It was never particularly easy to get in anyway (understatement of the century), but now we can safely say it’s going to be impossible. After seven years, popular Parisian Donghu Lu-based club Le Baron has decided to shut up shop, or club. Famous for its notoriously tough door policy, if you did to manage to squeeze your way in past the bouncers, you’ll remember the venue for its always-bouncing dancefloor and consistently strong bookings like Hudson Mohawke, Kavinsky and Virgil Abloh (back when international artists were a thing). The last party will be held on Saturday 26 June and they’ve got plenty of big farewell parties in the calendar, so there’s still another three weeks to try your luck on entry.
‘When I started Le Baron Shanghai, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted it to be. I knew the city did not have the type of club I wanted to open, and I knew that if we did it right, it would make an impact, and become a home for many. It is amazing what we have all experienced in this place over the past seven years.
Almost two thousand parties have given us an endless parade of friends and music; we’ve watched the city and its nights change in so many ways, and honestly I have always been happy with what Le Baron meant and what it has stood for during its many phases so far.
Recently Victor and I have been talking about how we feel that we've done everything we could possibly hope to do and more with this club, in this space. We are truly grateful for the memories made, and we also feel that it is time to wrap up the show. It is really as simple as that.
All good things come to an end, and for this first chapter of Le Baron in China, this is the end.
So for the next four weeks we are going to celebrate this place and what it has meant to us, to all of our friends, and everyone who came through over the past seven years. And then on June 26, we will have our last dance at Le Baron, and say goodbye to Donghu Lu.
I hope you can join us. With Love and Gratitude, Cody’
It’s not all bad news though. Allen says team Le Baron have plans to open another club named
GRNDCNTRL some time in the summer in Xintiandi, which ‘will share some of the same DNA [as Le Baron], but it will be a quite different concept.’
As they say, as one door closes another one opens – or at least, it’s in the works.
