Ho Chi Minh City's Longest-Running Techno Club Is Closing in October

A Flyer, Not a Farewell Tour

The Observatory announced the end of its run the way it announces everything else: no farewell essay, just a flyer, red stage light behind a packed room, and four words stacked in the club's own type: THE FINAL MONTH, OCTOBER 2026. That's on brand. In nearly 13 years across three addresses, Ho Chi Minh City's house and techno anchor never needed to oversell itself.

The club will close at the end of October 2026, from its current home on the 10th floor of 85 CMT8, a rooftop it has held for eight years. Two monthly programs remain: a September lineup still to be announced, and whatever The Observatory decides to do with its last one. Beyond that, the team hasn't said what happens to the space, the sound system, or the 18-strong resident roster it built up over a decade.

Three Addresses, One Family

The Observatory opened as what its own team calls a modest, family-oriented venture, with Dan Bi Mong, who DJs as Hibiya Line, as founding resident, alongside Nic Ford and Dan Lo shaping the early musical direction. The club has moved twice since, each time keeping its residents and rebuilding its sound rather than starting over. Marketing manager and resident DJ BongBongQuayQuay described the result as "a safe place that gives lots of support and love from everyone involved, as we treat each other like family," the kind of line a club says about itself until you notice how many of its residents stuck around for the better part of a decade.

Hibiya Line has framed the club's constant turnover of sound as deliberate: "change is permanent and is also one of the stimuli of creativity." It shows in the booking history. By the tenth anniversary in 2023, the original three-person crew had grown into 18 residents spanning genres, tempos and styles that wouldn't obviously share a booth anywhere else in the region.

The Names Who Passed Through

More than 800 artists have played The Observatory since it opened, a number that would be a boast anywhere else and here is mostly bookkeeping. The club has run label nights with More Rice Records, Nurture and Giegling, plus takeovers from Savage, Pawnshop and Siamese Twins Records. Soichi Terada, Answer Code Request and Peter Van Hoesen have all played the room, and the club hosted Rainbow Disco Club's Vietnam debut in October 2025, a booking that would've been unthinkable for a Saigon venue a decade ago. That last one matters more than it looks: RDC doesn't send its name to cities without an established scene to land in, and for years The Observatory was largely that scene, running from a rooftop most tourists never found.

What Comes Next

Ho Chi Minh City's electronic scene has grown fast enough in the past two years, more producers, more labels, more rooms, that one club closing doesn't read as a crisis the way it might have in 2018. Loopliner's guide to where house and techno actually happen in Saigon already lists The Observatory as one name among several. But it's the name that trained most of the others, directly or by example: a resident roster that size doesn't close without seeding future promoters, DJs and label heads across the city.

No word yet on what happens to the address at 85 CMT8, or whether any of the 18 residents plan to open something to replace it. The club has said only that September's calendar is coming, and October is the last one. The closest thing to a source of truth right now is its own Instagram, @the.observatory, where the countdown is already running.

If You Go

The Observatory is on the 10th floor of 85 CMT8, Ho Chi Minh City. Recent terrace nights have run 9pm to 3am with entry around VND 50,000 (roughly $2), though pricing and hours vary by booking, and the venue posts specifics on Instagram about a week out. With two months left on the calendar, there's no single date to build a trip around yet. The honest advice is to follow @the.observatory now and watch for the September lineup.

Cover photo and figures: The Observatory, via Mixmag Asia.