Go Out, Get Ugly: Your Vanity is Causing the Clubs to Shut Down

Since the pandemic over 28,000 licensed venues have closed in the UK. That’s 119 pubs, clubs and bars permanently shutting their doors a week. It’s more expensive than ever for venues to keep their strobe lights on with rising energy costs, rising rent and lack of government support. However, this economic struggle could’ve been lessened, maybe even avoided, if people actually returned to the clubs post covid. A lack of footfall means a lack of money coming. Ultimately, venues are closing because people simply aren’t going. 

It’s not new news that Gen Z are going out less. We’re more risk averse than our millennial predecessors, and even more so than the Gen X ravers who made the 90s so iconic. We now have much wider access to information, and with knowledge comes…fear. Thanks to the rise of TikTok it’s easy to be confronted with personal trauma and dangers that strangers have faced throughout their life – there’s no need to live it first-hand. Even for those with low screen-time it’s hard to ignore the recent spike of, well, spiking. On top of this, I can’t not mention the rising price of pints, a threat to my bank account if nothing else. Gen Z’s financial and wellbeing concerns about going ‘out out’ are very real, but is there more to it than that? 

Despite the common narrative, the pandemic didn’t cause the change in youth culture and nightlife, it only propelled an existing trend. The decline in alcohol consumption among young people started in the early 2000s and accelerated in 2009. Coincidently around the same time the first iPhone was released [2007]. 

Peace. Pout. Post. You know the drill. As camera phones increased in quality, so did our quantity of selfies. And group pics, GRWMs, snapchats, vlogs, fails, memes. You get the gist. We’re constantly on one side of a camera. Even minding your own business, you’ll end up in the background of a stranger’s photo dump. It’s not surprising to hear 49% of gen Z say their online image is always at the back of their mind when they go out socialising and drinking. Mix this 360 surveillance with the pressure to appear perfect caused by social media, you can see why getting Chloe Ferry level of shitfaced is hardly an appeal to young people. Because even though loads of us would love to go viral, it’s probably not for drunk arguing with a kebab (She did at least keep Bijoux in business). 

Young people are drinking less because they’re worried about being caught on camera in an unsightly state, therefore aren’t visiting nightlife venues as frequently. If we want to save the nightlife scene, we have to accept getting drunk is not picture perfect. We can’t party like it’s 1999 and be vain. 

[Bugged Out, Liverpool, Circa 1999. Credit: Mark Mucnulty]

Keeping clubbing alive is important for both culture and community. Nightlife has historically been a place for self-expression and experimentation. Whether that's aesthetics, sexuality or musically. It allows for socialisation, to meet like-minded people, which is especially important for marginalised groups, N.B. the queer community. It also allows a ladder for new artists to climb. From grassroots venues to major nightclubs – talent has to come from somewhere.

So, what do we do? We need to go out and get ugly. Touch grass and then the sticky club floor. Reject the sobering beauty standards that value photogenic-ness over participation. 

Perhaps we’ll see a rise of tech-free club nights. Clubs that create a safe place to make a fool of ourselves without having the fear of someone capturing an embarrassing angle. Ambers (Manchester), Fold (London) and Fabric (London) are at least three clubs leading the trend with various ‘sticker over your camera’ policies, and it's something far more prevalent in cities such as Berlin. Or maybe, we just need to try and care less. Put our phones down and dance. And if we really feel compelled to capture the moment, get a disposable camera - at least there's no facetune installed on that.