Picca Club

The map of the headphones

The headphones glow green, blue, or red and the dance floor splits into three parties at once. At Picca Club, the silent disco —Silent Battle, in the venue's slang— provides a wireless headset, three channels, and the ability to talk without shouting. The red channel plays what is sounding on the basement speakers; the other two run by different DJs. The formula was not born from an aesthetic whim: it arrived after a neighbor's complaint, a fine, and the police sealing of the equipment. Óscar Iglesias, current manager and president of the Valencia Nightlife Association, rented headphones, rehearsed a Silence Experience, and the room filled up. In June 2016, the Valencia Hospitality Business Federation awarded that innovation. Today, the headphones mark the venue's identity as much as the bar.

A boîte that survived the neighborhood

Ximo Lara opened Sider in 1969, when Tomasos street was cobblestone, vacant lots, and a dead end. The dance halls of that time operated from Thursday to Sunday, from 17:00 to 22:00, with pop, rock, and the ye-yé echo of a modernizing Valencia. Bruno Lomas, Tony Ronald, and Los Sírex performed live at that boîte; among the audience were Francis Montesinos, Nacho Duato, or Fernando Tejero. Nicolás Parra managed it from the mid-nineties until 2014. That year, the baton was passed to Alberto Flores and Iglesias himself. The London-style name Piccadilly Downtown Club covered a long period; in September 2022, the company shortened the brand to Picca, with the slogan "Change is good," without leaving Ruzafa's Tomasos street.

Diversity over original furniture

The venue is now an LGTBI space, featuring hits, indie, pop, and drag shows —Samantha Hudson, La Prohibida, Soy Una Pringada, Mario Vaquerizo—, with three areas in the same premises: silent disco, cocktail bar, and Picca Club dance floor. It wasn't always like this. Parra recalled that, a couple of decades ago, two girls in the middle of the dance floor were reprimanded by a security guard; he stopped that scene. Red velvet armchairs, glass mosaic, vintage tables, the wooden bar, and the black button-tufted upholstery are still there: the club renewed the name and kept the skeleton of Sider.

The sidewalk silencers

On the street, vests ask people to lower their voices. They are the silencers, mediators that the club has supported for over ten years. In 2026, the National Federation of Leisure and Entertainment Entrepreneurs —España de Noche— and Pernod Ricard awarded them the Recicla la Noche Award, estimating the thirteen-year investment in civic agents at 1,950,000 euros, just as Ruzafa was debuting the Acoustically Saturated Zone. The venue continues to schedule Fridays and Saturdays on Tomasos: three names, one same nightclub, and a family stubbornness not to turn off the lights.