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New York nightlife staple Richie Akiva, known for his legendary New York venues like Butter, 1OAK, and Up&Down, threw an epic party two weeks ago on Saturday, April 9th, that New Yorkers are still buzzing about.
The downtown penthouse bash on Thompson Street in Soho was filled with nonstop performances, dancing supermodels, top sports players and NYC notables mingling within the party, all of which partied into the wee hours, reminiscent to the scenes of New York throwback nights in the mid-2000’s, like ‘Butter Mondays,’ ‘Suede Tuesdays’ or Lotus nightclub back in the day, for those that remember the heyday of the New York nightlife social scene, before social media existed. Names like Ronson, Busta Rhymes, Cassidy, Jay Z, Diddy, and more including top athletes and supermodels, were out nightly at all the exclusive spots, during this legendary era, of which Akiva was one of the key curators and gatekeepers.
Akiva is known for throwing glamours, over-the-top, exclusive and VIP stacked events all over the world, from St. Barth to Cannes to Paris, from Los Angeles to NY to Miami. For his return to New York nightlife after the pandemic, Akiva definitely made a strong mark with the April 9th bash.
With a surprise DJ set by Grammy and Oscar winner Mark Ronson, who was a staple NYC DJ back in the 2000s, and has not Deejayed a New York nightlife party like this in at least a decade, plus DJ sets from Jus Ske, Politik and Cassidy, the music was definitely on point.
Among the 250 guests were sports stars like Alex Rodriguez and Giancarlo Stanton, and NBA players like Joakim Noah, Myles Turner, and Oshae Brissett. Surprise guest performers hip hop artists Busta Rhymes, Gunna (dripped in a diamond cross and black leather jacket), Badius (a new artist under Richie’s management gaining major buzz), Fivio Foreign (Sang city of God and Big Drip, Album dropped the day prior – a major new artist on the scene), and R&B legend Ne-Yo. Notable VIPs included a flow of models like supermodel Joan Smalls, actors such as Gossip Girl cast members like Thomas Doherty and Whitney Peak, plus a bevy of major bold-faced names across entertainment, business, tech, crypto, arts and all areas of notability. Distinguished guests, performers and partygoers alike celebrated into the wee hours enjoying the old school NYC vibe of the party that Richie curated.
Performances from Busta, Gunna and Ne-Yo were all impromptu, as the energy was flowing from Badius and Fivio, creating such an incredible vibe that the artists wanted to jump into the line up as Cassidy and Mark Ronson deejayed back to back, with Politik and Jus Ske leading off the night.
The party was also the the first bash for Akiva‘s new private social club concept, SOCIETE, a rotating pop up, invite-only party, with a focus on a top-level nightlife experience filled with good energy in exclusive environments, to create a vibe remnant of old school New York and European nightlife. The private social club will continue to host parties in NYC, many times to be announced last minute, and with rotating locations. Access to the membership social club will be granted by NFT, with an extremely limited amount of top tier memberships to be available. The NFT membership drop will be launching soon, with a waitlist currently growing.
Upcoming parties are planned for Cannes, New York City, and Miami.
All photos by BFA.
