The manager of Duke's, a famous club that ignites Lille nights, said in a rather prophetic tone that within twenty years, the nightclubs would have all closed. The massacre began in 2015 with the closure of the legendary Macumba, after 38 years of foam evenings and Saturday night fever. It was the largest nightclub in France, located near the Swiss border.
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Others followed. In December, the Kes West and its 5,600 square meters of dance floor, near Bethune, close their doors. The most vulnerable nightclubs are located in the countryside or in the peripheral France deserted by young people. There are no longer any in Lozère, and only one in Gers.
The reasons are not only demographic. It is also the end of an era: the "correct attire required", the authorized cigarette, the champagne bucket and the mirror ball. The nightclub was the temple of dancing and flirting with the long-awaited slows after midnight. Endless minutes that decided whether to pack or take a good rake.
The night world is changing
Today mores are changing. The slow have become has been because Tinder has been there. The applications are much more effective in concluding, so many prefer to spare themselves the nightclub trip. The youngest still like to dance but not in these "jerks factories" with deafening sound systems.
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From now on, the constabulary is watching and the night world has to moult. The swing, retro dance, is back in fashion, people dance outside, in the squares. New revelers prefer cabarets, dancing bars, trendy and more intimate.
The nightclub must not die, this "endangered species" must be saved. In some remote corners of France, it is the last sanctuary of a certain popular culture, the last place of life and meeting after 10 p.m. Whether you like it or not, the Macumba spirit is part of our heritage.