Miami-Area Club Temporarily Shut Down for Holding Illegal Topless Dance-Off

Well, that was fun while it lasted. A mere 24 hours after prominent Miami nightclub La Covacha — a staple of the local Latin American music scene for decades — posted a video of multiple women stripping nude to try to win some concert tickets, the City of Sweetwater has temporarily shut down the club.

According to El Nuevo Herald, which first broke news that the club had been locked down due to a pretty hilarious code violation (it's illegal to host nude dances without a permit), the club will remain closed until its owners, who are apparently out of town in Argentina, appeal the violation. (Sweetwater Police didn't immediately answer New Times' call for more information.)

So far, clubgoers online have been, shall we say, less than surprised by the news.

"La Covacha was the first club I ever went to," one Twitter user, @XOAdrianaAlicia, wrote today. "I was 13 and I drank my first screwdriver."

Another added: "Lmfao la covacha shut down. Finally."

The club has operated since 1989, surviving a crippling fire in 1999 and the ups and downs of Miami's infamously fickle nightclub scene. But a viral video in which a couple of ladies took off their tops has finally closed the club's doors, at least for now.

The video began circulating online Tuesday. In the clip, a trio of women danced nude onstage to try to win some tickets to an upcoming concert by Yomil y el Dany, a Cuban reggaeton group. In what might have been a poor choice of words, the club's DJ shouted "Take it off!" in Spanish. Twenty seconds into the clip, the music cuts out, and the host starts asking the crowd whether they prefer woman number one, two, or three as the dancers flash the crowd.

In memory of La Covacha, let's start a thread of the worst shit that has happened/ we've done/ seen at The Cove. I'll start: DUI @ 18. DALE.

— beavis (@bettttyloo) August 10, 2017

La Covacha is the first club I ever went to. I was 13 and I drank my first screwdriver.

— Adriana Alicia (@XOAdrianaAlicia) August 10, 2017

I was walking out of la covacha drunk af passed the cops and yelled out "ohhh I smell bacon" then they basically tackled me and cuffed me

— Brian Valencia (@brianvale1219) August 10, 2017

According to multiple people who spoke to the Herald, this sort of bootleg, seminude dance competition is pretty common at some of Miami's Latin clubs.

"The people who are outside of it can see it as something that is wrong, but this is something that has been happening in discotheques for a while now,” Miami events promoter Rolnier Tito, who first posted the video online, told the Herald.

But however common events like this might be, the clip forced the Sweetwater city government's hand, and city commissioners reportedly forced code enforcement to crack down on the club. A bright red code-violation warning now sits on La Covacha's locked front door.

After all these years, La Covacha still ratchet. Some things never change. https://t.co/K5FQpCYo34

— D (@DiegoVill) August 10, 2017