BKLYN Yard given the boot

Last weekend, in every way. Photo by dennisandluba

Barely a week after its jam-packed season-opening weekend—replete with dance party, food-truck fest and pop-up swap—BKLYN Yard, the hipster hotspot on the Gowanus Riviera, is closed. According to a subscriber email blast from the good folks at MeanRed Productions, which runs the grassy space in Carroll Gardens, the group was handed its walking papers on Tuesday when their landlord renegged on their existing lease. In the note, MeanRed promised to keep fighting the good fight, reassuring its yardie fans that it will work to relocate and reschedule its summer programming. We sure hope so. Here’s the full email from MeanRed:

BKLYN Yard is closing

with heavy hearts, a message from MeanRed

To our Yardies…

Over the past four years, we have worked hard to create BKLYN Yard. You watched us grow from a small unknown independent venue into a space that hosted the best tacos in NYC, incredible talent (Lee Scratch Perry, Kaiju Big Battel, Dan Deacon & Jose Gonzalez to name a few), the Sunday Best dance series, the Gowanus Harvest Fest, the BK County Fair, Score! Pop-Up Mega Swap, Parked: Food Truck Festival, and countless lobster bakes, pig roasts, BBQs and more. This past Memorial Day Weekend, we were so proud to open our doors and display all the hard work we have been putting into the space to make this summer even better…from our new bar, to our atm, to our bocce court. Thousands of you came out and supported us and made it one of the most beautiful weekends we have had yet, so we are sad to announce, that last weekend was the final weekend of BKLYN Yard in our Carroll Gardens home.

Our landlord of the past four years, who used to share our vision for BKLYN Yard, notified us on Tuesday May 1st, that they would no longer honor our lease which had been in place since early this year. They chose not to give us an opportunity to renegotiate, and requested that we take what we have built, and terminate all of our confirmed plans and schedule for BKLYN Yard this summer.

BKLYN Yard is a labor of love for MeanRed, rooted in our core company values: Love for artists, food, music and community. We are sad to see our passion project go in its brightest year, and are sad to let down all the people who have support and worked with us for the past 3 summers.

But if there is one thing we pride ourselves in, its our ability to think outside the box, to take a leap when there is no net, and to reach our highest visions. We wouldn’t be who we are if we let hurdles keep us down. If we can turn a dim sum restaurant into a nightclub, a loft into a members-only club, and a toxic yard into a beautiful summer oasis… we can do anything.

Rest assured, our renegade spirit and love for pop-up spaces will come alive again this summer — very possibly with the same collaborators and programming you see on our current schedule… And very possibly even better than we had planned before.

Doug Singer, Eamon Harkin and Justin Carter’s Sunday Best series will continue on at another location, including this Sunday with DJ Koze. You can keep an eye on them at www.sundaybestnyc.com

In the meantime, we want to say:

Thank you for sharing in BKLYN Yard. We hope you’ll continue on this crazy ride with us as we bring you what’s next. Stay tuned, we will pop-up where you least expect it, with the words:

“Built by BKLYN Yard”

With love,

MeanRed Productions