Author: Jess Dymond Barber
Finally the UK Government pledges £1.5bn lifeline to keep UK’s arts sector
After weeks of desperate warnings that the UK was facing an irreversible cultural catastrophe without targeted support, ministers announced a package that it said would protect the future of the country’s museums, galleries, theatres and music venues.
The package includes:
- A £1.15bn support pot for cultural organisations in England, consisting of £270m in loans and £880m in grants.
- £100m of targeted support for England’s national cultural institutions and English Heritage.
- £120m of capital investment to restart construction on cultural infrastructure and for heritage construction projects in England paused because of the pandemic.
- Extra money for devolved administrations, with £97m for Scotland, £59m for Wales and £33m for Northern Ireland.
Germany’s Reeperbahn Festival is planning a pandemic proof festival this September
Face masks and fewer venues and events will greet Reeperbahn Festival-goers in Hamburg later this summer. Organizers of the annual event — being held Sept. 16-19 — announced significant changes as it attempts to adhere to government guidance while still pulling off a safe and secure in-person gathering during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Planning a festival in the midst of a pandemic is undoubtedly a challenge like no other. Creating a safe yet enjoyable event is a demanding task for us. So why all the effort? Because it is not only about the Reeperbahn Festival itself – it is an existential question for artists, music businesses and venues. We want to find out whether and in what form cultural events can be planned and implemented in the coming months.” – Reeperbahn Festival Website
Support for artists is key to returning to vibrant cultural life post-coronavirus
Colleen Renihan, Ben Schnitzer and Julia Brook write for The Conversation on how artists are crucial to the futures we’re imagining beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
As musicologist Julian Johnson writes in his book Who Needs Classical Music? music facilitates “a relation to an order of things larger than ourselves.” Through music, the self, he writes, “comes to understand itself more fully as a larger, trans-subjective identity.
Read the full feature in The Conversation
Berlin’s Senate reaffirms commitment to protect the city’s nightlife through new legislation.
“Recognise and strengthen club culture as part of Berlin”
The Berlin Senate of the German capital, has stated that Berlin clubs should be better protected against oppression. In doing so the Senate has declared that clubs should be recognised as cultural sites. This is evident by a government application from the SPD, Left and Greens.
Club culture is a cultural asset which played a major role in shaping social, cultural and economic life in Berlin. Berlin clubs generate billions of dollars in annual revenue for the city, building connections to places and drawing global tourism. Club culture also enriches the cultural landscape of Berlin far beyond the pure “entertainment culture”. They create identity, are open spaces or even shelters for marginalised groups and intervene in urban politics. They make Berlin a city worth living in, with many people from different social and cultural backgrounds with values that stand for diversity and tolerance.
On June 12th, the government factions submitted an application to honour them, but also to protect them. Clubs worthy of protection are those which “have regular game play and a recognised artistic profile, which is characterised by a curated program, music aesthetic standards and a spatial concept,” it says.
According to the application, new building projects in the country should take clubs into account and builders themselves should provide noise protection in case of doubt.
“In addition to the current corona restrictions, these clubs are increasingly threatened in their existence due to competition in use,” states the application paper.
In particular, the rising commercial rents and crowding out by approaching residential buildings are a problem. The parliamentary groups also spoke out in favour of strengthening the country’s noise protection fund and also highlight the international appeal of the program.
The club scene association and the “parliamentary forum for club culture and nightlife”, an association of members of the five parliamentary groups Bündnis 90 / DIE GRÜNEN, SPD, DIE LINKE, FDP and CDU, have been promoting clubs in terms of building law for cultural purposes for a long time to be classified as places of amusement.
Clubcommission Berlin welcomes the decision:
“We are very happy about the confirmation of club culture that made the city of Berlin so significant and colourful. We curate our programs as well as opera houses or theatres and are therefore also cultural companies. Densification, advancing housing developments and real estate speculation are a sword of Damocles that we club operators can usually not avert on their own. With its clearly defined mandate to consider clubs as cultural facilities in urban planning in the future and to apply the agent-of-change principle, the Senate is sending a clear signal in the fight against the displacement of our venues. We are particularly pleased about the planned Federal Council initiative, in which Berlin will campaign for a reform of the Building Usage Ordinance and for the recognition of clubs at the federal level. “
A Look Inside The First French Arena Show In Three Months
Last week, AccorHotels Arena in the French capital of Paris hosted its first big crowd since the country went on lockdown in March.
