What's actually happening at KOKO on October 2?

KOKO's Camden theatre opens its Autumn/Winter 2026 "KOKO Electronic" season with Green Velvet headlining, backed by RUZE and FIFI FORTE. Green Velvet, the alter ego Curtis Jones built on top of his Cajmere production name, is one of the architects of the Chicago sound: "Percolator," Relief Records, three decades of tracks that still move rooms built decades after he made them. A London theatre date of this size is rare for him: most of his UK bookings land in festival tents or late-slot club sets, not a 1,410-capacity venue with its own 125-year history.

How did KOKO come back from a fire that melted its roof?

The booking carries weight because of what KOKO survived to get here. A fire broke out during renovation work in the early hours of January 6, 2020, sending around 60 firefighters to the Camden Grade II-listed building and badly damaging its roof and the dome that has topped the building since it opened as a theatre in 1900. The venue stayed shut for more than two years while owners rebuilt, merging the original theatre with a former pub and an old piano factory next door, adding a four-storey extension, restoring the dome and nearly doubling the usable floor space. The job, reported at roughly £70 million, added a members' club, a second performance room (The Fly Tower), a jazz room (Ellen's), a recording studio, a roof terrace restaurant and a shop around the historic main room. KOKO reopened in April 2022 with Arcade Fire on the stage; the KOKO Electronic series launched that same year and has since hosted DJ Koze, Midland and Richie Hawtin.

KOKO's rebuild merged three separate buildings into one site without losing the room where Madonna, Prince and The Clash all played.

What else is on KOKO Electronic's AW26 season?

2026 is also KOKO's 125th-anniversary year, marked with a new in-house recording studio and a kebab-shop-set campaign film for the new season. Beyond Green Velvet's October 2 date, the AW26 run carries Michael Bibi, Leon Vynehall, Hot Since 82 and DESIREE through to January 2027, with Shanti Celeste also on the bill among a wider cast of names.