Moonlight at the Ranch VII! ‘Disco Fever!’ Dance-Off will shake-shake-shake you

By Peggy Kelly 

Santa Paula Times 

Everyone knew Disco was a hit - and hit hard - when Mike Brady, the perennial button-down Dad on television’s “The Brady Bunch” had his hair styled into an elaborate Fro worn with pride atop a paisley shirt. 

And that Fro might be yours at the September 21 Moonlight at the Ranch VII: “Disco Fever!” where you’ll “burn, baby, burn!” in the fast lane of the pulsing music that defined the 1970s. Moonlighters are already marking their calendar with a fluorescent pen, polishing their mirrored ball and breaking out glittery platform shoes to get ready to shake their groove thing at Moonlight at the Ranch VII: “Disco Fever!” 

Moonlight’s “Disco Fever!” celebration will start with “munchies” and no host beverages at 5:30 p.m., where you’ll get your groove on at Limoneira “Do the Hustle” Park. At 6:15 p.m. there will be an exciting “Disco Dance-Off” where contestants will take to a special dance floor to shake-shake-shake and show their smoothest moves that will be judged by audience applause.

At 7 p.m. you’ll boogie down to the Courtyard in front of company headquarters for a Studio 54 club experience, where all the movers and shake-shake-shakers of the Disco Era partied down. There you’ll find delicious dishes and delectable desserts from dozens of restaurants, bakeries, caterers and local foodie favorites. Your taste buds will thank you!!

The boogie will start to roll at 8 p.m. with Men on the Moon, who promise plenty of fabulous disco tunes where you’ll burn, baby, burn and be singing, “I couldn’t get enough, so I had to self-destruct!” Silent Auctions and Raffles will round out the evening of living it up Disco style!

You’ll love the nightlife, you’ll want to boogie with a disco high at this annual party, Ventura County’s signature celebration. Each year Moonlight at the Ranch benefits the Santa Paula Police & Fire Foundation and Chamber of Commerce. Tickets are only $60 each. 

Said Fire Chief Rick Araiza, Moonlight chair, “We’re excited about our seventh Moonlight celebration” and its salute to the music, characters and culture that defined the era. “Everyone loves disco music” that “burned up” the airwaves with its strong danceable beat.

Araiza noted the 1970s “were as a multi-faceted time,” from the dancing beat at Disco clubs and the changing worldwide political atmosphere to television shows that still retained an aura of great innocence even as “Saturday Night Live!” punctured American culture. “Jaws” was a film hit and the “Star Wars” craze was born (“May the Force be with you” remains a popular catchphrase) during a time that, to some, Disco clubs were the only places that mattered.