August 1 will mark 12 weeks since Brooklyn Mirage promised to be “100% ready” to materialize. Now, just a week and change out from hitting its third straight month since the initial reopening date, the venue’s calendar is not only getting emptier, but it appears the delays and venue changes are already creeping into next month.
The latest installation of 9 a.m Banger has now been moved to The Great Hall, another venue in the Avant Gardner ecosystem with about half the Mirage’s capacity. The party was originally slated to take place at Mirage on August 2. Its relocation almost ensures even more will follow, as the venue and its leadership continue to scuttle with the launch of their 2025 season.
The first sign of trouble came just hours before the venue was supposed to raise its gates on May 1, cancelling Sara Landry’s opening night set after the venue failed a day-of safety inspection. Since then, the schedule has been wiped clean weekly (relocating or cancelling altogether shows and events featuring Black Coffee, Toro y Moi, Excision, and more), Avant Gardner’s CEO Josh Wyatt was fired, the company’s non-executive Chairman of The Board Gary “Destructo” Richards stepped in to manage day-to-day operations, and hedge fund founder Andrew Axelrod (whose Axar Capital has been quietly backing the venue for years) was reportedly installed to help with Brooklyn Mirage’s permitting problems. Then, a few weeks back, a source who works in operations for Avant Gardner and insisted their name be kept off the record for fear of retribution, told BKMAG the company was struggling to pay its employees. Another insider claimed to have overheard Richards discussing how Avant Gardner was “bleeding money” and quietly seeking a buyer.
Meanwhile, on Reddit, people left holding tickets for shows either cancelled outright or moved to venues with smaller capacities are scrambling to figure out how to get their refunds and what it means for tickets to be “revoked.” The lone event left on its books for this month is on July 31, which is the first of two nights of performances from Subtronics, and there’s no word on where or when those shows will now take place.
Brooklyn Mirage has yet to offer any public updates or statements since the postponement of its Memorial Day weekend shows two months ago.
The post Brookyn Mirage is Starting to Relocate August Shows appeared first on BKMAG.
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