At the date of writing this article it has been three months and three days since the closure of Fabric nightclub by authorities following two drug-related deaths. The backlash to the closure was tremendous from Four Tet to Sadiq Kahn himself, the closure of Fabric seemed to be yet another attempt by authorities to put a damper on London nightlife which is said to have been disappearing as of late.
Fabric themselves sought to combat this closure by launching an extensive crowdfunding campaign which proved wildly successful, raising over £200,000. An element of the crowdfunding campaign was the ‘saveourculture’ events, these boasted strong lineups such as: Nina Kraviz, Bjarki and Craig Richards. As I’d heard great things about Nina Kraviz I thought this was a great opportunity, and so got myself a ticket.
Flash forward and it’s the 3rd of December and I’m stuck at the end of a long queue outside of a warehouse somewhere in London, 30 minutes passed and I finally found myself inside. As soon as I stepped in I felt that this wasn’t an event like any other, this wasn’t a gig with a curfew at 11pm or a club night that ends at 3am this was an event to celebrate electronic music and the club-culture that arises from it. You could see in people’s faces they are determined to stick it out until the end at 6am, and at the time I thought I could too.
Barker and Baumecker were the first act we saw, they were an electronic music duo from Berlin, Germany, and easily one of the highlights of the night. Standing anywhere else for 2 hours would seem like a chore, however the soundtrack they provided for those 2 hours made it pass quicker than you could imagine. Mostly house music was played during this set, however elements of drum and bass and even IDM were touched on throughout, and this was reflected in the animalistic dancing of the crowd.
Nina Kraviz was the last act we saw of the evening, this was the act that we came for and she did not disappoint. For the 3 hours for which we saw her set (between breaks of course) which was more of a Kraviz curated tour from techno through to house music, there was barely a moment where dancing stopped. It was easy to see how Kraviz has earned her formidable reputation. Kraviz’ set easily made the long and expensive journey worth it.
With a lot of pressure being placed on Fabric to prove not just to London but even to the rest of the world that club culture is not dying saveourculture managed to prove this with ease. Club culture isn’t going to fall of the face of the earth and suddenly become non-existent, London should learn lessons from Fabric and choose to embrace the culture rather than suppress it. As cities such as Manchester are in danger of their clubbing culture being taken back, (sadly being shown by the recent closure of Sankeys) I hope other cities, like Manchester take lessons from what Fabric have done and save the culture.
