An Ezoo 2023 PTSD Flashback!
[CANCELLED] Sara Landry @ Brooklyn Mirage
What can I say…I’m not shocked at the events that occurred (or lack thereof) last weekend at the Brooklyn Mirage. “I’m still on shift tomorrow”, “the venue still has me scheduled to play” were phrases I heard throughout the week leading up to the grand reopening on May 1st. But I already knew….the show was not going to go on and it was definitiely not for a lack of optimism. For any New Yorkers who were around for the very last Ezoo (2023), we know this trauma all too well. CEO over promises a grand venue that could rival other major festivals, only to start construction mere weeks before it’s set to open. Rumors swirl about the company not paying construction workers and stages are left unfinished to the potential that was promised. Avant Gardner may have gotten a new CEO, but they are still facing the same problems.
I remember it just like it was yesterday. Maui and I were set to attend Ezoo 2023 on varying days on Randalls Island1, with us both attending together on Sunday (the last day of the festival). With this being my first EDM festival there, I was beyond excited to step into an entirely different world of music festivals2. So much so, that I went as far as to get a custom outfit made for the occasion. With information slowing coming out over time, Electric Zoo or Ezoo, owned by Avant Gardner, promised to take their long running festival to another level with new stage takeovers and a brand new Mega Mirage; building upon the momentum that the Brooklyn Mirage cemented over the past couple of years.
At the time, my boyfriend and Maui lived mere minutes away from the venue, with all 3 of us witnessing the construction progress. The week of the festival we noticed that not much was done in terms of construction and became concerned. We later saw multiple reddit threads alleging that Avant Gardner (the parent company) was refusing to pay their construction workers properly, leading to a walkout. Needless to say, Maui and I were nervous but optimistic as we both have had prior festival experience3. The show must go on right?
I recall working from home that Friday of Ezoo excited for the weekend to come. Around 11am that morning and an hour before gates were supposed to open, I get a text…..Ezoo was cancelled for the day and would reopen tomorrow evening at 4pm (later than initially planned) with refunds given to everyone involved4. I immediately called Maui and stood on the phone in shock. This was incredibly unusual for the Mirage and immediately felt bad for everyone that traveled from FAR to go to this festival. I know I would be way more upset if I was in that position.
Sunday was still set to be on schedule and as we continued to follow the drama surrounding this controversy, we walked to Randalls island (from the Bronx) as soon as doors opened at 1pm. We were determined to make the best of it, all things considered5. The space was enormous, with roughly 6 stages spread out over a section of the island. While I was awed at the time, in retrospect it felt very bare bones compared to the potential that was presented to us. Maui and I were able to get in with no issue, but for our friends who came later in the day, they almost did not make it in at all. It turned out the festival had oversold tickets and were refusing people access, leading to many bum-rushing past security and causing major havoc6.
Ezoo 2023 was controversial for the time, especially considering that Avant Gardner owned the rights to the festival and was responsible for the failure on all fronts. Even back then, Avant Gardner and the Brooklyn Mirage were notorious for overselling tickets for shows making the evidence even more damning. Around this time, there had also been multiple reports of missing and/or deceased ravers close to the industrial area where the Mirage was located, leading to more controversy7 surrounding Avant Gardner. Since this debacle, there was never been another Electric Zoo and by the looks of their official website and this most recent controversy around the Mirage, Im not sure if it will ever make a return.
I never planned on going to see techno High Priestess Sara Landry at the Mirage. I had seen her roughly 2x before the past 2 years, at Knockdown Center (read more about my adventures there last week here) and at BK Navy Yard or what is now known as Brooklyn Storehouse. With her underground, intense sound, she keeps the spirit of the rave alive in her sets and has one of the best crowds I have ever seen within the scene. As the week leading up to her sold-out shows was approaching, it was very clear to all of us locals that her Eternalism set was not going to happen. The playbook was repeating itself once more verbatim, only this time more dramatic and filled with more gaslighting.
![CANCELLED] SARA LANDRY PRESENTS ETERNALISM at Brooklyn Mirage, New York City](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!pywY!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45a29920-b4b3-4baa-8dfe-306b5d628b33_1920x1005.jpeg "CANCELLED] SARA LANDRY PRESENTS ETERNALISM at Brooklyn Mirage, New York City")
With construction commencing nearly 30 days away from opening, there was a lot of work to be done to fulfill the promises of Avant Gardners new CEO, Josh Wyatt. Leading into the week of Landry’s show, bare bones construction was still incredibly visible from a street level view; and as Reddit and TikTok threads started to go viral, it was clear that this had the potential of becoming an Ezoo 2023 2.0. Leaning on the side of “optimism”, the Mirage decided to put out what they thought to be a funny video regarding the situation, asking their workers (or so I would assume) about what they wanted to see in the new Brooklyn Mirage. In retrospect, I personally find it offensive to any NYC raver and offensive to gaslight ravers who had waited months for this grand re-opening that all had waited months for. Let me know your thoughts about the video below in the comments.
An hour before doors were supposed to open for Sara Landry’s SOLD-OUT Thursday show, everyone including the artist herself, was notified that the Brooklyn Mirage was “show ready” but not ready to open for the night and that everyone would be refunded; hopeful that they would pass the necessary inspections for the next day. To many’s surprise (I was not phased), they ended up having to cancel the entire weekend with the Mirage officially stating as of this week that their opening has been postponed “indefinitely”. While one weekend can feel shocking, indefinitely is baffling, especially considering that it later came out the NYPD refused to give permits for Ezoo 2023 due to unfinished construction8.
Enough about those fools though. What I really want to talk about is how Sara Landry cemented herself as the woman who could in the face of this adversity. Not only did she make formal announcements on her social media about ticket refunds (not to mention that she was keeping up with all of the drama from social media beforehand) but that she was able to get a new venue for her shows ALL FOR FREE! Now that is a woman who “gets shit done”. Whats even more is that she did twice as many shows as she was originally was supposed, at the aforementioned venues that I had previously seen her perform at. Talk about keeping network contacts on speed dial.
Pulling that off in a span of what I can assume to be under 24 hours is no easy feat considering all of the logistics involved. From what I saw online (both on Reddit and Instagram), Landry’s make up shows were incredible, cementing herself as the queen of techno. Honestly, hats off to everyone who helped to pull that off! It really does take a village to put on these types of events. As for the future of The Brooklyn Mirage, it remains to be seen. With no set opening day, I know many fans are nervous about the upcoming weeks leading into the Memorial Day holiday, as Excision9 is slated to headline two SOLD-OUT days, similar to Landry. While I wont be going to the Mirage until August for Wooli, I will be following this story closely in the meantime.
Until then, for those going to EDCLV NEXT WEEK, I’ll see you all under the electric sky!
Related Sets:
Sara Landry @ Knockdown Center, 2024 (the set I never got to fully see. Read more here)
Indira Pagnanotto @ Club Space Miami 2024 (I have seen her play and shes amazing)
For non-New Yorkers, Randalls island is a small island located off the coast of Manhattan with bridge connections to East Harlem and the South Bronx.
My first ever music festival was Panorama 2018 at that same location, but is what I consider to be a “normie” or non EDM focused festival.
Ezoo was my 4th music festival
Fun fact: Maui has STILL NEVER received his refund from the first cancelled day of Ezoo 2023, over 2 years later.
I personally had a great time! <3
In case you were wondering, the people who were denied access due to overselling were allegedly given refunds as well.
The BK Mirage lightly addressed this back in 2023, but to this day the murders/deaths were never officially solved by the NYPD.
https://ra.co/news/82727
Creator of the Lost Lands Music Festival