Ceremony PHL: A Condemnation
Published on January 3rd, 2026
By now, most of us have seen or heard news of a new goth night here in Philadelphia called Ceremony.
I first became aware of them several months ago when they first started making a major push on social media. Obviously, my interest was piqued. I had never heard of the DJ that was running it nor had anyone I know in the scene talked about a new night happening. This was really strange to me.
When looking at their page, I immediately became suspicious. The night hadn't even happened yet (their first event is tonight) and they already had tons of dancefloor footage posted on instagram. After only a cursory glance I could see that most of the content posted there had been stolen from a bunch of creators (a lot of them young women who aren't even local). I know one person personally who had a video of them posted without credit or permission. This video was taken at DJSC. It was taken down pretty quickly, probably because it was recognized and they rightfully got shit for it.
The rest of the videos, however, were not made by anyone locally. The original creators of that content probably aren't even aware that it's being used to promote this event.
Looking a little deeper (but not much) it was clear that the people putting on this event were using a TON of AI. There's one especially egregious example here, but their flyers are also AI generated as is a lot of the resident DJ's other promotional material. Using generative AI as a working creative is really embarrassing. It shows a lack of respect for creative work generally, but it also looks atrocious and shows a lack of effort, care, and quality.
More recently I've received information that's way scarier. Apparently the DJ, Evan, has been banned by multiple goth events here in Philly for predatory behavior towards women, both in and outside of the club. This discovery makes some of his captions and comments even more disturbing. They seem to be potentially mocking women's concerns.
With all this in mind, I would not recommend attending Ceremony, tonight or ever. Originally I thought this was another fairweather nightlife profiteer trying to make a quick buck off of our community, but it's far more sinister. The DJ is not a part of our scene, and in fact has been largely exiled from it for being a threat to others' safety.