Mid-Autumn club night «Trung Thu - Chung Khu»

   Mid-Autumn in Vietnam is supposed to be for kids: lanterns, lion dance drums and mooncakes. This year the grown-ups get a version of their own: on the night after the festival, a party takes over The Observatory, one of Ho Chi Minh City's longest-running electronic music clubs, which closes for good at the end of October.

   The night is put together by 29th Floor Radio, BLANKTHU6 and V Í A, and its name is a pun. Trung Thu is the Vietnamese name of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and Chung Khu sounds almost the same but means something else: chung is «shared» or «together», khu is «neighbourhood». The organisers say this neighbourhood is not on any map: it exists for one night and is built by everyone who turns up. Too old for lantern parades around the block, the crowd is invited to parade itself from the Terrace down to the Club instead.

   At a glance: who plays where

   — Terrace: LevisNG, Soju Peanut, okbanoi., AnhKiet
— Club: TSD b2b DJ PINGU, zzm (OIL Soundsystem / D1S), Tizone (Vap Cuc Da), Jase (Bass Republic), Di Tran (Rénor Bar / Solilo House)

   The guest to watch comes from China. zzm is a resident DJ at OIL Club in Shenzhen and a member of OIL Soundsystem and the rave collective D1S; in November 2024 he played Boiler Room in Shenzhen. His sets mix club trax, breaks, UK garage and electro. On the Saigon side there is Jase, who has been pushing bass music in the city since 2007 with The Beats Saigon; in 2013 VietNamNet called him Saigon's top bass DJ.

   The night is for anyone who grew up with lanterns and mooncakes and now wants a grown-up Mid-Autumn, for fans of club and bass music, and for visitors curious to see how the city's club community celebrates the festival.

   The Observatory opened in 2013 as a bar with a small gallery, moved twice and has been at its current home since July 2018. In September the team told Resident Advisor that the club will close at the end of October after 13 years, naming rising rent and the growing difficulty of bringing in international guests among the reasons.

   The lower price is the presale; tickets at the door cost more. The club is on the 10th floor of Twins Tower.

   If you have been meaning to go to The Observatory, it does not have many Saturdays left: come and help build a neighbourhood that exists for just one full-moon night.