Who killed Rafa? The dance of the night will fall into decline at the international level

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New Year’s Eve attendees will be the last to rock the dance floor at the Watergate Club, hosting 2025 in a 35-hour event. The Berlin location is the latest victim. Death of the club – Club death.

“Gone are the days when Berlin was full of club-loving visitors,” the venue’s management said in a farewell statement. The Watergate co-owner blamed the closure on spending pressures, declining tourism, waning enthusiasm for Generation Z and the rise of music festivals.

The pressure caused by the collapse of Watergate is a trend shifting nightlife capitals from Berlin to Barcelona and Melbourne to New York: clubbers are ending their nights earlier even as dance music grows in popularity.

In the year Between 2014 and 2024, the proportion of club nights running past 3am fell in 12 out of 15 global cities, according to a Financial Times analysis of events on listings website Resident Advisor.

“People can only go out for so many hours,” says Lutz Lichsenring, co-founder of international nightlife consultancy VibeLab. “There is a lot of competition between night and day events.”

Lixenring said that revenue from liquor sales drops in the early hours of the morning, so venue owners often close their doors to cut costs.

More restrictive Licensing regulations Post-Covid-19, it has become an issue for clubs and promoters in cities around the world. While cities have appointed night mayors and adopted “24-hour city” policies in recent years, increased control over the night-time economy since the outbreak of the pandemic has led to tighter policing of nighttime establishments, Lechsenring added.

The increasing popularity of day events and festivals is another reason. The 5-10 p.m. events were originally intended for millennials who didn’t want to partake in the wee hours, but they’ve gotten “a lot of interest,” said Mike Voster, who hosts the company’s Matinee Social Club in New York. Partygoers in their 20s.

According to Vosters, the shift away from “bottle service” club culture and a new generation’s emphasis on healthy living are the two main drivers behind the craze for early-ending dance parties.

Residents’ advisory data also reflected an increase in daytime parties, with several large cities showing events ending at 10 p.m.

Melbourne claims to be the live music capital of the world and has had a vibrant nightclub scene for over 20 years. However, as consumer habits change and the cost of the process increases, especially after the pandemic, the sector is declining significantly in the city.

One executive in the entertainment industry says that because young people are more health-conscious and money-conscious than previous generations, they have less desire to go out until 6 a.m. That’s one of Melbourne’s nightclub closures – more than 100 have closed in recent years – and the few clubs that stay open all night.

In Dublin, campaigners are fighting to change restrictive licensing laws that force clubs to pay €410 a night to stay open between 12.30am and 2.30am.

Sunil Sharp, DJ and founder of Lalit Setan, said the suspension of the 6pm closing rule has left the sector in a quandary as operators worry about investing in new venues.

He estimates that 20 to 25 clubs remain in the city and suburbs, home to 1.3 million people. “Opening a place now is very expensive. . . Or congratulations on opening your doors for each night,” he added.

But there are signs of hope for dance music. A Research Released by the International Music Summit, an annual conference in Ibiza, the electronic music industry will grow by 17 percent by 2023, reaching $11.8 billion in annual revenue.

In 15 cities the FT analyzed using Resident Advisor event data, places listing more than five events will increase by 60 per cent by 2024 compared to a decade ago. Since 2014, more than 35,000 artists have signed up to play in those cities — a 90 percent increase over the same period.

“People still want community. People still want to get out,” Voster said. “That’s not diminished and music is still the best way to do that.”