End of hedonism? Why Britain turned its back on clubbing

In an old gun barrel factory in Sheffield’s industrial heartland, hundreds of people are raving under the fluorescent lights of Hope Works club for one of the last times before it closes. One young woman has dressed all in black to signify the loss of her “favourite place”.

“This is a landmark of Sheffield,” says one reveller. “It’s the reason a lot of people come to university here,” adds another.

Its owner Liam O’Shea believes that nightlife venues like this are “the vital underbelly of everything”.

“It’s where people find themselves,” he says. “It’s where people find their tribe.”

Mr O’Shea, who calls himself a child of the the “rave generation”, started Hope Works because he wanted to tap into that original spirit. Only now, Hope Works has gone. It closed its doors permanently in February after 13 years.

And according to Mr O’Shea, grassroots clubs in the UK – places where up and coming artists often perform live – are “dropping like flies”.

In the last five years, around 400 clubs have closed in Britain – more than a third of the total number.

In London, a dedicated taskforce is being launched by the mayor’s office to help boost nightlife and save venues at risk of closing.

“A complex matrix of factors are all conspiring against and placing pressure on the sector, making for a perfect storm for nightclubs,” says Tony Rigg, music industry advisor and programme leader at the University of Central Lancashire.

There are many factors that could be at play – among them, rising costs, less disposable income and changing lifestyle choices.

But the closures prompt broader questions too. Some experts have suggested, for example, that the lasting impact of the Covid-19 lockdowns may have led to people going out less than they once did

And if that is the case, could the closure of so many clubs nod to a wider cultural shift, particularly among Generation Z?

For several years during the pandemic, young people were unable to experience nightlife in the same way previous generations had, so perhaps it is not surprising that there have since been shifts in the way they socialise.

A recent Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) study of more than 2,000 people aged between 18 and 30 found that nearly two thirds were going out less frequently than the year before.

Psychologist Dr Elizabeth Feigin of Dr Elizabeth Consultancy says Gen Z is being driven by a number of factors – both offline and online. Part of this seems to be a rising consciousness around health, both physical and mental – and “we are seeing less of a drinking culture”.

A YouGov survey of 18 to 24-year-olds shows Gen Z continue to be the most sober group overall, with 39% of them not drinking alcohol at all.

Dr Meg Jay, author of The Defining Decade, suggests there are several factors driving this change. “Although some might imagine that young people are going out less post-Covid because depressed Gen Zers are still sitting around in their rooms, I don’t think this is the case.”

There is more awareness about the dangers of substances as well as messaging on social media around healthy lifestyles, she says.

When lockdown restrictions were in place, Dr Jay recalls some young clients saying they’d have to find new ways to have a good time. “[I had] clients telling me how much happier they were as they spent less time feeling drunk, hungover, or broke and more time feeling in charge of their lives.”

Of course social media is also playing a role in how people socialise. For some, “social media and texting with friends scratches some of the itch of meeting up”.

This rings true with Mr Rigg. “We have a massive dependence on social media that has taken us away from more social pastimes,” he argues.

But Dr Feigin believes that the lag in social communication across the younger generations predates the lockdowns. “I think it’s been exacerbated by the pandemic. But I think it was already declining on the back of social media and technology and also helicopter parents.”

There might be some healthy reasons for the decline in night life, she points out – but she also thinks that there’s “some damage as well”.

“[This is] potentially around mental health, of social anxiety, loneliness and people actually not having the skills – not even bravery – to go out and socialise anymore because so much has become dependent online.”

“It’s getting harder and harder for young people to socialise face to face… I do think that we are seeing higher rates of social anxiety and high rates of loneliness”.

Not everyone is convinced that this is the reason for the club closures. Michael Kill, chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, thinks that finances play a big role. “The reality is, is people can’t afford it”.

Entry fees vary depending on the club. Early release tickets in some city centres can be around £10, while on-the-door entry or last-minute tickets will likely be more. Then comes the cost of any drinks, taxis, late-night trips to the kebab shop.

