Music

Venue owned by Andrew WK closes after hosting neo-Nazi festival

by Jeremy Mersereau

Like everything else with “Party” in its title, downtown Manhattan venue Santos Party House is owned in part by Party Rocker #1/reincarnation of Dionysus Andrew WK. You’d think that such a storied party pedigree would prevent the accommodation of notoriously anti-fun gatherings like far-right, racist music festivals… but that appears not to be the case.

Over the weekend, the Party House hosted the second instalment of Oi! Fest, a punk festival heavily associated with skinhead culture. Bands who played the event, such as Oxblood and Close Shave, have been called out in the past for their connections to the white power crowd. Also worth noting: the Southern Poverty Law Centre explicitly brands it as a “hate music” festival, calling it “an important microcosm of the landscape of hate music worldwide.”

Strangely, Santos Party House is now closed as of May 29th, seemingly for good. Venue management stresses that the closing has nothing to do with the Oi Fest!, but the timing and sudden nature of the closing is peculiar if nothing else. “It was a 10-year lease,” manager Sean Kane told DNA Info. “Our lease is up and we’re not renewing it.” Venue management has emailed promoters, saying all upcoming events at the House are cancelled.

For their part, co-owners/artists like Andrew WK and rapper Despot obviously had no notion of a racist music festival taking place at their venue:

Regardless of the reason for the club closing, I think we can all agree any venue’s final event being a skinhead festival is pretty sad… especially when your club is owned by the Party Monster himself.

[h/t DNA Info]