Buenos Aires nightlife in recent years is a tale of two tragedies: the 2004 República Cromañón club fire that killed 175 people and the five overdose deaths at the 2016 Time Warp festival. The former allowed politicians to implement draconian measures on clubs, bars, concerts, and festivals where expensive, highly sought-after permits became currency. The latter further solidified these laws, and put temporary restrictions on those permits. When live music returned in late January of 2017, it was with government oversight.
Melody Tayhana, Yban López Ratto, and Nahuel Colazo were keenly aware of how restrictive all of this was for their club-night-turned-label, HiedraH. Since permits were only attainable for extortionate fees, HiedraH “felt excluded” from the city’s nightlife, López Ratto and Colazo say.