By Niki D’Andrea
In the past few weeks, we wrote about all the cool pool parties that were going on at the Hotel San Carlos: Adult Swim, House Aquatic, and especially Star Swim, which was the subject of both a slide show and my latest Niki at Nite column. The Friday night Star Swim was one of the coolest new nightlife events I’ve attended, and I was planning to go tonight to see The Necronauts and Dust Jacket.
Unfortunately, if I go tonight, there will be no music, no drinking, no swimming, and no pool party. It’d just be me, sitting on an empty pool patio staring up at the city skyline and listening to the sounds of traffic below. That’s because the City of Phoenix has shut down all pool party events on the rooftop patio of the Hotel San Carlos. The reason? According to the fire marshal, maximum capacity on the third floor rooftop patio of the hotel is 40 people. And Star Swim was drawing hundreds.
“Five hundred people came through last week, and we only let 125 people in,” says Jen Devereaux, who created the concepts for both the Star Swim and the House Aquatic events. “But [the fire department] had photos and everything, showing how many people were there, and they presented them to the General Manager of the hotel. They shut down everything.”
“I was in tears, because it was a such a cool event,” Devereaux continues. “This is typical attack-Phoenix-nightlife drama.”
Devereaux says she’s currently talking with the the manager of the Clarendon Hotel and hopes to get the Star Swim event moved there. As soon as we know where the parties are going, we’ll pass along the information. In the meantime, we’re left with yet another buzzkill on Phoenix nightlife from city officials.
Update: Adult Swim, one of the pool party events formerly held at the San Carlos, has been moved to the Clarendon hotel.
