NOTO, for one, signed a “community benefits agreement,” essentially a pledge to be a good neighbor, and the crime stats show it’s keeping its pledge. “The city is much more neighborhood-driven now,” says NOTO director Ryan Dorsey, who got his start in clubs as a bar-back on Delaware Avenue. Over the decade, those clubs closed down, victims to rowdy behavior, crumbling infrastructure (the Club Heat collapse) and changing tastes, giving way to lounges and bottle service. “Those days are over,” says Mark Marek, owner of Rumor, bluntly dismissing as a “blip” the time when Delaware Avenue was home to behemoths like KatManDu, Rock Lobster and Egypt and club-goers descended on the stretch by the thousands. Is Philly looking at the dawn of a new mega-nightclub era, conjuring memories of seedy Delaware Avenue in the ’90s? Or is this simply the latest exciting iteration of Philly’s club scene? It’s just the latest in a newish wave of bigger trendy spots - think Center City’s Rumor, Coda and Down - that make scene observers wonder if there’s something afoot. This wasn’t my first time at NOTO, and the scene is lit even without a superstar headlining. across the floor’s coating of vanilla frosting and sprinkles. The rave ended with the crowd chanting “Trust the Process” and Joel Embiid towering over the stage awash in lights, smoke and confetti, his arm slung across the DJ’s shoulder for a Snap. They gladly paid $12 for one-liquor drinks - some forked out $6,000 for bottle service - and waved NOTO-branded light sticks at a Phillies-jersey-sporting Aoki. That night I spoke to attendees (some newly legal drinkers, others 56-year-old parents) who came in from New York, D.C., and as far as Florida. For one, the crowd seemed thrilled to be in a ritzy big-room club - walls adorned with Caravaggio-inspired art, chandeliers made of vintage perfume bottles - that was starkly different from other Philly clubs’ low-key vibes. And at that Aoki bash, I witnessed some things that didn’t feel quite Philly. With its Connecticut backers and their extravagant plans, NOTO rubbed some the wrong way. All it took was a 10-minute Lyft ride from West Philly to 1209 Vine Street, where NOTO, Philly’s only 1,000-capacity nightclub, opened to fanfare (and a few eye rolls) back in February.

But I didn’t hop on a plane to see Aoki spin. The superstar DJ, an EDM darling with his own Netflix documentary, trots the globe performing at big-deal festivals like Belgium’s Tomorrowland and Vegas’s Electric Daisy Carnival. On the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, I stood a few feet from Steve Aoki as he hurled 10 frosted sheet cakes at ravers dressed in neon CAKE ME t-shirts in the sweaty crush of a nightclub.

Noto nightclub