Pacha

The story of Pacha Buenos Aries is a remarkable one, the Argentinian Pacha franchise that became a clubbing sensation. José Caballero, one of the franchise’s key creators, rode the entire journey, one that saw the club become one of the most successful Pacha franchises in the world and, for the best part of a decade, the most famous nightclub in South America. The story began in Barcelona in 1985 where two friends met up for a drink. Ángel de Torres, a well-travelled art dealer, told his friend José Caballero that he was thinking about opening a business in Buenos Aries. Coincidentally, just months before, Pacha owner Ricardo Urgell had given Caballero permission to open a Pacha franchise in Argentina. The meeting happened on a Thursday night and by Sunday we were on a plane on our way to Buenos Aires, remembers Caballero. Once in the country, they met with local Argentinian partners to kickstart the project. Going from nothing to becoming the most popular club in Buenos Aires was not an easy task. The club was built in Costanera Norte, a short distance from Río de la Plata. It had a 2,000+ capacity and was decorated with a certain Mediterranean air, inspired by Pacha Ibiza itself. Caballero clearly remembers the opening night, when more than 3,500 people gathered to dance at an incredible event, because a long time had passed since something like that had happened in Buenos Aires. The few days before the opening, everybody was going crazy trying to get an invite. For a whole decade Pacha was the place to be for much of the Argentinian A-list. World-renowned DJs had their residences there including DJ Dero and, years later, DJ Hernán Cataneo, who created the night Clubland. Between the mid ‘80s and late ‘90s, the club also hosted live gigs from the likes of Paul Anka and Los Rodríguez, as well as becoming the favorite place for the crème de la crème of the city: polo players, models, impresarios, actors. Quite simply, everybody wanted to be there. Caballero remembers in particular the singer-songwriter Ariel Roth and his sister, actress Cecilia Roth, as two regulars of the Pacha of that era. The club was equipped with state-of- the-art light and sound systems and, as a curiosity, was the first Pacha in the world to have toilets for disabled people. Then I was thinking about the people that did not have the same advantages as everyone else, he says. As life pans out, I am now in a wheelchair myself due to illness. One of the things this former businessman likes to point out is that Pacha Buenos Aires was always a clean club, free of drugs. A team of more than 30 security people made sure everything ran smoothly. In 1995, Ángel de Torres and José Caballero left Pacha Buenos Aires due to a falling out with their Argentinian partners. Although the club continued to operate and even survived the difficult days of the crisis and the corralito (the Argentinian economic collapse of 2001), their departure marked the end of a whole era. Today, the club has been renamed as Clubland (after Hernán Cataneo’s party) and top-draw DJs still play there, including Sebastian Gamboa, Fatboy Slim, Satoshi Tomiie, Sebastien Leger and Guy Gerber – but memories of the Pacha Buenos Aires’s place in clubbing history will linger on for many years to come. Text by Pacha Magazine