16 Toneladas nightclub has one of the busiest and most varied schedules in Valencia  – Pepe (owner, main man and musical encyclopedia) never seems to stop! So, it was great to catch up for a beer with him and chat about how he is helping people affected by the DANA and what’s in store for the club in the coming weeks and months. 

24/7 VALENCIA: Can you tell us more about charity work at ’16 Toneladas’?

Pepe of ‘16 Toneladas’: The DANA caused so much damage and loss, so the importance of doing these charity concerts is for the people who have been the most affected by this very difficult situation.

We have decided that we want to help the musicians, rehearsal venues and recording studios who have lost everything. We have done this in two ways – by helping musicians directly with payment and through bands agreeing to play for free, so that we can give the money directly to repair rehearsal rooms, etc.

So far, we have done a concert to help the Massanasa rehearsal facilities that have been completely destroyed,  another one for the association of musicians and also another for  6 or 7 groups that lost everything, we let them use our backline and equipment they were missing.  We donated all the money from the night to them, to help them start buying musical items again.

We are also helping a local neighbourhood association – The neighbourhood of Parque Alcosa – it is a very humble association and was created before the DANA to help get kids off the streets and to learn skills. I always prefer to donate to smaller local organisations rather than the bigger ones like the Red Cross. This way, I can talk to people directly and see what they need and how I can help. For example there is a guy who needed a refrigerator – he had food, but no way of keeping it fresh, so we sorted that. The same with musicians, recording studios and the rehearsal rooms – we want to help them directly. Without them, we are nothing! During the pandemic many of the bands helped and saved us when the government did nothing. They came here and now we are returning the favour.

With music there is camaraderie – and we like to bring people together. Next year, we already have some incredible acts booked in – The Dead Boys, Los Coronas, Panda Bear, Rupatrup, Sex Museum and lots more rock & roll, rockabilly and garage punk bands.

This weekend we had the Ducktails Festival with 11 bands  – 7 of those were from outside of Spain! We have a full schedule until June with historical and famous Spanish bands – ‘Los Rebeldes’ playing in their 1979 formation for example. They are releasing a new album and we are the first venue on the tour that it will available..

On Christmas day we have a free event with Longo and Killing Bambi – it’s a family fun party and very crazy. Killing Bambi take classic Spanish folk songs and make them something special and different by performing them in a rock and metal style! There will be a few surprises that night too!

What makes 16 Toneladas special is that we try and do as many concerts as possible with bands that would sell out a lot bigger venues. Last year, we had The Undertones for example and on December 27th  we will have ‘Def Con Dos’. I like to convince these bigger bands to come and play our smaller venue – it always works and many of them want to come back!

We love what we do, with a wide and varied music programme, we love the bands who play here and the people who come and see them.  That’s why it’s important to support local bands, venues, rehearsal and recording studios!

You can find out what’s happening at 16 Toneladas here:

https://www.16toneladas.com

Report by Rhyan Paul

Article copyright ‘24/7 Valencia’

Photos copyright Rhyan Paul/ ‘24/7 Valencia’

 More about the photographer Rhyan Paul: www.rhyanpaul.com

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