LunaVerse welcomes partygoing species in search of nightlife
by Will O’Brien
In the last year, Knoxville has undergone a severe “remodeling” phase.
The closure of several bars and restaurants on the Cumberland Avenue strip and in the Old City and downtown has left many locals wondering what the future holds.
There have been additions, too, though, and one of the biggest – in terms of both business and geographical footprint – is the latest venture from Bernadette and Scott West. The LunaVerse Nightclub (and future entertainment complex) at Asylum 801 opened its doors in April, and it quickly became a destination, particularly for those attending the University of Tennessee.
Luna adds to the extensive roster of successful business ventures established by the Wests, as they have opened more than 30 enterprises throughout their time in Knoxville. The most notable news of late for the married couple was the inclusion of Preservation Pub on USA Today’s list of the “Best Bars in America.”
LunaVerse, located at 940 Blackstock Ave., serves as the entertainment epicenter for multiple Knoxville neighborhoods. Its closest neighbor is Fort Sanders to the west; World’s Fair Park sits nearby to the east; and the complex is a short walk from both Market Square and the Old City. It’s a weekend warrior’s destination, as Scruffy City’s newest nightclub opens its doors every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m.
After sitting dormant for a few years and left to decay, the Wests purchased the property in 2022. After continuous negotiation with the city and numerous delays, they were able to open the complex’s flagship business on April 4, 2024.
The property comprises two warehouses, each 10,000 square feet, on the corner of Blackstock Avenue and Ramsey Street, nestled under the Western Avenue overpass. It also includes an extensive parking lot on its eastern side that can host hundreds of vehicles and thousands of patrons for current and future events.
Upon entering the nightclub’s doors, patrons are greeted with large displays of abstract and cosmic-themed visual art that line the club’s walls, including a piece that holds a title in the Guinness Book of World Records for “Largest Circular Mandala.” Crafted from thousands of hours of pointillism detail work, it serves as a spectacular central attraction.
Directly in front of the main entrance on the way to the dancefloor sits the main bar, stocked with myriad bottles and canned beverages. The final frontier between the bar and LunaVerse’s sprawling dancefloor is a production booth, equipped with a model UFO that shades the sound engineer’s table and adds to the ambiance of the extraterrestrial music venue.
When attendees hit the dancefloor, their nightlong quest for an energetic, fun and diverse party comes into full view. LunaVerse has all the distinct qualities that make for a great nightclub: a good space, good drinks, great lighting and production – and even better music booming from a fantastic sound system.
Strobe lights, disco balls and lasers illuminate the spacious high ceilings that define LunaVerse’s warehouse space, accompanied by psychedelic patterns and artwork that flash across the club’s hypnotizing LED screens. From the exposed rafters, glistening bundles of sequins and sparklers drape over the dancefloor and main stage, gracefully reflecting light onto the club’s landscape and attendees.
The interior also features a stage-focused VIP area on the right side of the main floor, as well as a lofted VIP section on the upstairs balcony. There, LunaVerse offers devoted tableside bartenders, a food menu produced in an in-house kitchen, a balcony bar and many more additional luxuries that further enhance the experience.
Scott West takes some credit for developing the logistical and talent-booking side of the LunaVerse story, but he is eager to credit Bernadette for her tasteful and eclectic creative direction that perfectly encompasses the nightclub’s atmosphere. Extensive collaborative effort has been required from both to foster this dream of a restored Asylum District and flourishing nightclub into a reality. As Scott West recounts, “It has taken longer than I wanted to, but it’s happened.”
Upon the grand opening, he expected a decent amount of foot traffic but nothing that would exceed the venue’s capacity in that first week of business. However, LunaVerse experienced a swath of student patronage and a healthy amount of regular clubgoers in the late spring. In awe, Scott West embraced the student population for its rapid acceptance of the new nightclub, but he struggled with the absence of said student body during the summertime months.
“I thought the idea would be that Saturday night would cover the costs of mortgage and rent and utility stuff,” he says. “I thought Saturday nights would cover it, and I would have to struggle to figure everything out. I didn’t realize we were going to get hammered Thursday, Friday and Saturday night [from] when we opened until we hit summer.”
LunaVerse is more than happy to serve as a destination for UT students searching for a local nightclub, but it also wants to broaden its reach to all communities in Knoxville. After all, Scott West’s dream is for LunaVerse to be an entertainment hub for all walks of life to share in our city. To him, community is everything. “If you drink a beer with us, you’re helping us build this dream,” he says.
This success didn’t happen by accident, and it all is a part of Scott West’s plan for elevating LunaVerse to a level accessible to all crowds. He is a firm believer in the community’s ability to spotlight new venues and businesses, and he feels that the venue speaks for itself. “We saw the same thing in Market Square and Old City,” he says. “Once you prove you can attract crowds, then the city will start building infrastructure to accommodate.”
Currently, LunaVerse is the only space in the complex that is currently operational, but not for much longer. Soon, both warehouse spaces will tie into a comprehensive plan formulated by the Wests to transform the Asylum District into an enticing destination for all residents. This will feature some of the artistic motifs found in their previous entertainment endeavors.
Scott West speaks to the rich history that this location holds in Knoxville’s developmental timeline and how he wants to incorporate that history into LunaVerse and Asylum 801’s atmosphere. At face value, the intricate details inscribed by 19th-century architects are still very present on both buildings’ exteriors, but their history further permeates into the internal infrastructure of the warehouses.
In the early 1800s, both buildings were used by International Harvester as showrooms for tractors and other industrial farm equipment. In fact, the farm equipment transported into the Asylum 801 building in the early 19th century was the first recorded introduction of gas-powered machinery into Knoxville’s agricultural and mechanical industry.
