Since we first opened our doors, Avant Gardner’s goal has been to create a safe gathering place for our community to celebrate life and music and to make incredible memories together. Our venue was built as a safe and inclusive space for artists and fans to connect over a shared love of music, but that’s only possible when everyone can feel secure and confident that they will arrive home safely.
At Avant Gardner, our top priority is ensuring a safe experience for our guests, our staff, and our artists, and we want to take this moment to share some of the many security protocols we have in place to keep our patrons safe.
How we prioritize safety
Like most heavily trafficked destinations, we have traditionally kept our security measures highly confidential. Just like at most public spaces, there is security you see, and many additional measures that are unseen. In an effort toward transparency however, we have decided to share a few of our most significant measures.
Avant Gardner meets and exceeds all mandated guidelines. We regularly review and upgrade our security protocols and employ a large number of security personnel both inside and outside the venue, including security guards, traffic guards, live surveillance camera operators, on-site retired-NYPD/FDNY safety consultants, and on-site paramedics.
We far exceed the recommended minimum number of security personnel at every show as published in the NYC Nightlife Best Practices. In addition to our security guards, we also have former members of the NYPD and FDNY on site at each show, as well as a private security vehicle manned by two security team members to patrol the immediate neighborhood.
We have an onsite medical team and ambulance parked at the venue for all hours of operation at every event at Avant Gardner.
We deploy a professional pedestrian and traffic safety team to assist with vehicular and pedestrian traffic in the area.
Our highly visible pedestrian and traffic team are positioned at various locations within two blocks of our venue – reaching well beyond the area abutting our complex to ensure our patrons’ safety and keep vehicular traffic moving smoothly.
Prior to the conclusion of an event, we redeploy guards who are no longer needed at our ID and Search areas and reposition them inside and outside of exits as well as along the street outside the venue.
We forbid solicitors from other venues or unlicensed taxis to obstruct our exits or the areas next to our exits.
Once our shows are over, and as patrons are leaving the area, our security patrol vehicle provides support along the exit routes from the neighborhood.
Our patrol vehicle does a final sweep of the surrounding area at the end of the night to ensure no patrons are alone, lost, confused, or otherwise unable to continue safely on their journey without assistance.
We provide light towers on some of the darkened areas that surround our venue – a step we undertook when we determined that repairs to municipal lighting were taking too long.
Our venue utilizes more than 200 surveillance cameras throughout, with 18 of them visibly mounted on the exterior of our building and strategically focused on exits, sidewalks, and the street.
Retired NYPD Detectives, formerly of the NYPD's elite Technical Assistance Response Unit (TARU), actively monitor our cameras live during events.
We maintain a fully staffed phone line for patrons to get help for themselves or someone else during an event: (347) 280-3070.
We deploy additional measures to safeguard our patrons that we do not share publicly for security purposes.
Additionally, we are taking further steps to help ensure our patrons’ safety when exiting our complex. We have deployed the following new measures:
We have further fortified our security presence and protocols, including placing additional light towers at prominent intersections in the vicinity. We have also doubled the size of our pedestrian and traffic team and spread them further out from our complex.
Alongside the Taxi & Limousine Commission and The Office of Nightlife at the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment we have initiated enforcement sweeps in the area surrounding our complex, which have been successful in deterring unlicensed drivers from targeting our venue and discouraging licensed drivers from engaging in improper solicitation tactics.
We have worked with rideshare companies including Uber and Lyft to develop designated pick-up/drop-off areas around the intersection of Scholes Street and Stewart Avenue.
To address the lack of reliable cellular service in the neighborhood, we have worked with local reps of major carriers to begin installation of antennas on our premises, which will greatly improve network connectivity on the premises and in the surrounding area.
Next steps to make the community safer
Our East Williamsburg neighborhood is constantly changing and many other venues have recently opened their doors nearby. We’re proud of the jobs we’ve brought to the neighborhood and the contributions we’ve made to the city’s economy. Yet East Williamsburg remains an industrial area with infrastructure challenges.
Since opening our doors, we have maintained a consistent and productive dialogue with New York City officials, and there has been some notable progress – but more work remains. We support neighborhood calls for the city to take the following measures:
Lighting: Improved streetlight coverage on our block and surrounding streets would markedly improve the area for both nightlife and local businesses.
Waterway fencing: With the increase of late-night pedestrians, our area would be safer with improved fencing around the creeks and waterways in the vicinity.
Sidewalks: The growing number of patrons to the neighborhood also means increased foot traffic, so it’s important that our sidewalks are well maintained and accessible.
Police patrols: Each business is limited in its authority to enforce safe and legal practices beyond the bounds of its own facilities. An increased police presence in the area would make the blocks beyond our venue safer for people on their way home. We also advocate for the repair of defective cameras on the Metropolitan Avenue Bridge.
Network connectivity: As patrons leave our complex or any of the surrounding businesses late at night, their capacity to connect with each other and arrange for transportation would be improved by better internet and network connectivity in the area.
Signage: We are working with the Department of Transportation to install freestanding map signs in the area to help visitors to cultural destinations find their way to and from transit.
Solicitor enforcement: While we have taken every available step to prevent solicitors from obstructing our exits, we cannot legally prevent them from positioning themselves at other areas of the public sidewalks and streets adjacent to our venue. City agencies can provide enforcement measures as the Taxi & Limousine Commission has done for us thus far.
Food truck enforcement: While the 4-5 food trucks across the street from our venue do not obstruct exits or impede vehicular traffic, we have made numerous complaints regarding the licensing status of these vendors, and several guests have complained through 311 about their sanitary conditions and pricing practices. To our knowledge, these have not been addressed.
We are in active continued conversations with key officials and will continue to work together with them to make progress on each. For example, we are advocating with the Mayor’s Office of Nightlife on many of the issues described above.
We’re honored to be a destination for New Yorkers and people from all over the world. When we think about the city’s iconic music venues, it’s humbling to be a part of that history. Above all, and especially after years of social distancing and isolation during the pandemic, we love being a place that brings people together for shared experiences. We understand that none of this can happen without safety, and we take that seriously.
We will continue to maintain an open dialogue with the community and the city about how we can continue to build the premier live music venue, and that especially includes ensuring everyone gets home safely.
We urge anyone who would like to engage with us directly to drop us a note at community@avant-gardner.com
Thank you for all of your support,
The Avant Gardner Team