As soon as Fred Again wrapped up his second Spark Arena show, 250 people headed to Haughey Mansion, a flat in Auckland’s Three Kings. If they were lucky enough to get the address, they’d get to see Joy (Anonymous), Kanine, and Sota on the decks in the living room that night.
Haughey’s five flatties -Jacob, Caleb, Abby, Emma, Emily (and friend Lilly) - hatched the plan to host the afterparty as soon as Joy’s WhatsApp contact details were posted in a mega fan group chat. These chats are often filled with pop-up gig rumours, pres planning and, every now and then, legit messages from the acts.
“We began frantically sending the link and demanding the chat spam only two words: ‘Haughey Mansion’,” flatmate Abby told George FM. “We got a vague response by the Joy Anonymous crew saying 'we’re in' and clung to the idea that we could pull it off.”
Just to be sure, flatmate Emma headed to Fred’s Wellington show - which Joy opened for - with a now “iconic” sign that has the same two words that the group chat saw a billion times.
“She got a big thumbs up from the Joy Anon crew, so we started prepping for the masses.”
Emma's sign she took to Wellington. Credit: Supplied
A DM conversation between Big Hen (Henry Counsell, a 6’5 human and one-half of Joy (Anonymous)) and Abby confirmed that they were well and truly on. They invited “as many joyous people from the WhatsApp community as possible” and even tried to get a private event permit from the council.
The wait time for that kind of thing is six weeks, so it was futile, but “the show had to go on regardless".
“As soon as Fred’s event finished we posted our address and by the time we got home, there were already people crowding at the end of the driveway.”
An early noise complaint threatened to derail plans, but the Haughey hosts knew they had to take whatever punishment came their way to ensure the people got what they wanted.
And they did. Big Hen and his co-star Louis Curran snuck in through the back door. Before they hopped on the decks - balanced on a beer pong table propped up by two wooden pallets - they chatted with the hosts. Big Hen talked to Abby about the music she makes and was even seen sending videos to Fred (who the flatmates “hope had FOMO”).
“They were both such genuine humans,” she said. “As soon as they arrived, they gave us all big love and appreciation!”
“They fit in perfectly, jumped on the decks straight after having a yarn and the crowd was roaring to go.”
Soon after that, UK DJs Kanine and Sota rocked up.
“We were so stoked,” Abby recalled. “Everyone had a turn entertaining the crowd.”
“At one stage, all of us flatmates were behind the decks and we had a big moment of appreciation for one another. Pretty sure there were a few ‘how the FUCK did we pull this off?’ comments.”
“It was absolutely mental, didn’t even feel real for us,” Abby added. “I woke up this morning and had to check my camera roll to make sure it wasn’t a fever dream.”
Haughey popping off. Credit: Supplied.
Nothing lasts forever though, especially a kickons with three of the biggest DJ acts in the world in a suburban Auckland street on a school night. The cops showed up at 1:15 AM and politely ended the party.
Abby ensured that the night ended smoothly and “everyone was on their best behaviour”.
Joy (Anonymous)'s IG story from the night
If Fred doesn’t have FOMO, I’ve got enough for the both of us. Big Hen himself even piped up in the Joy WhatsApp group with a rave review of the night:
“Shoutout to the Haughey Mansion. We love doing these kinds of shows. It’s how we started and we don’t intend on stopping!”
Times change, values don’t. Up the Haughey Mansion.
