LAST SUMMER, MORE THAN 5,000 Househeads from around the world gathered behind the Museum of Science and Industry to hear five old friends and selected guests spin House Music all day and all night, until someone finally pulled the plug and signalled the start of the exodus to the afterparty. From early in the morning, they pitched tents, barbequed, taught their kids how to dance and caught up with acquaintances old and new. There were no gates, no charge to get in, and outside of a very small and generally ignored space roped off behind the stage, no VIP area to speak of. Corporate sponsorship and merchandising were nowhere to be seen. House Music industry legends rubbed shoulder-to-shoulder with those of us who were still nursing when House Music was born.

The vibe was, in a word, electrifying. People everywhere were filled with the unbridled joy of experiencing something wholly pure, unadulterated. And the Chosen Few Picnic and Old Skool Reunion - an event created on a shoestring budget but more love than any woman or man alone is capable of giving - had become, hands down, the House Music event for Chicago, the United States, and beyond.

The picnic, like the Chosen Few DJ Crew itself, was the brainchild of Wayne Williams: the man who brought House Music - or the embryo of what would become House Music - from the gay clubs to a straight audience in the mid- to late-1970s, and who continues to build on a legendary reputation. I could try to summarize the story he told me over a two-hour interview in a few words, but 33 years as a DJ, two decades in A&R, and a life dedicated to showing you your new favorite song isn't something you can carry across so easily. Instead, I'll let the foremost ambassador for House Music culture tell it to you in his own words.

This is our Old Skool Reunion issue, so first I wanted to talk a bit about the Chosen Few and this year's Picnic. You recently added Terry Hunter to the original Chosen Few roster of yourself, Alan King, Jesse Saunders and Tony and Andre Hatchett. How did this come about?

You have to earn your stripes to be a Chosen Few member. Once a year we get together and talk about two or three people that we nominate to join the Chosen Few. Last year, Terry Hunter was selected as a proven and consistent DJ. To be a Chosen Few member, you have to consistently play good music.

This year you have Jamie 3:26, Brian Reaves, Greg Gray and Willie Wills as openers. Opening at the picnic is definitely one of the most sought after gigs in the city. How do you pick the guests?

It's funny, but the reason we started including other DJs was because none of us wanted to play early! But since people always ask us to play, and no one would want to play at 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon, we'll have guests. So we said we'd have some guests come in, some friends of ours, and have them play early. But honestly, the picnic really isn't about hearing other DJs play. It's about us playing for our people.

I'll tell you, Terry, there are a lot of reasons why we decided to do the picnic. The first is that a lot of us had moved out of town. The second was that even those that still lived here - Alan and Andre - weren't getting asked to DJ at other people's clubs, and they weren't DJing consistently. They were doing a party here and a party there but you can't wait for people to ask you to DJ, you just have to do your own party.

So we'd all come here around the 4th of July and all of us would be in town and the first thing people would say is "Where y'all DJing?" Well, no one's asked us to play anywhere! That's when I said we should do a picnic, and me and Alan kind of put it together from that point.

The first time we had a picnic, I'd say maybe 75 to 150 people were out there and it kept growing and growing and growing. Seventeen years later, there's over 5,000 people.

Alan told us in an interview a year ago that the thing he's most proud of is that you're all still friends, 25 years later. What keeps you guys together like that?