Ame & DJ Tennis: Chinatown Block Party

A street party on Gin Ling Way takes over Chinatown's Central Plaza on Saturday, September 19, running 6 p.m. to midnight with Ame, DJ Tennis, Kaz James and Masha Mar on the bill. Tickets are $71.07 through Resident Advisor.

The Lineup

Ame is half of the Frankfurt pair behind "Rej," a record that still gets played twenty years on, and one of the architects of the Innervisions sound. His sets move slowly and deliberately: long blends, a lot of patience, payoffs that arrive later than you expect them to.

DJ Tennis (Manfredi Romano) runs Life and Death and plays with almost the opposite instinct. He'll swing from slow-burn melodic house into something scrappier without warning, and he reads a crowd well enough to get away with it. Kaz James works the Australian house lineage he came up in, and Masha Mar opens, which on an outdoor bill means setting the tone while there's still daylight.

Why the Location Matters

Gin Ling Way is the lantern-strung pedestrian lane at the heart of Central Plaza, the 1938 stretch of Chinatown with the pagoda rooflines and neon that shows up in half the films shot in the neighborhood. Closing it to run a sound system down its length is a genuinely different experience from a warehouse. You're dancing between two-story storefronts with the sky open above you, and the plaza's shape keeps the sound contained without turning it into a box.

Outdoor daytime-into-night bookings of this caliber don't come around often here, and a 6 p.m. start means you get a proper sunset slot rather than the usual 1 a.m. peak.

Practical Details

Date: Saturday, September 19, 2026 Time: 6 p.m. to midnight Where: Gin Ling Way, Los Angeles Tickets: $71.07 via Resident Advisor

Wear shoes you can stand in for six hours on pavement. Bring a jacket, since the plaza cools off fast once the sun clears the buildings.

Getting There

Metro A Line stops at Chinatown Station, a five-minute walk from the plaza, which beats hunting for street parking in a neighborhood that fills up on Saturday nights. If you drive, the lots along Broadway and Hill are your best bet. Plenty of food within a block: dumplings, banh mi, and the bars along Chung King Road stay open late.

More LA EDM events and other things to do in Los Angeles are worth a scroll before the weekend, including what's happening downtown.