Refuge NYC celebrates one year with 72-hour music marathon
Refuge NYC will close its first anniversary season with a 72-hour nonstop marathon featuring Deep Dish, Victor Calderone and Brothers Macklovitch.
Brooklyn’s Refuge NYC is marking its first year with a 72-hour nonstop music marathon from September 25 through 27. The finale follows a month of anniversary programming and brings extended sets, sunrise sessions and after-hours programming to the 500-capacity venue. The celebration arrives during another period of change for New York’s electronic nightlife, with new venues emerging as other longtime spaces prepare to close.
Deep Dish will open the anniversary finale on Friday with an exclusive 12-hour open-to-close set. The house duo of Dubfire and Sharam has continued making select appearances together, including a rare reunion at SXM Festival. They have also previously joined The BPM Festival for special performances, including the festival’s debut Miami edition.
Saturday shifts the booth to Refuge co-founder John DiMatteo and Craig “Shorty” Bernabeu, alongside Ragie Ban and additional special guests. The marathon then moves into Sunday morning with New York house and techno veteran Victor Calderone leading a sunrise session. Calderone has remained a familiar name across the underground circuit, including previous appearances alongside Deep Dish at The BPM Festival and Damian Lazarus’ Day Zero Tulum.
Brothers Macklovitch will bring the 72-hour run to a close Sunday night. The project pairs A-Trak with his brother Dave 1 of Chromeo, adding another side of electronic music to the final hours of the weekend. A-Trak has continued moving between solo work and collaborative projects, including his longstanding Duck Sauce project with Armand Van Helden.
Founded by DiMatteo and Bernabeu, Refuge opened between East Williamsburg and Bushwick with a deliberately stripped-back approach to nightlife. The venue operates without VIP sections or bottle service, placing its focus on the dance floor and sound. Its custom four-point REX analogue sound system was engineered alongside acoustic specialist Al Fierstein. Refuge says guests from more than 1,300 cities across 73 countries have visited during its first year.
That music-first approach places Refuge within a broader Brooklyn club landscape that continues to evolve. Sound quality has increasingly become part of the identity of smaller spaces, including Brooklyn’s Jolene Sound Room. Meanwhile, the city is preparing to lose another major electronic venue when Brooklyn Storehouse closes this fall.
Refuge has also launched a SoundCloud channel dedicated to recordings captured inside the club. The first release features an unannounced seven-hour back-to-back session between Seth Troxler and Victor Calderone. Troxler has long been associated with extended underground sets like his performance at CircoLoco’s New York programming.
The 72-hour finale brings Refuge’s month-long anniversary season to a close after a year spent building its place within Brooklyn’s underground. Deep Dish will open the final marathon on September 25 before the music moves through three continuous days of extended sets, sunrise sessions and after-hours programming. One year in, Refuge is celebrating the same way it built its identity. Refuge is keeping the focus on the sound system, the dance floor and the music until the very end.
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