There are parties that are a plan and parties that are a refuge, a warm place. You enter with the day on your back and you leave different. It doesn’t matter your age, how you look, or if you know someone, as soon as you walk in the door, there’s something there. Comments on social media sum it up better than any marketing phrase: “date night”, “I love the vibe”, “it’s a safe place”.
Behind this climate is difficult to explain Javier Zucker – One of the most popular DJs in the country – and Andres Palaciano – the owner and chef of the Loreto Garden restaurant – who gave life to a proposal that ended up, unwittingly, becoming one of the most beloved nights in Buenos Aires.
According to Palaciano, Quitapenas was born from a simple motive: “the need to enjoy and share music.” Zucker sums it up like this: “Our party makes people feel free and everyone enjoys it equally. Whoever you are, you’re no less important than anyone else. There are no VIPs or special deals, we’re united by the music.”
Quitapenas was born without a business plan, without a strategy, without a mood board. It was born from a calling. Their friend Harari suggested they share a date. They had fun, it worked, and they didn’t slow down anymore. The party grew out of a simple motive: the desire to have a good time and share music.
This spontaneity is still present in the project’s DNA. There is no pause, no aesthetic retreat, and no “party of the moment” pressure. Everyone belongs because no one belongs, and that’s magic.
It’s hard to explain a party to someone who’s never been there. Because Quitapenas is not a genre, nor a style, nor a dress code: it is a climate. An audio-visual experience that moves between what’s happening in the cabin and what’s happening on the track.
There is no pre-assembled musical organization, no “rules”. DJs, whether guests or residents, play whatever they’re feeling that night. “At Quitapenas there is no closet for guest DJs. If they ask, we tell them to be free to choose the music,” Zucker confirms.
He adds of his own experience: “I especially feel at home, and that feels very good. Seeing those same faces coming back every time for more of the music I love, it also makes me want to keep bringing the news.”
There’s a detail that keeps coming up: the pain reliever doll in the cabin. The amulet is actually part of the ritual and the more literal seal of the party.
Editions gather between 200 and 300 people. It is enough just to have energy without losing intimacy. People from the world of music and cinema, artists, curious night owls and an audience that mixes ages in a way that few concerts achieve.
On the track, you can see that group where the kids are fascinated by sounds they barely recognize, and the adults recall the hits, textures and atmospheres that characterized their adolescence.
It is neither pure nostalgia, nor complete modernity: it is that intermediate point where community is unwittingly created.
There are dates that are already preserved in the emotional memory of those who organized and those who attended.
The recent releases with Gundasilva and David Holmes have been musically crazy. One of those nights when everyone looks at each other with the same face: “What’s going on here?”
The version in Lirondo with Romina Cohn was also special, turning the track into a rockier, rougher and more electric place.
This is another focus of Quitapenas, as they bring in DJs they really like, without the need for epic or bombastic posts.
If there’s one thing that runs through all cultural projects in Buenos Aires, it’s costs. For Quitapenas, the challenge is to maintain the proposal without having to raise ticket prices. That’s why they always release the first batch at less than half the final value, which is a tangible way to take care of the community that accompanies them.
Personally, they also talk about another learning: learning to live together. Today they play together in b2b format, combining styles and energies without competing, making every gig feel different even though the essence is the same.
Music was always with Palaciano, but his connection to the night gained strength from his relationship with Javier.
“I met Zuker as soon as Loreto opened in 2009, he started coming because he moved nearby. I knew him and admired him; I heard him at my first Creamfields gig in 2004 with his band Zuker
This approach completed the bridge: “I was fascinated by everything: from the bus looking for us to go to the province, his entry into the clubs, his arrival at the booth and, most importantly, the enjoyment of his music. Later, thanks to Lucas, my lifelong friend, who became a DJ, he gave me a taste of vinyl and I bought my first tray.”
It was not a sudden leap, but a new path that opened up naturally. Another creative project, born from curiosity and a desire to share.
Going forward, the priority is clear: taking care of the space they have built, and continuing to choose locations that really suit them without losing the scale that makes them special.
There is also room for dreams: to travel with the party, create new collaborations, and bring this experience to other audiences without losing the essence of the “neighborhood party gone well.”
If the essence had to be summed up in one line, Palaciano and Zucker agree: “The name says it all: a party to wash away sorrows.”
And maybe that’s why it works, because it’s honest, and it’s close, because no one is acting. Because music, when chosen well and felt well, has that simple, powerful power: that people leave with a smile, and so do they.