Vasilevsky Urbex
Made in FoxType
Abandoned disco club "The Cage"
The first half of October 2024 was abnormally warm in Dnipro, even in the evening the temperature reached more than 20 degrees Celsius, so I took my son and we went for a local history walk in Shevchenko Park, to enjoy the last warm days of the year. We walked through different corners of the park, I showed the child the historical thickets – told him what was where and later we reached a huge gate, welded in the form of a lattice(photo 1). My son asks me – “what is this?”, I answered – “This was once a disco club “The Cage”, now it is long abandoned”. The usually closed gate this time was not on the lock, so I heard from my son – “Dad, so let’s go and see what’s there!”. That’s how we got to the Cage.
It is worth noting that Shevchenko Park in Dnipro is located on an active relief, so since ancient times(back when it was the wintering house of Cossack Lazar Globa) some parts of the park(and once a garden) were formed by terraces. And since this is a park area for many decades, there are(and were before) many different infrastructural and recreational facilities here – so there were other park facilities on this terrace before the disco club.
At the beginning of the twentieth century there was some kind of bandstand here(photo 2), and already since 1980 there was a huge dance floor here(which is indicated even on the schemes of the city – scheme 3).
At the turn of the 1990-2000s, when the park’s infrastructural facilities began to deteriorate due to lack of budgetary funding, the entertainment functions were taken over by commercial organizations(cooperatives, etc.), which leased plots or objects of the park, and set up cafes and game pavilions there. This terrace, where there was a huge dance floor, was divided in half – the eastern part was used as a mini go-karting track, and the western part was converted into an open-air disco club “Cage”.
There were many different disco clubs inDnipro (then Dnipropetrovsk), they appeared like mushrooms after the rain, made noise and disappeared for various scandalous reasons. This club was not an exception. Everyone knew about “Cage”, because it was “buzzing” on weekends for several seasons, but I could not find any documentary evidence of the club’s existence, or photos of the times of its functioning, or even information from what year to what year the club worked.
Some personal recollections were provided to me by friends and subscribers – further quote:
"I remember vodka Olimp with lemon for 2₴ per 50g at the bar. The music is the choicest popsatina and often aggressive public. In general, the place worked well for its name. Even when it existed, it was still a cloaca."
"In the beginning of 2000 and until 2004 they worked, then they were shut down feastily with mask show Berkut - well, the rumor was that not to let someone respected, although it may not be true, for which they were pinned down. How it really was - who knows?"
As you can see, there were NOT very positive reviews about the club(although the visitors did not pay attention to it – they just drank and went out) – and it was said that the club did not seem to work long. Anyway, I was unable to confirm or deny this information. And judging by the state of neglect the object has not been functioning for about fifteen years(plus/minus)(photo 20), but probably the communal workers or park employees use this territory as household buildings, because some construction materials are stored on the territory of the former disco club.
From the visual characteristics – the abandoned disco club is a kind of time capsule that takes you 20-25 years back to the “noughties”. Those who were there once, and recently watched my video report – wrote that nothing has changed since those times, except that the vegetation has partially absorbed some areas.
The entrance group welcomed visitors with a small cash block(where today someone stores a pile of firewood – photo 6) and a huge gate welded in the form of a cage lattice(photos 1 and 4). In the middle everything was decorated with bright yellow and blue colors and in the stage area there was motley graffiti and font composition with the name of the establishment(photos 5-7 and 10).
Personally, I liked the way the planning and functional zoning of the club was organized. From the gate you can see a part of the club(it worked as a kind of live advertisement). Right from the gate you get to a huge dance floor(apparently, right in the whirlwind of events – photo 5) – here at the entrance group there was a stage and it is visible only from the territory of the club, here and poles for pauldance and a structure for DJ equipment(photos 6-8 and 10), and next to it there were a couple of small service buildings, apparently for storing equipment and changing clothes of artists(but today I saw signs of homeless people living in these premises – photo 9).
On the north side of the terrace, a number of covered sections were organized for tables where visitors sat and admired the view of the Dnieper River(photo 11). On the southern side along the retaining wall there were tables where alcohol and snacks were consumed while standing (photo 18 and 20). In the far part of the club there was a bar, sanitary facilities and several service rooms(presumably kitchens and storerooms – photos 12-14). Above the service rooms and the southern retaining wall, an exploitable terrace was organized, which could be reached by one straight staircase and two spiral staircases(photos 15-18).
We spent about 40 minutes on the territory of this derelict – we liked it very much(except for a huge amount of garbage in the service premises), we would have walked here and more, but it was already approaching evening and the sun was already sinking to the horizon.
My personal impression: the general organization of the space is quite interesting and while we were exploring this abandoned place, I watched my child running around this space, and playing with an empty fire extinguisher – I was wondering why they didn’t make some kind of children’s “toyland” here, with a small cafe for adults? The place is bright and interesting – and children like it and adults have a place to relax. And so the territory is idle without business and profit.
I also noticed an interesting detail – all the old trees here were not damaged by the structures, on the contrary, the structures were created so that the trees became part of the space and grew and developed freely. Probably it was the conditions of the lease of the territory – not to damage the existing trees. Good thing they did it that way.
If the reader wasn’t enough of my photo report and description of the site – I suggest watching a short video I shot that October evening.
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