Walking down Meserole Street in Brooklyn this weekend, it was hard to imagine the parties that were scheduled to happen at Brooklyn Mirage, the massive outdoor concert venue in East Williamsburg. Instead of attendants waving metal detectors in front of the box office, there were piles of wooden pallets sitting on rented construction equipment. Metal cacti in concrete planters lined the sidewalk outside. Instead of lines around the block, there was a single security guard sitting on a folding chair. He summarized the situation: "All the parties got canceled because the City didn't approve the permits."
Indeed, the weekend had been booked solid for the venue's season opening, which was supposed to be the debut of a new and improved venue, addressing common fan complaints including tiny bathrooms and paying with wristbands (no mention of my personal complaint about the Mirage, which was that it always felt like everything was made of foam). Thursday and Friday night were supposed to be sold-out shows by EDM DJ Sara Landry, followed by a day party on Saturday by CityFox, the promotional company owned by Billy Bildstein, who also happens to be one of the co-owners (with Swiss banker Philipp Wiederkehr) of Brooklyn Mirage and Avant Gardner, the company that operates the venue. A Sunday show by South African house DJ Black Coffee was supposed to close out the weekend.
By Thursday, though, fans were skeptical that the venue would open on time. Some had taken to walking around the complex, and posting to social media photos and videos of what was obviously still an active construction site, even up to eight hours before Landry's show was scheduled to happen.
On Wednesday, Avant Gardner put out a video on TikTok of their CEO Josh Wyatt explaining how safe the new venue would be, while wearing a hard hat.
But then, mere hours before opening night was set to take place, Brooklyn Mirage posted an announcement to their Instagram account:
"We've been extraordinarily transparent along every step of our Brooklyn Mirage rebuild—showing the long hours, the progress, and the passion behind it all," the statement read. "We want to be clear: the venue is show ready and the New Mirage has been built to exacting safety, structural, mechanical and technical specifications. However, we were not able to meet the final inspection deadline today."
Landry went on to play a surprise pop-up show that night at nearby Knockdown Center.
And what followed on Friday was confusion.
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