Brooklyn Pacha throws open its doors Friday with Loco Dice, Ilario Alicante and HoneyLuv headlining the opening-night party, followed Saturday by a celebration marking Nervous Records’ 35th anniversary with Louie Vega, Oscar G and Victor Calderone. The two-night launch, running Nov. 6 and 7, gives the nightlife brand a permanent, year-round home inside the former Great Hall in Brooklyn.
According to pacha-nyc.com, the opening party bills Loco Dice, Ilario Alicante and HoneyLuv as the artists tasked with inaugurating the debut venue, calling them three of house and techno’s most notable names. The venue sits at 140 Stewart Ave. in Brooklyn, per Brooklyn Pacha’s own site, where tickets for the Friday lineup start at $40.
Loco Dice is a longtime fixture in underground house and techno, while Ilario Alicante is an Italian techno DJ, according to reporting from amNewYork. HoneyLuv, meanwhile, is a rising house music artist whom edmtunes.com describes as one of house music’s faster-rising names.
A Retrofitted Space With Industrial Bones
The new indoor space takes over the former Great Hall, the same account from edmtunes.com notes, and the room has been retrofitted with upgraded sound and lighting while keeping its industrial bones intact. amNewYork’s reporting frames the goal similarly, describing an intimate setting meant to bring internationally recognized artists to the borough rather than replicate the scale of Pacha’s outdoor productions.
That split matters because Pacha New York is running two distinct venues with different jobs. The open-air site handles massive summer productions, while the new indoor club gives the brand a smaller, more focused room to keep parties going all year, per Dancing Astronaut. Pacha New York debuted that open-air venue earlier this past summer, the same outlet’s reporting indicates, ahead of the indoor club’s arrival.
Nervous Records Marks 35 Years Saturday
Saturday’s program shifts focus to Nervous Records, the New York City independent dance label celebrating its 35th anniversary at Brooklyn Pacha. Louie Vega, Oscar G, Anané and Will Automagic are on the lineup, with Victor Calderone appearing as a special guest, according to the event listing on pacha-nyc.com.
Nervous Records started in 1991 on the streets and dancefloors of New York and has since built a catalog of more than 5,000 releases, the same pacha-nyc.com listing states. Will Automagic is associated with The Carry Nation, per amNewYork’s reporting on the lineup.
Part Of A Larger Comeback Story
Brooklyn Pacha’s launch follows the collapse and bankruptcy of the Brooklyn Mirage, a backdrop that has stirred both excitement and wariness among electronic music fans and nearby residents, as Gothamist has reported. Pacha executives have said the venue takeover would create 450 jobs and generate $75 million in direct economic activity annually for the city, according to that same outlet.
It’s not Pacha’s first run at New York nightlife. The brand previously operated a 30,000-square-foot venue on West 46th Street in Manhattan before shuttering it in January 2016, EDM.com has reported, with this year’s plan calling for year-round operations to pivot around the Great Hall once it received its upgrades. The Brooklyn club carries a legal capacity of 5,300 patrons, according to The New Yorker, while Brooklyn Magazine has reported the approved capacity breaks down to roughly 5,300 outdoors and around 2,500 indoors.
Tickets for both opening-weekend shows are available through pacha-nyc.com, with the Friday lineup starting at $40 per Brooklyn Pacha’s site. For now, the two-night launch stands as the clearest sign yet that Pacha intends its Brooklyn foothold to run well beyond a single summer season.
