[cehrlich]

My experience is in London, but very similar. Even if you can afford it, the "real" nightclubs are total waste of time and money.

Unfortunately a lot of places that were actual music venues (Fabric was the one that got the most press attention, but there were others) got shut down in recent years because of noise complaints, drug investigations, etc. This of course played right into the hand of property developers. I'm sure lockdowns aren't helping either, and there's probably a bunch of suits frothing at the mouth to replace everything with "luxury housing units" in places that currently have decent nightlife like Vauxhall, the northern part of Kingsland Road leading to Tottenham, etc.

On the other hand I don't think it's possible to kill culture, and the people who want to put on events will find a way. At least that's the only optimistic way to look at the current situation.

[FuckButtons]

It is possible to kill culture and it's been happening in London for years, the more people are priced out of the city the less interesting things that are happening. You can see that in microcosm in the differences between Berlin and London. The number of small interesting arts and music venues in Berlin is an order of magnitude higher than in London because it's much more affordable to live there and keep doing your thing for little to no financial reward.

[mathattack]

Ironically it’s those same suits who are paying for the bottle service.