Business & brands / Music
Jason Huvaere
· event producer, founder and president of Paxahau
Founder of Paxahau, the Detroit company that has produced the Movement electronic music festival in Hart Plaza every Memorial Day weekend since 2006.
- Also known as
- Paxahau
- Detroit years
- 1990s–present
- Field
- Business & brands, Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Jason Huvaere's path to running Detroit's techno festival began in the 1990s at 1217 Griswold Street, a Capitol Park building whose ten lofts housed many of the city's young electronic-music promoters and hosted after-hours parties. There he met the friends with whom he formed Paxahau in 1998, after police crackdowns had ended the era of warehouse raves at places such as the Packard Plant. At first the group ran a technology business, building computers and websites to fund the parties, and archived DJ sets online like a pirate radio station. Paxahau threw its first event, Take This, at Motor in Hamtramck in 2000, and by 2006 had staged more than 40. That year, after the city festival had passed through several producers, Huvaere wrote to Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick; eight weeks before Memorial Day, Paxahau received the contract and relaunched the event as Movement. Under his leadership, with Jason Clark, Sam Fotias and talent buyer Chuck Flask, it became an international pilgrimage for techno fans.
Highlights
- Founded Paxahau in 1998; first event in 2000 at Motor, Hamtramck.
- Has produced the Movement festival in Hart Plaza since 2006.
- Movement grew from about 41,000 visitors in 2006 to over 100,000 by 2012.
- Nominated for Festival of the Year at the 2017 Electronic Music Awards.
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 2006–present
Hart Plaza
Riverfront plaza where Paxahau stages Movement every Memorial Day weekend.
Lived here · 1990s
Griswold Lofts (1217 Griswold Street)
Status being checked
Capitol Park loft building where Detroit's 1990s electronic promoters lived and partied, and where Paxahau's founders met.
Performed here · 2000
Motor
Closed
Paxahau's debut party, Take This, was held here in 2000.