Letz Party! 

Enjoy the beautiful moments when possible

Hi, I am William Appelman, organizer and host of the Letz Party dance parties. I would like to welcome you on the website and at the parties. On this page I will tell you about the background and my motivation to organize unforgettable parties for you.

On Friday, January 14, 2005 was the first dance party. The summer before, (I was a few years volunteer at an alternative non-smoking dance party), I thought: “In addition to alternative, there must also be a lot of ‘mainstream’ people who want to dance in a non-smoking environment?”.

This is how I worked out my idea and wrote to the Chamber of Commerce on 3 January 2005.

Three hands tied to the back

No sooner said than done, would you say, were it not that I started with three hands tied to my back. Namely: 1. no catering experience, 2. no money at all (so borrowing) and most importantly: 3. I had been in the WAO for a few years because of rheumatism. Special moment the placement of an artificial hip right in 2003.

I called the dance party concept Swingsteesjun (phonetic). I started in the beautiful monumental  waiting rooms of the station of Haarlem (perron 3a).  It was the first smoke-free dance concept of Nederland. At that time, the catering industry was still 1  big smoke hole. Besides a lot of publicity, I received a national award from Stivoro i.s.m. the KWF, the Longfonds and the Hartstichting for my contribution to the establishment of smoke-free catering. The parties were at the station for 4.5 years and in 2008 everything became smoke-free.

I was 11 and a half years (1977) when  the rheumatism started. It was a life of trial and error: For a while it went reasonably well with me but suddenly and for an unknown duration it was more or less ‘shitty’ again. My life until my 39th year personally and certainly not really got going. Those who know me from the past know that I never let myself go, and that’s how I started to set up Swingsteesjun in 2004 with great enthusiasm. It was a success but after half a year I was again with too much pain and too much trouble on the side. It just did not work anymore to do all the work.

The big turnaround: 1 August 2005

Somewhere in early July 2005 I applied for a medicine with the help of the rheumatologist. Three days after receiving the TNF-blocker Enbrel- injection, I left my bed smoothly and pain free in the morning. It was Friday, August 1, 2005. I did have a good time, but I have had “zero, totally none, niente, 0.0%” of rheumatism since then (but always injected every 10 days). Thanks to this medicine, I was in the power of life just after 28 years.

LUCKY ME. IT IS / WAS A WORLD WONDER.

Besides a super good health, ever since, the bycatch was the love of my life. Because of the disease, it failed to maintain a relationship; “My record was 2 years”. Since mid-August 2005 I have a relationship with that cute nice lady here at the top right of the picture.

At Letz Party party nights it is ‘long live fun and fun’ but in the basics it is also the above story that I always take to the party. I’m curious about your story

With kind regards,

William Appelman

Organizer Letz Party

Appelman Events