Nightclubs in Dublin have become a bit of a rarity over the years, and this evening another venue’s future has been thrown into doubt, as Bodytonic announce their plans to cease their Jam Park operations at Airside, Swords.

The Bodytonic crew announced their ambitious plans to take over the former Wright Venue back in 2019, enjoying huge success in its opening year as a venue, games outlet and of course, welcoming night club heavy hitting promoters District 8, Subject and Hidden Agenda to the venue space.

Sadly, just as the industry looks set to return to action after an unprecedented 15 months of closure due to the Covid pandemic, the decision has been made to pull the Jam Park brand and operations from the venue, as the city and its surrounding areas mourn yet another venues loss.

Bodytonic releases a statement outlining the closure:

Unfortunately we’ve got some bad news: we are closing our site at Airside in Swords for good. We’ve tried our best to come to an agreement regarding our lease since the Covid pandemic forced us to close, but no dice. So we are now left with no choice but to close in Airside and look for somewhere else. 

From the very start of Jam Park we had a saying: ‘play the long game’. Like any project we’ve done, we knew it would take us at least 2-3 years to make this set of notions work, but the truth is we barely got out of our own half!

When we opened in summer 2019, games, live music shows, club nights, Eatyard food vendors, markets, talks, film screenings, bingo, big screen & sound sports, fitness classes, and even a rooftop farm were all part of the Jam Park gameplan.  However we only had a chance to be open for 9 months before Covid hit. It’s ironic that during the time of closure is when we began to find our feet with the place. Between building a great team, streaming weekly online games events, delivering overflowing pints of dodgy Guinness, resetting our outside areas with a summer festival feel, growing fruit & veg on the rooftop, not to mention hundreds of incoming table bookings and events, we had developed a great sense of optimism about the future. It’s amazing how fit you can get when you’ve 15 months of pre-season training!

All of that is now gone. To be told this news one week before we reopen is a bitter pill to swallow, maybe if we’d have been told 6-12 months ago it would have been easier to accept. But the game is the game. Now we need to find somewhere else to play. 

To everyone who has booked in with us this summer, we are very sorry to say we will have to cancel. We will be sending out cancellation notices shortly, but nonetheless thank you for having booked with us, maybe we’ll see you somewhere else in the future.

To all of the amazing team we have working in Jam Park, we thank you so much for your tireless work, energy and belief in the project. We’ll be aiming to source alternative employment for you all.

A huge thanks go to the whole District 8 crew, you are absolute legends and Dublin needs you. No doubt you’ll press on and continue the amazing clubbing machine you have created.

To everyone who had pencilled dates for live music shows, record fairs, markets, bingo & games events, exhibitions, talks etc, unfortunately consider all dates null and void at Jam Park.

We all had big plans for here, loads of ideas hatched over last 12 months, ready to go, all in vain. Hopefully some iteration of Jam Park will pop up again somewhere else. If you know of any free spaces, get in touch !

Until then it’s….game over.

xxx
Jam Park.

Ps. If anyone has any ideas/leads on storage space, please get in touch. We’ve a fair bit of house-moving to do. Also note we’ve the largest stock of disco balls in the country, if you wanna buy some…

District 8 also just wrote their statement:

We wish to express our disappointment to learn that Bodytonic are ceasing their Jam Park operations at Airside, Swords. It’s been an immensely challenging time for us all and in particular our industry over the past 15 months. Receiving this news, when we are getting closer to reopening is devastating. We thank, with great gratitude the entire Bodytonic/Jam Park team for helping us achieve a brief but amazing period in our District 8 journey.

At District 8, we’ve overcome obstacles and battled setbacks in the past and we will continue to do so. We are currently exploring options available to us and look forward to sharing our future plans with you. A huge THANK YOU to every one of you for your continued loyalty & incredible support since we started D8, 7 years ago.


We are also extremely thankful for the non-stop work being done for clubs & events by Give Us The Night & EPIC and we ask that you show them your support.


Please stick with us and we will return with District 8 news very soon.


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