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PRESS RELEASE
News flash: Embassy Jakarta is going to close soon in early 2009!
Along with Embassy Club, the whole complex of Taman Ria Senayan is going to be progressively bulldozed off, starting with the Embassy Jakarta site. Following an acquisition by an industry giant, Taman Ria Senayan will undergo further development plans - the end of Embassy also mean the end of Balcony, Wonderbar, Public, Front Row, TGIF, Bebek Bali, Bugil's and all the whole lot of restaurants/bars/billiards/lounges in the ancient amusement park.
Taman Ria Senayan was built around fifteen years ago as a city lung slash amusement center similar to the Fantasyland (Dunia Fantasi) up north, in a smaller scale, and it was intended to provide an inner city recreation space for Jakarta's urban community.
However, soon the park was neglected and fell into oblivion - following some accidents, the rides were closed for public and Taman Ria was left in a wild state - built around a great artificial lake, it then transformed into a semi-wild jungle in a ghost town of fantasy rides, abandoned, the vegetation overtook most of its space.
In 1998, some people decided to make use of the outskirt parts of Taman Ria Senayan's ramparts, building there a complex of restaurants and clubs - preceding Embassy, there was the famous Lamborghini café, then the Bugil's, TGIF, Bebek Bali, Front Row and OPCO Group’s first establishment, Manna Lounge.
Following the successes of these restaurants/bars/lounges in 2001 OPCO Group acquired another empty, abandoned building next to the Front Row, Manna Lounge and Lamborghini building complex, and out of the Western club models, they built there the big club that had been the first era of Embassy Jakarta in June of 2002. It was one of the first major mainstream clubs in South Jakarta - Embassy Jakarta provided house, tech, progressive, trance, as well as hip hop in certain nights, and in mere months it had conquered the elite crowd of nighthippers in Jakarta. Underground, there was the club for the younger crowd: [CO2], and next to the lake, there lay a transformation of the older Manna Lounge into a hip hop club for expat and celebs: Manna House.
With its catwalk, its two-story building and its beautiful people from the upscale / A+ market, Embassy Jakarta had been the place where you had to be. It has been THE place for so many years. And it was in Embassy Jakarta that the first big international DJs came to Jakarta - it was also in Embassy Jakarta that some senior local DJs started their rise into celebrity.
Embassy Jakarta enjoyed enormous successes during almost four years, before it got burnt down completely by accidental fire from some short-circuited electricity conflict in early September 2005.
After almost eight months of renovation work, OPCO Group reopened Embassy Jakarta in mid May 2006, completely changed in style - if before, the old Embassy Jakarta was built in an industrial, minimalist style, the new Embassy was created with an eclectic style, art deco meets fine Rococo, with black chandeliers, including the one special ordered from Czech Republic that stood proudly in the middle of the main room, and white sofa installments. OPCO also installed Balcony as its own little jewel - cozy and luxurious, Balcony was intended to be a private member club on the second floor, and down below CO2 was re-baptized Wonderbar, with a dark style and colors. A little bit further, Manna House was closed not long after - it had also undergone a facelift and reopened by OPCO somewhere by the end of 2006 with an industrial style - it was then called Public.
Throughout its life, Embassy Jakarta has had many rival openings everywhere in Jakarta, but it still held solid as a rock: its reputation of fine clubbing experience with great music had almost been paralleled by a few other club – a few others succeeded, but none can ever match Embassy in terms of keep pushing things forward, which is the reason why the establishment is still loved and respected until today. Until today, so many people still frequent Embassy because it’s a brand they believed in. It had housed several local big events, a lot from the time they were still in infancy period. It had seen the birth of several reputable promoters with events such as Back in the days and Turn on Plastic by Future10, Clubhoppers Triple Deckers by Indika, as well as its own Sound of Embassy, Beat Camp, Re-public, and many more.
Embassy Jakarta is the only club with such a diversified resume of international guests, the most in Indonesia, one of the top ones in South East Asia: Techno Legends Laurent Garnier, Carl Craig, Sven Vath, Josh Wink, Stacey Pullen, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May, Godfathers of House Louie Vega, Deep Dish, Joey Negro, Doc Martin, and Gene Farris. Trance Kings BT, Blank & Jones, Kyau & Albert, and Scot Project, Prog Gods John Digweed, Satoshi Tomiie, Dave Seaman and James Zabiella, Electro King Pins Tiefschwarz, Booka Shade, D Ramirez, up to the occasionally ‘odd’ names in dance music – junglist DJ Rap, break-dancing beat freaks The Cuban Brothers, New York house band Tortured Soul, New Order’s legendary Peter Hook, Uber cool fashion and record label Kitsune, and the list goes on. These are only a few of those who have honored the decks of Embassy Jakarta with their music.
23 February 2008, Embassy put another massive step forward in Jakarta's nightlife industry: it organized the second installment of Embassy Playground, its own home-grown festival, with the world's legendary trance DJ & producer Paul van Dyk, accompanied by other famous acts such as Jose Padilla, Silent Disco, VHS or Beta, Grant Nelson, Belle & Sebastian, DJ Rectangle, and MC Vika Kova. It was a huge, unforgettable night.
And on its last New Year's Eve, Embassy Jakarta invited Funkagenda and Karizma, altogether with VJ Chris Andrews from Tiësto's tours.
In almost seven years of existence, Embassy Jakarta has surely witnessed so much - how many wild nights have been held there, how many international DJs have shaken down the crowd, how many memories for the staff and the ever-faithful audience. It has witnessed couples being formed in the nights, it has witnessed young clubbers grow up, it has housed so much, not only for the staff, but also for Jakarta, for the people, for the clubbers with whom Embassy has stood along for years.
This does not necessarily mean the end of Embassy, as throughout the year, 2009 will see Embassy develop its club night brand Sound of Embassy further in various venues in Jakarta and all over Indonesia, as well as the return of Playground 2009 in November. 2009 will also see Embassy further develop the scene in the other Embassy Clubs flagship cities, Bandung and Yogyakarta. This truly is not the end.
Surely though, if you have loved Embassy Jakarta like a lot of us do, then please come to our last party at the Taman Ria Senayan space on Friday, 16 January 2009 - it's going to be a tribute to Embassy Jakarta. A tribute to the monumental achievement this space has contributed in shaping one of Indonesia’s finest clubbing institutions, in shaping for the future of the Embassy brand.
By: Jonathan Rolandez and Yudha Budhisurya