Club scene in need: The nightlife is now getting down to business

The happiness was short-lived.

Very short-lived.

At the beginning of November, Julian Smith opened his new club "Room 4" in downtown Frankfurt, just a few steps away from the Alte Oper.

Smith celebrated his “Club Culinar” there, the party concept he had imported from Ibiza: First you eat - a vegetarian menu -, then you dance.

With this mixture, the Frankfurt DJ aimed at an older, more mature audience.

But after less than a month, at the end of November, the new club closed again.

Despite the 2-G rule, the guests were unsettled because of the increasing number of infections, but Smith was also not in the mood for parties with a distance and dancing with a mask.

“You can't celebrate like that,” he says.

That is why the lights in "Room 4" went out long before the decision of the Prime Minister's Conference to close clubs and discos was announced.

Many clubs closed before the decision

On this Tuesday, the nationwide dance ban comes into force, which should help in the fight against the impending omicron wave. But Julian Smith from "Room 4" wasn't the only one who had already shut down. Even in clubs like the Offenbacher “Robert Johnson”, the “Tanzhaus West” in the west of Frankfurt or the Darmstadt “Centralstation” there has not been any partying for a long time. Because the rules for the clubs and discos had already become stricter before: limited number of guests, mask requirement, minimum distances. You can't party like that. What night life normally makes up has not been possible for a long time anyway.

The club industry is suffering from the pandemic like no other.

Nobody else is hit by closings that often.

The mood in the industry, among club operators, DJs, technicians and bartenders, is bad.

“The reserves have been used up, the staff is tired”: This is how Madjid Djamegari sums it up.

Djamegari runs the “Gibson” on Frankfurter Zeil, a discotheque in which more than 1000 guests usually dance the night away, where hip-hop, house and techno DJs play and live concerts take place regularly.

And he is a lobbyist for night culture, sits on the Hessian state board of the DEHOGA gastronomy association, and is the face of the Frankfurt Gastronomy Initiative.

“What we're experiencing can be dramatic,” he says.

Many of the businesses that are now having to close again are financially badly hit. And they struggle with the staff running away from them. “I can understand anyone who turns their back on the industry and looks for something else,” says Djamegari. “Of course, the people who work in nightlife are worried about the future.” In the pandemic, the industry is particularly lacking in planning security. “We haven't been granted this for two years,” complains the club maker.

Djamegari keeps the “Gibson” open, even if there is no longer any celebration there.

In fact, clubs are still allowed to operate - but only if they are "misappropriated", if they are like in a restaurant: The dance floor remains taboo, the guests sit at tables, only there they are allowed to take off their masks Groups are not allowed to mix.

The Frankfurt Health Department has approved the concept for the "Gibson".

"Have to talk about what culture is worth to us"

The club will therefore also be open on New Year's Eve, "Roaring Twenties" is what Djamegari called the event where the 2-G plus rule applies.

Drummers appear, a burlesque dancer is on stage - but the audience is not allowed to dance.

“Such an evening is not financially worthwhile,” says Djamegari.

“We are now concerned with maintaining the structures.

We want to keep our guests and staff. "

The "Gibson" boss is convinced that cushioning the consequences of the recent closings will be a real feat.

“It's the substance,” says Djamegari.

That is why the industry now needs support that goes beyond the previous bridging aid.

Otherwise the club would actually die.

Julian Smith, the DJ and operator of "Room 4", asks for solidarity with the industry.

And he wants a wider discussion, hopes that more people will get involved in the debate.

“We now have to talk more about what culture is worth to us,” he says.

"We have to talk about what emotional value it has for us, what musicians, writers or painters create."

Smith is doing as it was so often during the pandemic: All of his appearances as a DJ, including some company parties, have been canceled, the losses are once again enormous for him.

Nevertheless, he is not inactive: The DJ now mostly spends his days in the studio, where he records and produces new pieces.

Somehow it has to go on.