The Party Never Stops for CircoLoco

It’s past 1 A.M. on the Friday before Halloween, and partiers are still rolling up to the makeshift dance floor of a warehouse at Brooklyn’s Navy Yard. Of course, they’ll be raving well into the morning, and while the space was already packed, CircoLoco is known for joyously pushing the limits of venue capacity — as well as permissible decibel exposure.

By day, the Navy Yard is an active ​​shipyard on the East River but for back-to-back nights — and mornings — on Halloween weekend, CircoLoco, along with its U.S. partner, the rave party organizer Teksupport, transformed the complex into a mecca of deep-toned house, bathed in red light. The first night of DJ sets was headlined by Bronx-born duo The Martinez Brothers, followed on Saturday by Detroit electronic legend Seth Troxler.

Long before CircoLoco became a global institution, the brand began in 1999 as a free after-hours party at Ibiza’s DC10 nightclub. Co-founders Antonio Carbonaro and Andrea Pelino, both Italy-born promoters, did virtually no PR for the event, allowing news of the no-frills party to spread by word-of-mouth throughout the island. Starting at 6 A.M. on Monday morning, club-goers would head to CircoLoco for part two of their “night out,” sometimes staying as late as 6 P.M. Eventually, the event proved popular enough to be promoted to a permanent residency at DC10, where, 23 years later, it still takes place weekly during the Ibiza travel season. More recently, the co-founders expanded the brand, bringing the party to cities across Asia, South America, Europe and the U.S.

Over two decades since its inaugural party, Carbonaro is still doing the lineups and choosing the roster. “This is the same work and decisions I’ve made since the beginning [when] CircoLoco began 23 years ago,” he tells Hypebeast.

While endeavoring potential acts are dying to know how one gets tapped to take the stage at the world-renowned club night, Carbonaro prefaces his answer with a shrug before billing the process as an ambiguous “mix of different strategies,”

“Not everyone has to come to play,” Carbonaro says. “There are so many artists we’d like to play, yes, but it depends on the situation. We always produce so many events worldwide, so it’s important for us to consider the promoter, the brand, the festival.”

Known for tapping DJs at the early stages of their career and platforming female DJs — who are often underrepresented on nightclub rosters — CircoLoco has amassed an intercontinental cult following off of Carbonaro’s fluid approach to curating and booking acts. This past summer’s 24-date run, the longest party season in CircoLoco history, placed the likes of industry veterans Peggy Gou and Blond:ish alongside growing cult-favorite acts such as Sweden’s Kornél Kovács and recent Berklee College grad NASAYA. When CircoLoco held its first party, DC10 was a music bar licensed to host just 80 people. As the brand has grown over the decades, its down-to-earth ethos has been preserved thanks to Carbonaro digging into the scene’s underground to scout out and book exciting DJs regardless of their follower count.

“It’s an art,” Carbonaro says of the booking process. “There is a different crowd everywhere we go, so we get to play with the lineup in different ways. We’re always working with new artists [that] we want to play at the party.”

Nightlife was among the industries that took a blow during quarantine measures, with many mainstay venues closing their doors for good and others still paying off pandemic-era debts today. Some clubs attempted to adapt by holding live streamed performances, an idea that Carbonaro didn’t even consider, opting to erect a more permanent infrastructure.

CircoLoco Records was launched in May 2021 as a joint venture with Rockstar Games. With the help of Teksupport, the label released its first project two months later, a compilation album called Monday Dreamin.’

“We had the opportunity to continue to work closely together on music, just not in an event form,” Teksupport founder Rob Toma says. “We were able to come together to basically create CircoLoco Records, which is a very special project for all of us.”

Although CircoLoco is back to putting on raves of a thousand-plus attendees, Toma affirms that the label “is here to stay for good.”

“It’s one of those things that is going to help the [dance music] scene in the long run by bridging live music, entertainment, fashion and now video games” Toma continues. “Antonio is at the focal point of all these things in our scene already.”

On working with Rockstar, Carbonaro says that while a partner known for making video games was surprising twist for CircoLoco’s next venture, when the opportunity to create a label cropped up, “we figured that this was a way to bring us all back together and we push our scene forward, not just for our direct community, but basically for the entire community globally.” Songs from the Monday Dreamin’ LP can be heard at the fictional nightclubs of Grand Theft Auto Online, as well as on in-game radio stations.

What’s next for the brand that never seems to cease partying? Well, at the current moment, Carbonaro and Toma are excited that Drake has lifted the “CircoLoco” name for one of his Her Loss singles.

“It’s the best,” Carbonaro says, smiling. “We’re just really blessed.