The party isn’t over at the Brooklyn Mirage, and regulars at the open-air summer venue say they want to keep it that way — as long as their guards stay up.
It’s been nearly a year since two of the isolated Bushwick hot spot’s ravers were found dead in a creek just weeks apart, yet concerns about safety still haunt the Mirage’s wild partygoers, attendees told The Post on Saturday night.
“We never leave each other alone – not because we are scared but because we are cautious,” said Natia Zakharyka, 38, a regular at the colossal music venue — which is located 15 minutes from the closest subway station.
“Come together, leave together,” she said.
Darian Frajverg, 33, an Upper East Side resident who also considers himself a regular, admitted, “When I go back home, I try to get an Uber.
“Before [the disappearances], I was taking a train to get back home,” he said.
Last summer’s first tragedy claimed the life of Karl Clemente, 27, who was reported missing June 11, 2023, after he was turned away from the Mirage because he was too drunk, The Post previously reported.
After running north to Metropolitan Avenue, he headed into a nearby lumber yard – and was found five days later in Newtown Creek.
Weeks later, on July 29, 2023, Goldman Sachs analyst John Castic, also 27, disappeared about 3 a.m. after watching a Zeds Dead performance at the music venue, police and friends said at the time. His body was found three days later in the same body of water.
Castic’s body had no obvious signs of trauma apart from drowning, police said – but that didn’t entirely squash media coverage at the time probing the possibility of a Bushwick serial killer.
The medical examiner later determined both men died by drowning, ruling Clemente’s death was an accident — though the manner of Castic’s death is still “undetermined,” PIX11 reported.
City Council member Jen Gutierrez, who represents the area, told The Post that neither death was considered suspicious by the NYPD and that “both toxicology reports [confirmed] that that was the case.”
For Clemente’s father, Alex, the biggest mystery is why it took Castic’s death — which was the first to receive widespread media attention — for the world to take notice what had happened involving the Mirage.
“When you lose one person in such circumstances, it’s too much. If you lose a second person, it’s unbearable. Why did we wait?” he previously told The Post. “If they gave my son the same media attention as this John Castic, Castic could still be alive today.”
Gutierrez told The Post that elected officials also weren’t notified of the disappearances until after Castic’s death and that pols were “absolutely left in the dark” during the NYPD’s investigation.
“In my experience, NYPD alerts you of crimes — and I would certainly classify a disappearance, while it’s not suspicious, as something worthy of letting people know what happened,” the council member said.
Gutierrez has since directed the city Department of Transportation to install more lighting and make repairs along the battered trucking route streets outside the venue.
She has also championed additional cameras on the waterfront — such as extra cameras near the Metropolitan Bridge, which had ones that weren’t working when Clemente died.
A representative for the DOT confirmed it has resurfaced several roads and improved street lighting conditions in the area, “both in response to community requests and as part of our routine maintenance,” a spokesperson said.
While most of the repairs were completed last fall, the agency is currently exploring adding signage to help partygoers leave the area safely.
The council member noted there is more work to be done to improve spotty cell service in the warehousing area, too — and that Ubers can be difficult to order without proper connection.
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I don’t think the Mirage is a place I would go to just because of where it’s located,” Gutierrez said. “It’s in a manufacturing area. There are manufacturing businesses operating 24 hours a day. There’s just a lot to consider.”
Since Clemente and Castic’s deaths, a dedicated safety page detailing the Brooklyn Mirage’s efforts has been added to the venue’s website “in an effort toward transparency.”
Those efforts include a pedestrian and traffic safety team, live-surveillance-camera operators and on-site retired NYPD/FDNY safety consultants, as well as a security-patrol vehicles supporting patrons “along the exit routes from the neighborhood.”
Unlicensed taxis are forbidden, though it’s unclear how the rogue vehicles are prevented from entering neighboring streets as drunk patrons stumble home.
While most of the mystery surrounding the deaths has been erased and safety improvements continue to be implemented, some partygoers said they are still changing their going-out routines.
Shaf Amin, 27, whose first time going to Brooklyn Mirage was for Saturday night’s Zamna Festival, told The Post he was worried to walk to his car because of last year’s incidents.
“I’m scared to go to my car. My friends are inside,” he said while walking quickly through the street.
“It’s quite dark,” he said of the surrounding streets where some party-goers park their cars. “My car is two blocks away. I’m a little scared, but I’ll be fine.”
Other nightlife aficionados say they’re simply more cautious – especially around taxi cabs. The suspicions stem from a third incident reported in August 2023 in in which Connecticut doctor Michael Bautista accused two Bronx men of kidnapping him in a fake taxi outside the nightclub that July 21 and forcing him to go on a wild shopping spree around New York City.
Bautista later refused to cooperate with the investigation, and the charges were dropped.
Lina Solis, 37, a Jackson Heights, Queens, resident who came out to the Brooklyn Mirage on Saturday night with her friends visiting from out of town, told The Post she was “going to make sure” she left in an Uber.
“I’m not going to drink and just jump in a cab,” she said.
Itai, a 26-year-old Chelsea resident, chimed in, “I call an Uber.
“Sometimes it takes long. … [But] when you leave late at night and people go out of this club and they are high, there are these taxis that are not registered. You never know if it’s Uber or unlicensed.”
Madison Pride, 26, drove into the industrial area with her coworker and parked a few blocks away. She’s become a near-pro at it by now due to the frequency of times she’s been at the venue, she said.
“I’m just aware of my surroundings. I don’t walk in a dark alley by myself,” Pride said. “As a woman, I would make sure there are people around me. … But there could be more lighting around the side streets.”
Zakharyka added, “I see where it can be a concern.”
“I see people drink too much,” she said. “I’m alert, and I have boundaries, and I will make sure my friends are safe. We look out for each other.”