In an NTIA study, 68% of people reported that the current economic climate had reduced how much they go out.

“Clubbing is becoming a luxury, and that’s just crazy,” says Sherelle Thomas, DJ on BBC 6 Music. “You should be able to enter a club and be with friends at any time you want because it’s something that makes you happy.”

Mr Rigg suggests there is a “storm” coming for clubs, as a result of new economic challenges such as national insurance hikes.

If clubs cannot absorb economic challenges and so put prices up, this could make them less affordable and a less attractive proposition still, argues Mr Rigg – particularly at a time when consumers are burdened with rising living costs.

In 2024, the company which owned Pryzm and Atik, two well-known nightlife chains, went into administration. It closed 17 and sold 11 venues (which included clubs and bars), citing changing student habits as the reason for closures.

Russell Quelch, CEO of Neos, which runs the remaining venues, believes students have less money than they used to. “People really care about how they spend their money,” he argues. “Gone are the days of students going out four or five nights a week”.

The company now has several “party bars” which are open in the day too, meaning the trading window is longer. Many are themed, with events such as bingo, and they are not as alcohol orientated.

The Acapulco in Halifax has seen thousands of people on its dancefloor since it opened in 1961. It is thought to be the UK’s oldest nightclub. Its bar is lit in red and blue, and the beat of the music ebbs through its doors as people spill in to dance, often several nights in a row.

But its owner Simon Jackson has noticed some shifts in the way people go clubbing. Some will come before the night properly begins and film themselves dancing for TikTok, he explains.

The Acca, as it is known locally, is defying its environment. In Yorkshire, 40 percent of clubs have shut down since 2020 – the most out of any region in Britain. Mr Jackson attributes the club’s longevity – in a challenging market – to, among other things, “value for money”.

There are also other models of clubbing that are seeing some success.

Gut Level, a queer-led community project in Sheffield that runs inclusive club nights, is built on a membership model with reduced prices for those on low incomes.

Co-founder Katie Matthews says: “The music scene was run a lot by guys and it maybe didn’t think about the safety of people like women and queer people as much.”

Then there is the safety aspect. In 2023, more incidents of drink spiking occurred in bars (41%) and clubs (28%) than anywhere else, and many people say they have experienced sexual violence during a night out.

“It’s about safety of members,” says Katie Matthews – at Gut Level, people have to sign up in advance.

Ultimately, though, many clubs that continue to thrive do so because they are built around a sense of community. DJ Ahad Elley (known as Ahadadream), who moved to the UK from Pakistan at the age of 12, believes that this is a valuable aspect of many clubs.

“For some people it’s almost the only place they’ve got where they can go and feel a sense of belonging and real community,” he says.

Cat Rossi has spent years researching the creative significance of nightclubs, in her capacity as a design historian and professor of architecture at University for the Creative Arts Canterbury. “Since the dawn of civilisation we’ve needed to go out and dance and be together at night,” she says. “Social gathering is a core part of our social fabric.

“I think that nightclubs are really undervalued as these hugely creative forms of architecture and design, but also nightclubs and club culture more generally are these huge engines of creativity.”

Many fashion labels have been born in clubs, she points out, making them part of a “bigger creative ecosystem” along with theatres, opera houses and television studios.

In 2016, a German court officially designated Berghain, a famous Berlin nightclub, as a cultural institution, which gave it the same tax status as the city’s opera houses and theatres.

The following year, Zurich recognised techno culture as part of its “intangible cultural heritage” in partnership with Unesco.

It is a sentiment is shared by some in Britain too. As Mr Kill puts it: “They are a British institution. There’s no two ways about it.”

And the key to preserving this, and ensuring the future of nightclubs, is evolution, argues Mr Rigg.

“Nightclubs do need to evolve to maintain relevance due to the cultural behavioural shifts and also modify the business model to mitigate some of the other economic pressures.”

But without that transformation, the UK risks losing more of them.

Additional reporting by: Laura Lea, Fran Whyte and Harriet Whitehead

Top picture credit: Getty Images

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