MTV Video Music Awards ditching Los Angeles for Brooklyn

MTV’s Video Music Awards is packing up from Los Angeles and headed to the East Coast.

The always irreverant video fete is returning to New York City for the first time since 2009 for the ceremony that turns 30 this year (yes, you are as old as you think you are), the network announced Monday.

Brooklyn’s Barclays Center will host the spectacle, which airs live Aug. 25.

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“From a vibrant musical scene for up and coming artists to epic concerts by today’s biggest stars and the triumphant return of pro sports to the borough after nearly 60 years, Brooklyn has re-emerged as a cultural capitol where music, sports and entertainment history is made every day,” Stephen Friedman, president of MTV, said in a statement.

MTV teased the new location with a batch of cute photos of the show’s Moonman statue traveling from L.A. to New York. The Moonman “posed” in front of LAX, a subway station, Times Square, near a Biggie mural and in front of Barclays Center, which Jay-Z christened with a string of shows in September.

The first VMAs aired in the Big Apple from Radio City Music Hall in 1983. Last year, the ceremony was held at Staples Center for the first time, after spending two years at L.A. Live’s Nokia Theatre.

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