Avant Gardner CEO Josh Wyatt speaks openly about new initiatives to improve customer experience and safety, not to mention a radical Brooklyn Mirage redesign!
Avant Gardner, home to three stages, including the most renowned Brooklyn Mirage, recently hired a CEO and announced some significant changes for 2025. These announcements arrived via the usual PR puffery, so it may all sound good, but it needs to be taken with a grain of marketing salt. But when Josh Wyatt, the new CEO, offered to sit down for an interview, we were happy to go deep with him on the full range of the customer experience.
Throughout the interview, Wyatt said all the right things fans want to hear. I went in as a skeptic, as Avant Gardner hasn’t had a track record of clear customer communication or standing by the customer experience. But as we talked, I became more hopeful that 2025 will be the dawn of a new Avant Gardner era. At every turn, he seemed truly willing to be accountable for these changes, which speaks volumes about this potential rebirth of the venue and its focus.
Change doesn’t happen overnight, and there will always be bumps in the road, but I think we should all stay on this ship for the longer voyage as long as these start to happen and are seen and communicated to patrons. With that in mind, let’s dive in with Josh Wyatt to learn all about the future of Brooklyn Mirage and Avant Gardner!
Hello, Josh! Congrats on the new role, and thanks for chatting with us today. You’ve got an extensive background in hospitality and nightlife. How do you plan to leverage that for Avant Gardner?
Thanks for having me. The beautiful thing about a good team is that members bring different perspectives, talents, and experiences to the table. This team has always had an exceptionally strong track record in stage production, sound, audio, visual, and content creation. Really best in class. The company was looking for an experienced hospitality and culture leader to join the team and round out the skill sets. That’s what I bring to the table. My background is in large-scale events and building and operating design-driven, culture-based companies around the world. It’s going to bring the company to the next level.
You are joining at an inflection point for the venue where attendance and popularity are way up, but safety and other concerns have given long-time patrons pause. How do you intend to win back the confidence and loyalty of these fans?
I think that’s the key question and it’s an excellent question. It’s one that I’m here to answer directly and transparently. Creating a customer promise that touches on all aspects of the experience is really important, and that’s what I’ve been hired to do. As I mentioned, we have a best-in-class concert, nightlife, and audio-visual experience. I think there are other touch points that the company has either not had the resources to address or has not had the time and the capital to address.
With my introduction to the company and with successfully being able to galvanize all the constituents, we now have the bandwidth to address all the issues around hospitality, security, and just the customer experience. I always say that any hospitality experience, or any entertainment experience, follows the concept of Maslow’s hierarchy of hospitality needs, which was coined by Chip Conley, a mentor and an inspiration to me. You can have the most amazing concert or the most amazing DJ set, and which could have the best sound or the best lights, best lasers, and best LED wall, but if you don’t feel safe arriving and leaving that concert or that experience, then that is a negative mark on the company. Conversely, you could have the most amazing hospitality experience, but if the content isn’t great, you’re not going to come back.
Getting the balance of everything there is has been a key goal of the company and the ownership, and quite frankly, that’s what I have been hired to do. To find the offering and balance that meets every area of the needs of the customers.
A customer needs to feel safe, a customer needs to feel inspired, a customer needs to feel energized, a customer needs to feel that some type of connection has been created with the experience. The company has done a great job in certain areas and has not been able to address some of these areas that you touch on. So, I’m coming in with a very ambitious agenda that started when I joined a couple of months ago. And now we’re going public with some of these changes, where we have, you know, the next four to five months to implement these, ahead of the big Mirage season starting up in May.
Avant Garnder requires a significant security presence, and past stories have noted that security doesn’t always handle things consistently. Recent reports have stated that you intend to increase the security presence. But more isn’t always better, so how will this become a consistent and customer service-focused experience?
I agree with you. More is not always better. The intent of the company is to provide an exceptional experience from the time that you hit the company online to the moment you show up at the venue, go through security, and then spend anywhere from two to ten hours at the venue. There should always be consistent, exceptional customer service where you feel safe and inspired and all those different needs are met.
From a security perspective, this covers several things. First, the arrival needs to be smooth. It needs to be welcoming. It also needs to meet these standards of safety and liability and the legal frameworks that have been set in place, not only by the law but also by the local council and community. We do intend, as we always have and must, to follow all those applicable rules. Upon review, however, there are a number of security protocols where security has been too draconian in the past.
This comes down to training. We always follow the law and ensure that customers are safe when they enter, but at the same time, we will ensure that how people enter the venue is done in a way that everyone feels comfortable. We have always published a list of prohibited items that can be found on our website. It’s oftentimes published on social media and sent to ticketholders, too. It’s also in the terms and conditions anytime someone downloads a ticket. However, again, it’s incumbent upon us to communicate those better so that customers can prepare what they bring to the venue and what they don’t bring to the venue.
One of the big enhancements that we’re making is installing lockers pre- and post-security, and you can enter those lockers multiple times. It’s a multi-use locker with unlimited access during the 24 hours after someone enters the premises. If you show up with a prohibited item, we’d previously confiscate or discard it. Now, it can be stored until you leave the venue. And to be clear, this doesn’t apply to legally prohibited items, like weapons – we’re obligated to report those to authorities. But when it’s a relatively benign prohibited item, I agree with the customer feedback that there should be a better alternative to discarding it. These lockers will be on-site for the May opening of Mirage.
