Attic Nightclub (Facebook | Instagram), the longest-running college club in downtown Orlando, is closing its doors. The venue posted the announcement on Instagram on Tuesday, and the farewell message (embedded below) doesn’t pull punches about their reasons.
Operating since October 2010, the club at 68 E. Pine Street [GMap] cited rising operational costs, increasing city fees, and what it called a “lack of meaningful support from local leadership” as factors in the decision. Owner Matty Bullitt was direct about it in the post, saying, “We put a lot of money into this place to keep it open. But with another dreadful summer that’s about to come with all the college kids gone, we just gotta stop the bleed.”
The statement also describes a downtown environment that has deteriorated in ways that have driven their traditional customers away. The club wrote that streets have become overwhelmed with “loitering, open container abuse, violence, and harassment, and that longtime patrons no longer feel comfortable coming downtown.” On the college crowd specifically, the statement noted that many parents now actively tell their children to avoid downtown Orlando, and in some cases, outright forbid them from going due to safety concerns.
The Attic was known for its exposed brick walls, EDM programming, and a multi-room layout that included the adjacent Treehouse — making it one of the few venues in downtown that held onto its identity across nearly two decades of turnover in the area.
The club’s final night is this Sunday, May 31, and they’re inviting former guests, staff, DJs, performers, promoters, and vendors to come out one last time and “have a shot, a drink, share memories, dance with us, and help us close out nearly 16 years of downtown Orlando history the right way.”
