From Boat Parties To Themed Events: How Crust Nation Makes Waves With Eventbrite

Arrive at Pier 36 in lower Manhattan at 9pm on a weekend and it’s packed full of revellers eager to board one of the many departing iBoatNYC boat cruise parties. There’s something for everyone—Latin and Reggaeton, Hip-Hop and R&B, EDM or a multi-level yacht featuring all three—and with regular sell-out events, attendees are lucky to snag a ticket. 

“When we started, boat parties weren’t cool,” explains Evelyn Szachniewicz, COO of Crust Nation, iBoatNYC’s parent company. “But we killed it in terms of making boat parties popular.”

It’s hard to believe that when the boat parties first launched in the early 2010s, they struggled to convince promoters and DJs to come on board. 

“We were begging people to work with us,” says Evelyn. “When we got some DJs interested we still had to get creative. They weren’t the biggest names and our boats had a capacity of 800, so to sell out these events was not an easy task.”

In 2019, everything changed. They came up with the concept of multi-genre boat parties—Latin music on one floor, EDM on another—to reflect and celebrate the multicultural diversity of New York City. “Almost immediately we were sold out every Friday and Saturday,” explains Evelyn. 

The tides have certainly turned. iBoatNYC now hosts hundreds of events every year—from boat parties to themed nights across the city—and its exponential growth has been in partnership with Eventbrite’s industry-leading marketing tools.

Saving time (and effort) with timed entry

With the number of events under Crust Nation’s umbrella, Eventbrite’s new timed entry tool—which allows organizers to create fully-customizable, recurring events in minutes—has helped the team save time and increase the volume of events. 

“Automating event creation has cut down 8-10 hours of work per series, making everything way more efficient,” explains Evelyn. “Since it’s quick to set up, we can list more events without extra effort.”

Using the timed entry tool instead of manually programming events also means fewer mistakes. “Everything stays consistent and accurate, so we don’t have to worry about small errors,” she adds.

Timed entry also allows organizers to run ads efficiently across all of the events in a series, which for Evelyn and team, is key. “It definitely helps us with not wasting money, pausing campaigns or having to change links or lose comments on ads.”

“I don’t think anyone else does [timed entry] as well as I’ve seen it on Eventbrite,” she adds.

💡Pro Tip: If time-saving is a priority to you, try Eventbrite’s AI tool. Generate event descriptions at the click of a button, so you can focus on other tasks.

Targeting custom audiences through Eventbrite’s Paid Social Ads (for a fraction of the price)

The team has placed ads on Instagram and Facebook, using Eventbrite’s Paid Social Ads integration—and seen promising results.

Being able to target custom audiences through Eventbrite is “very effective and efficient”. Evelyn can easily use customer lists of people who have already attended their events or target customers with similar music tastes through Eventbrite’s Spotify integration. 

“The Spotify integration gives you artists who are a lookalike [to your primary artist] to target the interests of your audience,” she explains. “With that we are able to target audiences a lot better and it helps us identify who we might be trying to find online.” For example, for a tribute night for The Weeknd, Evelyn was able to target fans of multiple related artists such as Ty Dolla Sign, Travis Scott, and Rihanna. 

She adds: “It’s all great for saving time—which decreases the labor cost and means our team is not overwhelmed.”

What’s more, Eventbrite often has a better cost per click (CPC) than going direct through the social media platform. “For a recent paid ads campaign for a Taylor Swift Tribute Party, targeting through Eventbrite resulted in a cost of $0.25 per click, compared to $0.50 per click on Facebook,” she shares.

💡Pro Tip: Interested in running themed events around artists like iBoatNYC? Check out our TRNDS 2025 annual event trend forecasting guide to read about the rise of niche events. 

Boosting brand awareness through TikTok integration

With such an eclectic mix of events, it’s no surprise that Crust Nation caters to a broad audience of tourists, music lovers, and people of all ages. 

“If you come to a boat party, you’ll see people in their early 20s out of college and I’ve seen people in their 70s having a great time—they are bumping to the music or sitting outside, chilling and watching the skyline,” explains Evelyn.

So when they heard about Eventbrite’s industry-leading TikTok integration—where organizers can promote their events on the platform—they were eager to try it. 

For iBoatNYC, the integration has proved an exciting opportunity to boost brand awareness and reach new audiences—particularly those looking for something to do in the city.

“It’s definitely great [for] brand awareness,” says Evelyn. “We do get a lot of exposure. So even having that link is helpful because people can click and then buy it directly there.” 

Combined with TikTok ads, which the team runs directly, their events are gaining a lot of traction on the platform. 

Evelyn says that while ticket sales aren’t huge yet, compared to other platforms, she is optimistic that users will become more familiar with buying tickets through TikTok.

💡Pro Tip: Anyone with a TikTok account—artists, brands, attendees, content creators—can post your event link to their videos, making it easier than ever to get the word out about your events.

Taking smart risks that pay off

Building an events empire like Crust Nation requires a particular mindset. Founder and CEO Ahmad Allan believes in order to create successful events, organizers need to take calculated risks. 

“I think you just have to do it [launch a new idea],” he says. “Some people just imagine it. They come up with it and they make plans, but the plan is never the same as real life.”

He advises conducting market research and not being afraid of failure—for him every step is a learning opportunity. He says: “If you fail, you fail. You go back and you write it down and you review what happened and you try again. You know what I mean? Just don’t stop trying.”

Still, no new concept is without risk. So when they try something new, they start small, explains Evelyn.

“If something works then we know to move it to a bigger boat next time, so we can sell more tickets,” she says. “When it comes to taking on risks, it’s about having as little overhead as possible and cutting costs in different places. So in case it doesn’t work, we’re not ending up in a huge hole.”

Building a successful events empire like Crust Nation is no mean feat. It has taken hard work, calculated risks and utilizing Eventbrite’s industry-leading marketing suite to supercharge its success.