Cost of Living Murdered the Dancefloor in Glasgow Nightclubs
Long term effects of Covid, the cost of living crisis and now students moving home for the summer are all stacking up against nightclubs in Glasgow, meaning many are struggling.
The nightlife industry in Glasgow has consistently been one of the main charms of the city. The lively atmosphere and wide array of choices has, for years, brought in a strong stream of revenue from tourists, students and locals. However, since the turn of the year, many venues have been struggling to keep their doors open and their dancefloors full.
“Sorry it was a bit doom and gloom I never realised that clubbing was in such a state until I started speaking about it but I think the reality of it is, it’s not been in a great place probably for some… aye, probably this year’s really shown it.” Zander Coulter, marketing manager at The Buff Club and co-director of events business AllUNeed, said, after we finished our interview.
To fully understand why he felt the need to apologise, we need to understand the history behind clubbing in Glasgow “Nightlife is one of the most important factors in Glasgow for industry, and it brings in a disproportionate amount of revenue to the city.” Despite being in the industry for around 11 years, he said from what he has heard the peak of nightlife was years before he started, but that in more recent years around 2015 was the best time for clubs. Fortunately for Zander, this was just around when he started running club nights with AllUNeed. This made the events industry very appealing and led to an “oversaturation” in Glasgow which was quickly put to a halt by the Coronavirus pandemic.
It’s not hard to understand why this was extremely tough for the hospitality sector as a whole, but after lockdown ended there was an initial boom, and from there it returned to “close to normal”. However, “there’s been a kind of ripple effect that’s really showing itself now” which is causing clubs to feel the effects of Covid “the most, other than actually during the lockdowns.”
That’s quite the claim, when you think of the time spent in between lockdowns, with uncertainty about where we were headed, but Zander backs it up with an array of reasons. Backlogged festivals, exam season for students and a “generation of clubbers” being wiped out due to the length of the pandemic. He also mentions people struggling to finance a night out “finances for people are tough. I think we might technically be in a recession, which I have no doubt that’s another effect of the pandemic, giving everyone money out, and then trying to get that back in.”
This is echoed by Brogan Ord-Staunton, the assistant general manager at the club, who said “People still go out but instead of every weekend, and then some, they can afford maybe once or twice a month. Half of the problem isn’t even drinks prices, or club entry. It’s getting home safely and not having to pay an arm and a leg for a taxi home.”
The summer can often be difficult to navigate for Glasgow nightclubs, Hayley Burns, club manager and artist liaison for Club Serotone, says “nightclubs in Glasgow depend heavily on the influx of students” and since such a large percentage of the population are students, when they move back home for summer this can lead to a substantial loss of clientele. However, as finances are so tough at the moment, Zander points out that this could actually help clubs out through the summer. “I think maybe the fact that finances are difficult, maybe actually, could work out well for clubs in a way that folk don’t go on holiday for this summer so they stay home and they just go out local.”
Understandably, he kept reiterating through the questionings that he “didn’t know” and it’s “hard to tell” what’s going to happen but it was interesting to hear his theory nonetheless. “I’d say hopefully, come September time I think the way people’s finances might be a bit different with the students going back, I think you see businesses returning to kinda pre covid norm, that’s probably what I’d say is due to happen.”
This begged the question, with all the negatives listed, what possible reasons could he have for thinking this? “I think these things go in cycles” he replied, explaining that in his time at The Buff Club he has seen it at both high-points and low-points. Freshers week is one of, if not the most important, week of the year for nightclubs and Zander thinks that “things will return to normal when students come back”. This is partially due to the fact he believes the older generation of clubbers is coming back now, “because there’s been students who have come out to the club since we reopened and they’ll be getting older” but still keen to come in and enjoy the club.
Brogan said it’s not just about the venues and the students but that there are ways councils should help out the industry, they “should encourage more night bus services, every day of the week that also cover travel home for employees instead of finishing at 3:15 when most punters, let alone staff, haven’t even finished their nights.” This also ties in to how expensive it is to get home from a night out, a bus home would be considerably less expensive than a taxi. Zander offers another option, “maybe stop granting as many of the licenses. I don’t know if this is actually a legal issue, but I think there’s a problem with too many licensed premises within such a small cluster of spaces” which hints back to the oversaturation Glasgow was seeing pre-covid.
So, despite his apology from the end of the interview, maybe there is still hope for the nightlife industry in Glasgow, and as we joked “we’ve not solved it today” Zander was quick to say “we can try”. The groove hasn’t been killed just yet.
