Man's collection of nightclub flyers shows dazzling visual history of electronic music

It’s likely you’ve already seen a part of Marco Brusadelli’s (Italy) collection – these innocuous pieces of paper are pinned on to wooden street poles, plastered on to the sides of walls, and taped on to the door inside of toilets. 

One morning, they’ll suddenly appear, and pepper your line of sight during your commute – promising that next Friday, or Saturday, or Tuesday, will be the best night of your life, so long as you show up at ___, and listen to ___, and hey – maybe you’ll get a free drink, or cheap entry, if you enter early enough with all your friends. 

Most of these flyers stay up long past the night that they advertise, inevitably torn-down by city authorities or ripped away by the weather. But some of them were carefully retrieved by an Italian collector, who aimed to preserve the visual remnants of electronic music and nightclub culture in the 1990s and 2000s. 

In 1991, Marco – who hails from Cisano Bergamasco, Italy – started peeling these nightclub flyers off the walls during his travels, and keeping them in folders in his house. Over the course of 24 years, he collected 113,012 individual rave and club flyers, making a room in his house an unofficial museum for the largest collection of night club flyers.

His collection includes only flyers of the major clubs, parties, and DJs associated to electronic music and its subgenres, such as: house, techno, trance, hardcore, progressive, drum’n’bass, EDM, and afro/cosmic music. 

He has over 12,000 rave flyers and over 17,000 club flyers from around the world, with an additional 11,611 from the United Kingdom, and over 40,000 from different regions in Italy. 

And Marco said that according to Guinness World Records guidelines, he has 113,012 flyers total – but the collector also has an additional 5,003 flyers from different Italian venues and other events that did not fit the rules, for a true total of 119,897 items.

All of his flyers live in organized drawers in his music room, perfectly sorted by country, party/rave, and dimension (i.e. rhythm, pitch, volume, articulation, and timbre). 

“This collection represents more than 25 years of electronic music history and its contemporary art,” Marco said. 

“[The] best DJs, art directors, promoters, graphic designers and traders/collectors have helped me to make this project a global project…

“I'm sure that this is the largest collection in the world because I'm trading with major flyers collectors worldwide and nobody [has] so many different ones!”

Because of the expanse of his collection, dating from 1985 to 2015, Marco ardently believes that his collection represents the history of modern electronic music. 

He collaborated with different websites and discussion forums on many projects related to flyers, sourcing his materials from collectors all over the world, who were all united through the sounds and experiences of contemporary nightclubs. 

From the poster’s inception, to the event’s planning and flyer’s design, all DJs, promoters, art directors, graphic designers, flyer collectors, clubbers and ravers all over the world are involved in this form of artistic and musical expression. 

And today, these flyers are considered an important expression of contemporary art, as there are many books, magazines, websites, galleries, and exhibitions that celebrate the grassroots design movement. 

“To be able to participate [in] the Guinness World Records is a dream that has come true for me. When I was younger I was given a Guinness World Records book by my parents every Christmas,” Marco said. “I used to tell myself that one day I would have been part of it.” 

“So I have worked for more than half of my life to create this collection for no [monetary] reasons,” he continued. “My hope is that my passion could inspire new generations to learn more about the wonderful history of the ‘house and techno revolution.’”

Now, after receiving his title, Marco has stopped collecting, and dedicated the rest of his “new life” to helping less fortunate people. 

Perhaps inspired by the communal spirit that music and gatherings bring, he said his collection is still available to “anyone that loves ‘the world of night club flyers.’”

“It makes me happy to share my passion with people that appreciate my hard work,” said Marco.

Congratulations again on your incredible collection, Marco – you’re Officially Amazing!