As Scott West notes, the extremely durable and unyielding floors and steelwork of the Asylum District’s warehouses can be attributed to their need to support these industrial supply orders, and they remain as sturdy as ever. Unintentionally, International Harvester constructed the perfect floors for a safe, multi-level entertainment complex/concert venue.
Since the April opening, Scott West has advocated for the 3.5-acre locations’ current name to be redesignated as the “Asylum District,” as it once was named in the early 1800s, a title that referred to the nearby Tennessee School for the Deaf. To him, the name signifies a safe place for community engagement.
Scott West is optimistic about the future of this neighborhood and has plenty of ideas for future developments and additions. The most pertinent of these is a plan to completely transform the area into a revitalized, space-aged, intergalactic entertainment complex that will restore the Asylum District to its former prominence.
That vision of the future is one that focuses on inclusion, individuality and exploration. As stated on the LunaVerse website, the new area will be a space where “extraterrestrial and earthling are one. Man is now animal, animal is man. All legends in the rivers and forests of Tennessee folklore walk and swim in the magic-filled, radioactive warehouses at Asylum, the Bermuda Triangle of the Appalachians. Mole people, hellphibians, UFOs and ape men, all are inexorably drawn to this place.”
To accompany these diverse cosmonauts in the form of common folk, the new Asylum District has grand-scale plans for its currently vacant space, Asylum 801. Located directly adjacent to the LunaVerse structure, it comprises six floors of warehouse-style rooms, open for multitudes of entertainment opportunities and venue additions.
Scott West plans to transform this vacant space into a multi-level powerhouse of fun for music, games and other entertainment. In his ideal future, this space will be broken up into several different themes, functionalities and atmospheres separated by floor.
In the building’s basement, the now unused space will include a blacklight room for arcade games, laser tag and more. On the first floor, the plan is to convert the all-encompassing tractor storage room into a sports bar-esque entertainment center filled with TVs for watching sports and live events; duckpin bowling; mini golf; bocce; shuffleboard; and arcade games. Additionally on the first floor, Asylum 801 will have its own in-house kitchen.
Traversing an interior staircase yields access to the second and third floors, once the former loading rooms for International Harvester’s tractors. Scott West envisions this space as a smaller venue for intimate concerts and watch parties. Prospects also could include stages for stand-up comedy and burlesque performances, as well as the possibility for a brewery.
In even larger plans, Scott would like to design and construct a multi-level veranda that spans across Asylum 801’s front doors to the rear of the building, curving around the southern face that is adjacent to the Asylum District parking lot and railroad. The plan is to have one of these outstretched platforms on every floor of the new Asylum 801 building. If implemented, these massive, elevated balconies could be used as a VIP vantage point for those watching concerts held in the parking lot.
Seemingly endless, the parking lot behind Asylum 801 and LunaVerse covers an expansive amount of land that will be utilized far beyond the functionality of its current use. It could be transformed at a later date into an outdoor concert venue or festival grounds. If everything goes according to the master plan, Scott West hopes to construct around seven stages in total.
No room will be wasted in this new project by the Wests, as they plan to include a rooftop mezzanine and geodesic dome on Asylum 801’s rooftop. This space will be themed as an intergalactic forest, a safe and relaxing place for concertgoers and astronauts alike to land and enjoy the views of World’s Fair Park and downtown Knoxville from the highest point in the Asylum District.
Atop this mezzanine level will be a massive dome, proposed as the “cherry on top” of Scott West’s visualization for the future of the Asylum District. Once finished, it will mark the completion of his aforementioned plans for this new area.
Since its opening, LunaVerse has consistently booked a wide-ranging lineup of local artists, DJs and bands. Some performers have a permanent residency at LunaVerse, such as Knoxville’s beloved DJ Sterl the Pearl and DJ Andres Tapia. Some events are a weekly occurrence at the nightclub, as well, including silent discos every Thursday night at 8.
Previously held in Scruffy City Hall, Scott West wants to begin transitioning his successful band-eat-band competition to LunaVerse for finals and for winning participants. He also wants to kickstart competitions that pit competing genres against one another.
When one harbors so many extravagant concepts for new spaces, logistical roadblocks can arise. In his race to actualize these grand ideas for LunaVerse, Asylum 801 and the greater Asylum District, Scott West has run into some difficulties with the clearance of certain construction permits and licenses. This is nothing new for him, though, and he’s not deterred by setbacks.
“It’s about creating the ‘Field of Dreams,’” he says. “It’s about creating the destination – and then the bands, DJs, burlesque troupes and comedians will come to you and say, ‘I’d like to perform here in this amazing space.’ Once you build it, the people will come, and the city will have to say, ‘Oh, we need to do something to help the infrastructure here.’
“Just like we saw in Old City and Market Square, once you build it up and the people come, then [the city has] to build a parking garage. So my job is to build this place up so that it needs a parking garage.”
More than the hangups, Scott West is focused on delivering the best product and space for entertainment possible, open to all who enjoy great music and an even better atmosphere.
If everything goes according to plan, this development by the Wests will completely alter the landscape of the new Asylum District from something that is underutilized to a destination that stands out from all others.
No matter how challenging these grandiose plans seem on paper, the Wests are never bashful when it comes to dreaming and, more importantly, executing. And based on the successes of their previous endeavors, the future for the Asylum District – and its future popularity and success – seems infinite.
will@blanknews.com
This blog unveils the enchanting world of LunaVerse, a mesmerizing realm bridging space and time. Its vivid storytelling and imaginative concept make it an unforgettable journey for every dreamer.