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Esta página no está disponible en español. Orlando SentinelLatin Nights Turn ProfitBy Tyler Gray
December 21, 2002 In the nightlife business, a base of clientele can crumble quickly. But Latin nights are as solid as a rock. Turn up the salsa, the merengue, the reggaeton , and the party's on a roll. Maybe it's not quite that easy, but there are good reasons why fans of Latin music can find a place to meet, mingle and dance almost every night of the week around Orlando. Latin nights are staples for clubs looking to draw people whose ages span several decades, who dress up nicely, spend money and remain loyal for years. And Latinos fit the bill to a T. "I've been in it for five years now," says Freddy Flores of Latin music and club night promoter Fredog Entertainment. "It's always been successful." For such promoters, the deal works like this: Night clubs bring in outside promoters who handle the radio promotion and marketing. Clubs run the bar and cash in on the drinking crowds. Roxy nightclub's Wednesday night "Noche de Rumba" has a reputation for packing to capacity. The Club at Firestone on Orange Avenue brings in 700 to 800 people for its "Club Caliente." The business is down from the 1,500 or so patrons that packed the club during the first year of Club Caliente, but that's because a handful of nearby clubs have copied the promotion, eating into Firestone's Latin nights. "Now we see a lot more competition for Latin nights," says club manager Greg Barnum. "But it's always been one of our strongest nights." Hispanic clientele have many things going for them, say club managers. For one, they seem to be less fickle -- less likely to change their tastes -- than nonHispanic club goers. "I think that's one of the reasons we go after niche markets," said Barnum. And Hispanics also are a more loyal clientele, says Jon Shehan, manager of Southern Nights, a gay club that has dedicated one night a week - now Mondays - for nine years to Latin themes. "It's their night," Shehan says. Shehan also has noticed that when it comes to dancing, it's a multigenerational thing. The crowd is not just young, but young and old pulsating to a Latin beat. "For a lack of a better description, it's a family sort of thing," according to Shehan. "You will see 60-year-old people and 20-year-old people chilling together, too," says Stephanie Feehan, 21, who's with a group waiting to get into Matrix, on International Drive, where bartenders twirl bottles tipped with fire, where an emcee keeps the packed crowd throbbing to DJ Eric's newer blend of Latin dance music. Metropolis along with Ma- trix comprise the dual club party called "Fievre" (sic). Recently, another loyal Latino dance crowd braved a frost warning and hike from a parking garage through an outdoor mall and up several flights of stairs on a Sunday night to dance to the rhythms of salsa, merengue and bachata at Fievre. "It's just off the chain right now," says club regular Julio Williams, 18, who's here for the same reason everyone else is. "Most clubs aren't alive on Sunday nights," he says. Dirk Farrow, co-owner of Antigua, the parent company of Church Street Entertainment, says, Latin nights attract crowds where ordinarily there would be none. "You can get people from the Latin community out at 9 or 10 o'clock," he said. Antigua, on Church Street downtown, traditionally has used outside promoters to run a Thursday night Latin party, unlike most other clubs. But Antigua's owners have put their Thursday Latin nights on hold, and they're heeding the advice of their bilingual employees to work up an in-house Latin promotion to be launched early next year, owners say. "We think there's a huge potential there. We just haven't concentrated enough on it yet," says Farrow, whose company also runs several other Church Street bars. Because Latino crowds party earlier, are older and last longer than others, they pack clout in the night club scene, where club owners are hard pressed to pull off a rousing success. "I'll definitely say this," says independent party promoter Misty Moss. "Alot of the clubs wouldn't be able to survive tough seasons without Latin nights." LATIN NIGHTS
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