. “I thought to myself: what do we really love to do together and how can we share it with our community? I took my favourite activity and translated it into an event that is truly geared towards the whole family to enjoy, in an atmosphere that is fun, that celebrates the contemporary culture of parenting through enjoying music and dance. Thus, Baby Loves Disco!”

British families will have a chance to experience this phenomenon this autumn thanks to a mother from Manchester, Naomi Timperley. Scanning the internet for party ideas for her daughters, she stumbled across an article about Baby Loves Disco and approached Murphy Monteith about exporting the event. The first UK events will be at Pure at the Printworks in Manchester on September 9 and the Clapham Grand in London on September 16.

Why does she think the time is right? “It’s so popular in the US because it’s a real family event, not one of those plastic ball places where parents have a cup of tea at the side. I want the parents to come into a club environment and get up on the dance floor rather than having the children dancing and the mums and dads at the side.” She also acknowledges the erosion of the traditional extended babysitting network. “A lot of parents can’t go out because they have no grandparents near by. It’s giving parents the opportunity to go out.”

How about people who say that it is inflicting an adult environment on children who should be at adventure playgrounds or the park swings? “We have bubble machines, scarves, shakers,” says Timperley. “I want it to be as safe as possible. It’s no different from being at a wedding. I can’t bear little girls dressed older than they are, it’s nothing like that.

“Baby Loves Disco occupies an adult space, but we are using these venues specifically to hold a family event, so they are triple-cleaned and childproofed and decorated and filled with bubbles. We take a big and wonderful space with fantastic sound systems and lights and we throw a party.”

Disco Loco certainly bears this out as Aminashawun, aka MC Daddy Cool, hosts an energetic game of musical bumps (“When the music stops, get dowwwwn”). Children play with hula hoops and balloons, while the music exposes them to a broad range of styles. “Some kids always request Kraftwerk,” laughs Lyndon. As disco fans might have it, young hearts run free. It’s good to see the parents joining them.

Disco Loco resumes in September; Baby Loves Disco takes place at Pure at the Printworks, Withy Grove, Manchester (0161-819 7770), 2-5pm, Sept 9, Oct 14 and Nov 11; and the Clapham Grand, London SW11 (020-7223 6523), 2-5pm, Sept 16, Oct 21 and Nov 18

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