To find Headspace Circus (instagram.com/headspace.circus), a weekly hardcore electronic rave and art event with a clown theme, you must first enter the 104-year-old Chinese restaurant Republic Cafe. Every Tuesday, attendees who are down to clown can pass by the host table, where the owner greets walk-ins, and walk through the restaurant’s dining room and bar, Ming Lounge. Hidden by the restrooms is a door to a secret room, which is where the party begins.
“Yeah, it’s kind of crazy as hell,” says Kiyoki Moon, who helps throw the raves. “It’s pretty strange, but it’s really awesome and cool to be like, ‘Oh, it’s a Chinese restaurant.’ And then, ‘Oh, here’s this backroom where they’re doing a rave.’”
A friend once described a Headspace Circus event to me as a “genuinely Lynchian” experience. Each party has a theme, from cybergoth to Candyland to Dante’s Inferno—“We made it through all nine layers,” Moon says—with outfits, handmade décor and DJ sets to match…