“Yeah, me neither.”
“No. I mean literally AGES.”
This is becoming a familiar conversation in certain circles. Saturday night comes around and you’ll find yourself at a pub, a friend’s house, at the cinema… but not at a club. Are we just getting older and more boring, or is everyone just a bit fed up with clubbing?
This year the government has stopped including nightclub entry when working out the official inflation figures. Now before we lose our readers completely by mentioning inflation, it’s actually not that complicated. Every year the government makes a “What’s Hot” list (officially known as the Consumer Price Inflation Basket of Goods) and checks if the prices are going up or down. It’s a good way to see what people are spending money on, so you can also figure out what’s popular. The list for this year added items that we’re now spending more money on, like nail varnish, coffee pods and microwavable rice. It also removed things from the list that people aren’t spending as much money on anymore: CDs, rewritable DVDs and nightclub entry.
Take a moment to think about how miserable that is – nightclubs are being replaced by microwavable rice.
Of course, nightclubs have been a hot topic in the news recently after the closure of London superclub Fabric. Officials are arguing that Fabric was creating a dangerous environment after two drug-related deaths occurred in the club over the summer. There’s been uproar in the clubbing community and a lot of people believe that the tragic deaths are being used as an excuse to get rid of the club so that the site can be turned into a high-profit property development. Less dancing and music for us, more money for the big corporations. DJs, fans, the major of London and numerous drug charities have spoken out against the closure. Drug awareness groups are worried that closing big clubs will just drive people to poorly regulated clubs or house parties where drugs will be a far bigger problem.
Whatever the real reason for closing Fabric, it’s true that there are almost 1,500 fewer nightclubs in the UK now compared to ten years ago, and a global research firm recently found out that only 25% of millennials go to a club more than once a month. So it’s pretty obvious that we are all staying in more, or going for a few quiet drinks at the pub instead of going out dancing. But why?