An estimated £200m has been wiped off the value of the UK nightclub scene in the past five years as partygoers desert the dancefloor in search of new pleasures.
More clubs closed in 2018 as people swapped thumping bass for alternative entertainment including indoor golf, trampolining and, in east London, a vegan food festival described as “the wildest plant-based party” in the capital.
Clubs that shut this year included Venus in Manchester and Undr and Proud Camden in London. After a final New Year’s Eve blowout, Venus was turned into a gym. The Arches in Glasgow reopened as a food market with coffee roasters.
A new breed of nightlife is taking their place, with food, games and even exercise trumping the hedonism of dancing to DJ mixes. Adam Breeden, an entrepreneur who has developed concepts based on darts, ping pong, golf and, next year, bingo, said he was catering in part to “kidult” impulses.
He said the willingness of people to choose games for a night out, rather than supposedly cooler dance music, showed that the young generation had the confidence to pursue what it really wants.
Stuart Forsyth, the event manager of Mint in Leeds, a club that will close in February after 20 years, said: “Kids now are more financially aware and more health aware than what we were going into the 90s and the noughties. “I know a lot of kids who will be going to the gym instead of staying up all night.”
At Rush trampoline parks in Birmingham and High Wycombe, guests jump around to a laser light show and DJs on Friday and Saturday nights. The company acquired an alcohol licence six months ago and 20% of its customers are adults.
Dave Connor, the owner of Venus, said: “I’ll be honest with you, I think nightclubs now have become extinct. They’ve been closing at a massive rate over the last couple of years and I do seriously think there isn’t much call for them. It’s all bar-nightclubs now.”
The figures are stark: 11% of adults went to nightclubs at least once a month in the year to September, down from 15% two years earlier, according to Mintel, a market research company. It estimates there has been a 17% drop in the value of the clubbing market since 2013.
Another research company, IbisWorld, said the market was contracting at a rate of almost 6% a year, with 25% of clubs closing in the past decade.
Nightclub operators say tough licensing conditions, sometimes enforced in response to concerns about safety arising from cuts to police resources, are a key factor in making the business harder. But student nights are also on the wane and clubbers are more likely to attend fewer but bigger events.
Meanwhile, festivals, dating websites and social networking have undermined one of clubbing’s unique selling points: a chance to find romance.
Breeden explained: “If you wanted to go out and meet a girl, you would have to go out and get smashed. Because people are already highly networked online, that’s no longer necessary. People are able to identify with a group without having to go to a club.”
Alan Miller, the chair of the Night Time Industries Association, which represents clubs, said: “New bars, smaller venues and street food events, along with pop-ups, have all been broadening the offer, but the very late night activity is missed out on, and a lack of later/24-hour licensing is the real nub of [the] problem.”
Councils are prioritising housing development, which sits uneasily alongside late-night noise, and are wary of stretching limited police resources by granting late licences.
Mint, which has a huge cult following and hosts festivals, was unable to renew its licence this year due to “comprehensive development” in the area.
This summer the London borough of Hackney announced that new pubs, bars and entertainment venues would be expected to close at 11pm on weekdays and midnight at weekends. It followed complaints of noise and antisocial behaviour.
Plenty of clubs are still booming, including the House of Song, which has two clubs in London hosting 7,000 people a week, with music provided by a live band that plays songs requested by the crowd.
Fold, a 24-hour electronic dance club in Canning Town, opened in July encouraging people to come and go as they please. The Cause in Tottenham, located in a former mechanics depot, is using its bar revenue to try to raise money for mental health charities.
Both are examples of clubbing moving further out of the centre, with a sharper focus on the quality of the sound system and more experimental music. The Warehouse Project in Manchester has sold more tickets this year than any before. Its founder, Sacha Lord, has also been appointed night-time economy adviser to the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham.
Lord said: “The 18- to 23-year-olds that are coming through now are into what they’re wearing, they’re into how they look, what they eat, and that’s down to the explosion of social media.
“Instagram is all about everybody wants the perfect look, everybody wants to be seen at the right places. Whereas a few years ago, when the kids were all out binge drinking. Nobody wants that any more now – everybody wants to portray this amazing, perfect life.”
