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New Year's Eve revelers welcoming in 2025 in a 35-hour event will be the last to grace the dance floor at the Watergate Club, a popular Berlin venue that has become the latest victim of violence. Death of the club – The death of the club.
The stadium management said in a farewell statement: “Gone are the days when Berlin was teeming with club-loving visitors.” The Watergate co-owner blamed cost pressures, declining tourism, declining Gen Z enthusiasm and the rise of music festivals for its closure.
The pressures that led to Watergate's demise are behind a trend that has transformed nightlife capitals from Berlin to Barcelona and from Melbourne to New York: despite the growing popularity of dance music, clubgoers are ending their nights early.
The proportion of club nights extending beyond 3am fell in 12 of 15 global cities between 2014 and 2024, according to a Financial Times analysis of events on online listings site Resident Advisor.
“People can only go out for so many hours,” said Lutz Lichsenring, co-founder of international night-time consulting firm VibeLab. “There is a lot of competition between day and night events.”
Venue owners often close early to save costs, as revenue from beverage sales tends to decline in the early morning hours, Leichsenring said.
More restrictive Licensing rules After the coronavirus, it has also become an issue for clubs and promoters in cities around the world. While cities have appointed night sheriffs and adopted “24-hour city” policies in recent years, additional oversight of the night-time economy since the pandemic has led to tighter oversight of late-night establishments, Lechsenring added.
The growing popularity of daytime events and festivals is another factor. Mike Fosters, whose company Matinee Social Club organizes early evening parties in New York, said that while the 5-10 p.m. events were originally intended for millennials who no longer wanted to party in the wee hours of the night, they were given “a… “Lots of interest” from partygoers in their 20s.
According to Fosters, a shift away from “bottle service” club culture and a new cross-generational focus on healthy living were among the main drivers behind the increased enthusiasm for early-ending dance parties.
Resident Advisor data reflected the rise in daytime parties, with several major cities showing a rise in events ending at 10 p.m.
Melbourne claims to be the live music capital of the world, and for 20 years has boasted a vibrant nightclub scene. However, the sector has witnessed a sharp decline in the city as consumer habits change and the cost of running events rises, especially after the pandemic.
One entertainment industry executive said young people were less likely to be out walking until 6am because they were more health conscious and less frivolous about money than previous generations. This is reflected in Melbourne's nightclubs closing – with more than 100 closing in recent years – and fewer clubs staying open through the night.
In Dublin, campaigners are fighting to change restrictive licensing laws that require clubs to pay €410 a night to stay open between 12.30am and 2.30am.
Sunil Sharp, a DJ and co-founder of Give Us the Night, said the postponement of a proposed law that would extend closing times until 6am had left the industry in limbo, with operators wary of investing in new venues.
It is estimated that there are still 20 to 25 clubs in the city and its suburbs, which is home to 1.3 million people. “It's very expensive to open a place now… or even just open your doors for one night,” he added.
But there are signs of hope for dance music. A He studies A report from the International Music Summit, an annual conference held in Ibiza, concluded that the electronic music industry grew by 17 percent in 2023, reaching annual revenues of $11.8 billion.
Across the 15 cities the Financial Times analyzed using Resident Advisor events data, places listing more than five events are up 60 per cent more in 2024 than they were a decade ago. More than 35,000 artists have been booked to play in those cities since 2014 – a 90 percent increase over the same period.
“People still crave community. People still want to get out,” Fosters said. “That hasn’t diminished, and music is still the best way to do that.”