On two nights, June 18-19, the team around general manager Nicolas Dupeux welcomed 1,000 and 2,000 guests, respectively. They had managed to get their hands on free tickets for a TV production that was recorded at the arena as part of the annual Fête de la Musique celebrations.
Will The Pandemic Spark A Return To Local Lineups?
Nyshka Chandran writes for Resident Advisor on how it’s time to get yourself acquainted with resident DJ’s.
The pandemic has devastated nightlife across the globe but as the sector recovers in parts of East Asia, a healthier ecosystem is poised to emerge.Across East Asia’s dance music communities, it’s no secret that overseas artists draw a bigger crowd than regular club nights. Organizers strive to balance the ratio of international and local artists at events, but the average clubber is more likely to buy a ticket if a popular European or American name is playing. COVID-19 could change this dynamic.
Creative Footprint Tokyo report completed at critical juncture in nightlife industry
After a year of hard work and close collaboration we are excited to share the official report of The Creative Footprint (CFP), Tokyo edition. CFP is a sociocultural initiative which maps and indexes creative space to measure the impact of nightlife and cultural activity on cities.
The CFP Tokyo report has been completed at a crucial time in the development of Tokyo’s nighttime industry. With the survey conducted during 2019, the resulting study can now provide a point of comparison in understanding and measuring the impact of the global pandemic on the strength and potential of Tokyo’s cultural activity after dark.
The study also includes detailed recommendations to support and enrich this cultural activity, the implementation of which will prove more important than ever during the coming months and years of recovery.
Nighttime industries worldwide are in a particularly vulnerable position due to COVID-19 measures; with so many businesses unable to reopen, many of the ‘creative spaces’ that CFP seeks to document are at risk of disappearing for good. Detailed surveys of these spaces are an essential first step in developing plans for their recovery, and ongoing survival.
As many global cities embark on a process of cautious reopening, there is a unique opportunity for a ‘reset’ in thinking and tactics of both governments and nighttime industry stakeholders. With initiatives like Creative Footprint Tokyo, and The Global Nighttime Recovery Plan, Vibelab hopes to empower cities to seize this opportunity, and ensure the survival and growth of their nighttime industries and creative cultures.
Please download the study by signing up here (pdf, 14,9 MB)
Good vibrations: how Bandcamp became the heroes of streaming
Chal Ravens writes for The Guardian about the virtues of Bandcamp.
After speaking to Founder Ethan Diamond, the ” CEO of Bandcamp about what it means to put artists before listeners, and how Bandcamp became the rarest of Silicon Valley stories; a slow burn success.
“They waive their fees, raise cash for Juneteenth and champion everything from vapourware to eco-grime.
‘Artists have to come first’ … Ethan Diamond, founder of Bandcamp.
“A lot of independent labels waived their fees as well. Some gave to food banks and other organisations. Those labels aren’t big corporations … that was amazing to see”
What is the future of partying in a post-pandemic world?
In some countries, clubs are cautiously reopening. In others, people are hitting up illegal raves. Gabriel Szatan explores what the dance music landscape will look like in the immediate aftermath of coronavirus.
“Everywhere you look, clubland is thawing and green shoots of recovery are sprouting.”
Green spaces as cultural areas. Will raves in Berlin’s parks soon be legal?
Der Tage Spiegel reports on how illegal raves have been springing up in parks and on the water ways in Berlin due to clubs remaining closed for the foreseeable future. Berlin’s ClubCommission have been working on ways to communicate with the Berlin municipality in order to legalise and tolerate events.
[Translation from German]
“Illegal events and the boat demo would have stigmatised the scene. “We need good examples,” says the district mayor.
At The Berlin Club Commission, Ilya Minaev has been dealing with free open-air events for years.
Last year, the Club Commission launched a pilot project on an industrial wasteland in the Haselhorst district of Spandau. There were legal celebrations there on 40 evenings and nights in 2019 – without complaints, without problems.
This year they wanted to extend the project to the Spreepark in Treptow, the authorities had already given the green light, but then Corona came. Now Minaev hopes that the party scene will soon be provided with new space. Minaev also pleads for events with DJs, amplified, electronic music and possibly also light shows to take place outdoors. So far, there have only been discussions in Pankow, but green spaces are out of the question because of their desolate condition. Instead, spaces or fallow land are conceivable.”
Lists have already been created internally for legal raves that are intended to guarantee social and ecological sustainability.These have now been expanded to include recommendations on protection against infection.