Meet 'bongo boy', the former actor who sent clubbers into a frenzy after randomly rocking up at a sober rave with his drum. Everyone thought the mysterious musician had been paid to perform at the event, and when they realised he was just doing it for fun, a search was launched to track him down.
Now, the hunt for 'bongo boy' is over - and it turns out, it wasn’t a bongo he was banging after all.
Danny Lestuzzi from Littleborough has come forward as the man who had sober ravers in Manchester ‘vibing all night.’
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He says he was shocked to see that the organisers of the sober rave were looking for him, as they wanted to thank him for bringing so much joy to partygoers and invite him to perform at future events.
“The amount of people that rang me up and said, ‘Oh my God, you know now you will never be known as anything else other than bongo by,’ my mate said ‘you’re not even a boy!’,” he said.
“I’m shocked because I was just going there for something I wanted to do basically. To be in an environment I feel comfortable in.”
Danny said the djembe, African drum, is a 'sacred instrument' he taught himself to play by ear, that has helped him through the most difficult times in his life.
The 45-year-old former actor who featured on BAFTA winning drama Buried, Shameless and Coronation Street, opened up about how he once used alcohol as a coping mechanism to get him through his battle of losing a parent.
“I’ve basically been drumming myself back to health because I’ve really struggled over the last couple of years with my mental health, so recently going to different sober places and taking drum has been something that I’ve been doing, it's all very new to me.
"I found a group of people that were putting on breathworks and holistic therapies, which I attended with a friend and this is where the drum found me,” he said.
Danny said he encourages people to try going to sober events the vibes are completely different and dreams of one day running his own sober events, which would also involve drumming.
“I would absolutely encourage people to go try out a sober rave. I came up through the 90s and been in the clubbing scene. I've been on the opposite of that spectrum, so to experience the same vibe as a club but for everyone to be sober in there, no alcohol, it was amazing. It’s such a different vibe.
“I would love to put on drumming workshops for people. My dream now is to try and get a sober space and run events all the time, and hire a space where I can fundraise to get more drums so people can come and play.
“Whoever suffers with depression or anything like that, when you’re playing the drums, it's meditative - it’s just you and the rhythm.”
“It’s spreading joy and taking it and vibing. I’ve been to a few sober events this year and someone told me about Dry Wave. I hope it really takes off for them and the girls at Flamingo AF and becomes popular because it was brilliant," he said.
Danny and his drum he calls Drumbelina, have been invited to play by Flamingo AF at the next sober rave in Manchester.
The previous event was a collaboration between Flamingo AF and DryWave.
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