It is 6:45 am and you see hundreds of people lined up outside, clad in anything from bright pink spandex to business suits, and music blasting from inside. What on earth could this be?

Well, without a doubt, you’ve stumbled upon Daybreaker.

This seemingly paradoxical event is a rave in the early morning. Yes, you read that right. Held from 6 am to 9 am during the workweek, Daybreaker events are basically parties before work, and they’ve turned out to be the perfect way to wake up.

Tim Patch, the producer of Daybreaker DC, explains the movement,

“So this started as a social experiment between two friends in New York, two entrepreneurs, Radha Agrawal and Matt Brimer, and one late night over falafel after a night on the town, they were like ‘Why don’t we do this all sober? Why don’t we do this all in the morning? Why don’t we do this so we don’t have hangovers? Why don’t we bring all of the positive things from our nightlife scene and make it healthy [and] something new?’”

And so they did. Without offering drugs or alcohol, the Daybreaker crew got hundreds of people to show up at 6 am and dance.

As Patch puts it, “this is a lot of people, you have like 80 or 100 people who showed up at 6 am to do yoga in Georgetown. New York is kind of the flagship city; they have 500-1000 person events every other week and they have sold out every event for as long as I can remember.”

Daybreaker’s most recent event in DC was this past Wednesday, August 26^th at Malmaison and hundreds of people came out. The DC team dedicated the first hour to rejuvenating yoga and the second two to the beloved crazy dance party. Attendees had the option of purchasing tickets for the entire session or just the “rave.”

Cathleen Colbert, 28, a first-timer at Daybreaker gushes about her experience after finishing up the morning yoga,

“I loved the yoga. He [the instructor] talked us through everything. There were a lot of great exercises. I really enjoyed it. It’s our first time here and we’re so excited. We’ll definitely stay for the dancing.”

Though you might think this is an event strictly for Millennials, people of all ages often show up – from young parents with their kids to seniors who have better moves than the rest.

In response to what the demographics of a normal Daybreaker event looks like, Patch says, “All ages [attend]. I think one of the best parts about this is how diverse the attendees are. Huge age range. We’ve had adults bring their children. A wide range of interests. We have people who come for the music, we have people who come for the fitness, we have people come for the social scene, yeah, a little bit of everything.”

Yoga segment during Daybreaker DC at Malmaison. Photography by Samantha Rhodes

Other than the yoga and dance party, Daybreaker offers coffee and kombucha as well as healthy snacks, like Kind bars and fruit. And then, once the dancing starts, there are typically performers who join in on the fun. This time around, the event included a dancer on stilts, the talented Rufus Roundtree playing the trombone, and an MC named Haile Supreme, who dressed in authentic Ethiopian garb and kept the crowd pumped up all morning.

If you don’t feel like dancing, you can easily stand off to the side with the other hesitant attendees and chat, snack, and watch the spectacle, but I would urge you to try it out.

Many people come into these events unsure of how much they’ll like them, or how easily they will fit in, and as Patch admits,

“I was a skeptic…I was like no way, I cannot believe that you guys [his friends who raved about Daybreaker] are doing this, and then I went to my first event and was blown away. Had a blast. And now all I want to do is go to sober morning dance parties.”

If you’re considering going (which you should), here’s a few things to know:

What to wear: basically anything. I saw a pregnant woman busting it out on the dance floor in a work dress and purple flats and right next to her was a young woman wearing typical rave gear of eye goggles, a crop top, boots, bracelets, and flared shorts.

When to come: you can join in whenever you would like, but I would suggest heading in early to get ahead of the lines.

When do people leave: well, eventually everyone reluctantly heads off to get to work, so that one is up to you!

How to find out when the next event is: keep updated on all Daybreaker news by visiting their Facebook, Twitter, or website!