John Huntington is best known as the “country’s premier nightclub promoter”, but at heart, he is a surfer, a nature and adventure lover. He has a vivid imagination and a keen mind for business with his uncanny ability to predict the “next big thing”. It is this combination that has led him from his home in Huntington Beach, California to the international frontlines of the nightclub and restaurant industry. Huntington began his journey after he quit college and moved to Big Bear Mountain to work as a ski instructor/ski patrolman. “College just wasn’t for me,” says Huntington, ”I was sitting in music appreciation 101 while the world was passing me by”. After three winters in the mountains and three summers as a lifeguard, John knew it was time to make his move. He wanted a profitable career in which he could travel the world.
He set his career in motion by enrolling in a national Bartending School. At completion he immediately began working in a variety of fast paced Southern California bars and nightclubs. After a lucrative six years, Huntington craved his initial desire: travel. He approached world renowned Club Med Resorts, who interviewed and hired him the next day. This two-year assignment as the general manager of Club Med nightclubs and bars in the Bahamas, Florida and Mexico greatly expanded his knowledge of the industry. Once he’d absorbed all there was to learn from the Club Med experience, Huntington decided to move on a hunch to his next challenge: Amsterdam, where the nightclub/bar industry was steps ahead of anything happening in the US. In his characteristic manner, Huntington quickly assimilated and adapted to the different styles of European nightclubbing. After a year and a half he returned home to Huntington Beach with a new appreciation for European electronic, house and trance music, which at that time was still fairly unknown in the US market. The idea to bring the energy and style that was so popular in Europe to the ’21 and over’ crowd here in The States would bring forth one of America’s most well known and branded nightclub empires ever. John Huntington enlisted the help of Damian Sanders and together Club Rubber was created. The explosion was exponential.
John Huntington has since become one of the top national Nightclub Promoters. Since 1996 he has thrown the top six largest 21 and over parties in the history of the United States. In Las Vegas, Huntington has sold out the 10,000 seat Mandalay Bay Arena four times in one year and the 10,000 seat Orleans Arena twice. Both the Pimp ‘n Ho and Summer of Love parties were featured on the television show Wild on E!, locking down the number three spot on E!’s “Wildest Parties” edition. (Carnivale in Rio de Janeiro and Mardi Gras in New Orleans hold the first two spots). He has worked with the top DJ’s in the world, including Paul Oakenfold, Tiesto, Judge Jules and Tall Paul, to name only a few. Huntington has promoted concerts with acts from Blink 182 to The Untouchables to Common Sense to Pennywise in his creation of the Levi’s Mammoth Mountain Concert Series. (The news series highlighting his work on the Concert Series was nominated in 1997 for a prized Emmy Award) He has dominated the Southern California Club Market with sold out events from the San Diego Sports Arena to the Key Club in Los Angeles, not to mention the eleven consecutive years of Club Rubber events in Orange County, the number one nightclub on the West Coast.
Intrigued and driven by new ventures, in 2000 Huntington combined his love of martial arts, (he trains in both Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muy Thai), with his experience as a Promoter and Producer. He moved to Las Vegas and became a Co-Founder of the World Fighting Alliance a mixed martial arts cage-fighting event. This event was soon voted the #3 show in the world by a leading mixed martial arts magazine and was hosted by the Hard Rock Casino Hotel and Aladdin Casino Hotel in Las Vegas. The show has since been sold to the UFC. John has since partnered with Chuck Liddell, the former UFC light heavyweight champion of the world, to Produce after parties following all UFC events. And in association with Chuck Liddel's company MMAJacked.com, The Huntington signature MMA shirt will be coming out Nov 20th. MMAJacked.com check it out.
Huntington continued to prove his visionary instincts with the opening of the world’s first tattoo shop in casino history. Hart and Huntington Tattoo Company, a venture with his partner, Extreme Sports Motocross Athlete, Carey Hart, opened in the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. The grand opening featured Good Charlotte and Mix Master Mike of the Beastie Boys, with celebrities from Eminem and Mark Wahlberg to Anna Kournikova and the band members of Korn in attendance. Huntington co-created, executive produced and starred in the TV reality show “Inked”, which aired on A & E, and covered the daily drama of his life and the design, build-out and opening of the tattoo shop. Both the shop and the party were a phenomenal success, as was the pilot of “Inked”, John has since sold majority interests of the shop,( to free up his time to chase his many other business interests), to Carey Hart yet Hart and Huntington Tattoo Co. has now expanded to Cabo San Lucas Mexico, Hawaii and Florida. And the clothing brand, Hart and Huntington Tattoo Company, is now being distributed by Fox Motocross to over five thousand stores around the world. Hart and Huntington also currently has a supercross and supermoto team.
Huntington, who is represented by United Talent Agency and John Moonves, is currently working on a new tv show on a major network that will follow him through the drama of his life and many different business interests. And is hosting parties and events across the country through his agent Michele Levy and at large
Huntington will expand on his success as a nightclub consultant and designer. His first project, the 22,000 square foot Rubber the Club on the Las Vegas strip, opened February 2005 to rave reviews; with Rubber’s Kiera lounge being named the number 3 lounge in Vegas by Vegas magazine.The club has since been torn down to make way for the new MGM project, The City Center. His next venture is a new 17,000 square foot strip club in Las Vegas, on which he will serve as consultant and designer. John has since joined forces with Motley Crue front man Vince Neil. Together they are building three rock and roll based clubs called Dr. Feelgoods. One in Palm Beach, Florda. One on the boarwalk of Atlantic City in a major casino, and finally one in a major casino on the Las Vegas strip. All to be completed in the next couple years. John is also starting raise capital to build his sushi brand Huntington's Rockin Wasabi's across the country. With his flagship American sushi restaurant under way in Mission Valley, San Diego.
John is currently touring his John Huntington's one night stands across the country. This touring groove lounge is a place for John to do shows with his many celebrity friends, djs and musicians. Keep a lookout, you may catch a huge act in a small club. Look for it coming to a town near you. He has also signed exclusive deals at the Ivy Hotel in San Diego, California, and the W hotel, in Dallas, Texas to produce their nightlife events.
In 2003, Huntington helped design, build and open a sushi restaurant and nightclub in Jaco, Costa Rica where he lives half the year. This venture he created for himself. It is his sanctuary, which is there for two reasons only: “So I can surf and find peace”. Huntington is now underway on his second sushi restaurant, KOI, in Costa Rica. This is a higher end restaurant for the changing demands of Jaco, with the addition of multiple high rise condo complexes being added in the mix in the last couple years. John’s ultimate goal is to create a resort hotel on a white sandy beach somewhere in Costa Rica. John Huntington has been called a visionary and if history is any indication, his sense of adventure combined with his ambition will continue to bring fresh and unexpected turns to add to this legacy. To keep up with what will be next for the ever changing and ever growing Huntington Empire, visit johnhuntington.com.
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