Category: Site News
Academics from cities from around the world are working on a Global Nighttime Recovery Plan to save the nightlife industries whatshot
“Nightlife spaces are where we connect, where we innovate and shape the identity of our cities.”
—Mirik Milan, VibeLab co-founder and former night mayor of Amsterdam
Since the worldwide lockdowns of spring 2020, VibeLab has initiated a global dialogue among night mayors and commissioners, scholars and academics, resulting in the Global Nighttime Recovery Plan.
Developed in discussion with urban designers, planners, and nighttime industry leaders, and drawing from nighttime cities implementing responsive public health policies and strategic recovery measures, the plan utilises case studies to present workable solutions for cities of many sizes, geographical and economic contexts, and multiple models of nighttime governance.
The plan has been structured into a set of themes that address specific issues that cities are facing globally. The first chapter, released next week is led by Mark Adam Harold from Vilnius Night Alliance and will cover the many facets involved in operating Open-air nightlife. A guide to wether it is feasible for night-time venues to operate as open-air establishments? What implications does that have for safety and quality of life of patrons, employees and city residents?
Interested in finding out more and seeing what the next chapters of the plan are?
Register here stay informed
Nightclubs face balancing act between keeping their venues alive and protecting the health of the public.
Wired magazine covers the difficulties that nightclubs will face as a result of Corona virus.
“Nightclub owners, like those of other businesses, find themselves in a difficult balancing act between keeping their venues alive and protecting the health of the public. As Amsterdam’s first night mayor, Mirik Milan acted as the go-between between the city’s nightclubs and government. Today, he runs the VibeLab agency together with Lutz Leichsenring, a spokesperson for the Clubcommission Berlin to help the industry back on its feet. “Everybody’s saying ‘We’re making 100 per cent of the decisions with 50 per cent of the information’ and when it comes to nightclubs and nighttime establishments, that’s really problematic,” says Milan. The duo is working with other night mayors, club owners, as well as urban researchers from Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania on a recovery plan for the industry.”
The first chapter of the Global Nighttime Recovery Plan is due to release next week, stay tuned on Nighttime.org for guides on how governments can support with venues and event industry by utilising outdoor and public space for reopening in the open air.
“If we make nightlife clinical, we take away the essence.”
Mirik milan
“While nightclubs are finding creative ways to reopen safely with distanced seating, contact tracing, online ordering systems, and better ventilation and hygiene, it won’t be possible to remove all risk factors. It is unlikely we’ll see club managers walking around the venue telling people not to laugh or sing. “You don’t want your staff to be policing people that are speaking too loudly,” says Milan from VibeLab.
How Australia’s night-time economy could boost the coronavirus recovery
Data on movement in cities suggests businesses should get creative after hours to weather the Covid-19 recession.
Urbis, a city planning and policy consultant group has collected data which highlights the economic potential that operating outside standard office hours would have upon the retail, food and entertainment businesses in Melbournes CBD district.
The Central Business District which traditionally relied on office workers, has been hit hard by Corona virus, as people are increasingly working from home.
“Calling for a more vibrant night-time economy, including standup comedy in local hairdressers and after-dark art exhibitions in bookshops, could play a crucial role in Australia’s post-pandemic financial recovery, data tracking of people’s movement suggests.”
Carl Cox: illegal raves during the pandemic are “not the answer”-
The DJ addressed the recent wave of illegal parties in the UK. Carl Cox has said that Illegal raves during pandemic are “not the answer”. The techno DJ recently spoke in an interview with Sky News about the resurgence of illegal raves and parties in the UK, blaming it on the government and the lack of a clear timeline on clubs and festivals reopening.
Cox told Sky News “These illegal parties are basically done out of frustration,” he said. “Just done out of showing it’s our right to do what we want to do. It’s not the answer to this.”
While pubs and restaurants have been given the green light to open from last Saturday (4th July), clubs and music venues remain shuttered in the UK since closing their doors four months ago.
Elsewhere in the world, clubs in the Western Australian city of Perth were able to reopen in June, as the state moves into the fourth phase of reopening following the coronavirus pandemic.
Finally the UK Government pledges £1.5bn lifeline to keep UK’s arts sector whatshot
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. whatshot
“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.