Another thing concerning guest comfort and safety is knowing where and when you can access various parts of the venue. One thing we’re doing is improving signage so patrons can navigate and flow more easily. It’s a big venue with lots of opportunities for side quests, and we want to encourage that. But in the past security wasn’t trained to clearly communicate how and when to access areas.
To assist in this, we’re introducing ambassadors who are trained from a legal and liability perspective and have the appropriate licensing to give customer advice. They can also give first responders information or service while presenting a more welcoming and friendly hospitality phase. First and foremost, these ambassadors are fans of the venue and music. This provides a much more friendly and welcoming customer experience while we double down on safety.
We covered a story of a patron having naloxone taken away at a time when, anecdotally, the potential need for such interventions can be critical. Can you clearly state your policy on patrons carrying naloxone?
Narcan is permitted into the venue; however, we encourage you to find our trained medical professionals, who are on-site at every show. I know there has been some confusion around this in the past. If I could give one piece of constructive criticism to past management, the company has not done an effective job of communicating with its constituents and community. There are a lot of good things that have been done, but they haven’t been communicated effectively.
It’s important to note that administration requires a trained medical professional or trained security professional to administer overdose medication. Everyone on the venue staff, including myself, has gone through overdose training and responder training in CPR. So there’s oftentimes people in other venues and in the past, in our venue, years ago, that would bring in Narcan and are not trained medical professionals, and in fact, even are inebriated in themselves and are trying to administer medical service to people that oftentimes is not needed or not asked for. So that’s an incredibly dangerous situation where someone is not a medically trained professional is trying to administer first aid, or, you know, some type of medication.
To that point, we understand you do some work with OutSmart NYC. What does that partnership entail? Do you have any plans to work with other harm-reduction organizations?
Yes, we have had company-wide training sessions with OutSmart NYC, which touched on harm reduction and trends in the electronic dance space. We also had our recent Overdose Prevention and Response Training for on-site managers in September. This was conducted in coordination with an Overdose Education Manager from the Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Use Prevention, Care, and Treatment at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene along with the Mayor’s Office of Nightlife.
Additional training over the last eight months includes:
- April: Anti-harassment, sexual violence prevention, bystander intervention training, trauma 101 for nightlife venues for all staff. Hosted by OutSmart NYC
- June: CPR/AED training for management staff. Led by EMC CPR & Safety Training, LLC
- August: In-depth management training on Anti-Harassment, sexual violence prevention, bystander intervention training, and trauma 101 for nightlife venues. Hosted by OutSmart NYC
- September: Manager and Leads Narcan Training, led by representatives from NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Attended by Mayor of Nightlife, Jeff Garcia.
A patron complaint regarding intoxication is that security would often throw someone out who may simply need minor medical oversight or time to recover. Does AG have services in place to handle intoxicated patrons who may be unsafe if sent outside the venue on their own?
We have the best paramedics and ambulances on site. In fact, I believe that other than the Barclay Center and MSG, we’re the only venues that can do this. To do this, we work with Paradocs, who has been working with the venue since inception, but in recent years, as the venue has expanded, we have increased their coverage to us. We have two ambulances on site at all times. We’ve been doing that in the past; it just hasn’t been reported. We’ve over-invested in medical and, now, in security. We’re actually quite proud of our track record here.
Getting back to the enjoyment of the venue and the events you host. Can you tell us more about your plans to create more room to dance and for crowd flow? Is Mirage truly a complete rebuild?
For Mirage, yes, we are starting from scratch. King’s Hall and Great Hall are getting minor improvements, but Mirage, as anyone can see, is actually gone. So, you know, it appears, and it disappears – that is the brand pillar. Mirage was created to always reinvent itself. And so we felt that in doing something new and meaningful, it had to be really authentic and a material evolution of what it is. We had a lot of internal debates about this. We spoke to customers and did a lot of research. We recognized that we needed to make a bold decision, so we decided to go with a completely new Mirage experience.
Details won’t be shared for a few more months, but I can offer you a preview.
The Mirage will change every single show. Every time you come in, it’s going to look and feel different. And your next question will be, well, OK, how is that possible? It’s possible through what we believe is the most unique venue design in the world in terms of how the actual venue functions. The LED wall has been a very dominating presence. We’re evolving beyond that, where we’re going to incorporate moments where lots of different things are happening all at once, and they can change day-to-day. We’re going to be an early adopter, delivering what we think is a very diverse and ever-changing fan experience.
Avant Gardner has been able to host some of the biggest names in the scene and create some of the most sought-after experiences for fans. Events with bespoke setups like Cityfox and Elrow have always been fan favorites. Can we expect to see more of these custom and immersive experiences and venue takeovers?
Definitely, we love internal and external IPs. Elrow has already been announced, and we’re 100% focused on bringing back more experiences like these. Elrow is one of them, and there are several others, including some old-school IP that’s been sitting on shelves and not seen in the US for years. We’re very excited to be able to make those announcements in the coming weeks.
Finally, are there any plans to bring back Electric Zoo?
We’re very proud to have cleaned up EZOO, paid the vendors, and repaid the fans. Yes, despite the online comments, we have repaid the fans. So will EZOO return? The timing needs to be right; this year, we’re laser-focused on delivering a new Mirage.
