Member’s Essay: What’s Going On With Nightlife Right Now?

Words: Lauren O’Neill

Make it stand out

Recently, London’s Westminster Council - which is responsible for areas like Soho, Mayfair and Paddington, right in the middle of the capital - caused a bit of controversy in the UK. The council proposed that they wanted to ease what they called “vertical drinking” (that is, standing up in or outside pubs, having a drink), in order to make it simpler, in some cases, for venues with more seating to obtain licenses for serving alcohol and opening until late at night. 

Anyone who has ever been to London knows that having a drink outside the pub after work on a sunny day feels, for many, akin to a human right, and so this proposal was, self-evidently, very stupid. It was also immediately quashed by both the Mayor of London - thank you Sadiq - and the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, who is keen to show everyone that he is a man of the people who knows that Parliament is a brand of cigarettes as well as a political assembly.

So, while it’s good news that those in power can see that this type of legislation isn’t the way forward, it does raise some timely questions about what on earth is going on with nightlife right now and how - if we wish - we can actually find the nightlife communities that reflect our interests on a landscape where such communities, and venues for them to gather, are vanishing at such a rapid rate.

Everywhere we turn, we’re told that nightlife is dead and that Gen Z aren’t going out, and, in fairness, instances like the Westminster Council Of It All do contribute to that narrative: if there’s nowhere to go out, then fewer people will go out. A recent Guardian report where the writer went on a night out in Birmingham (my hometown and, interestingly, a city where licensing and late opening laws are much looser than in London), reported that most of the venues they visited were basically half-empty at best. ___STEADY_PAYWALL___

“It’s important to state that it is a bad thing for nightlife to be pushed out only to the fringes. Regulation to keep everyone safe is harder when this happens, and the government *is* well capable of helping nightlife to thrive much more than it already does.”

Many articles of this ilk reference well-trod phenomena like Gen Z preferring the gym to the pub, and the rise of social media - making partygoers more image-conscious and reluctant to be seen, or worse, captured, looking a bit worse for wear - as reasons why nightlife is no longer booming. They also tend to discuss the spate of entertainment and hospitality venue closures that has plagued the UK over the last couple of years.

While all of this is true - indeed, venues are closing on high streets and in city centres at a rapid rate, and the government should be doing much more to support these places if they want a thriving night time industry - I don’t think the prognosis is necessarily as dire as we might assume at first look. 

For the same reason that huge festivals like Glastonbury are rubbish at programming electronic music, even though that’s what punters actually want to see and hear, I think that some corners of the media misunderstand the way people go out - and what they want from a night out - in 2026.

My suspicion is that the media is simply looking in the wrong places for the nightlife they are hoping to find: it’s a truth universally acknowledged that things are - rightly or wrongly - largely only seen as cool until the mainstream gets hold of them. And while I have deep love in my heart for the Tiger Tigers and Oceanas of my late teens and early twenties (I will never forget how it feels to dance to Pitbull in denim shorts with a pair of tights on underneath), these venues, which represent the majority of high street or city centre venues, outside of pubs, don’t always represent what partygoers want anymore. 

Search in the right places, however, and you will still find thriving scenes spotlighting every genre under the sun. Lots of the most fun clubs, for example, don’t allow people to take photos on their phones inside, to allow for proper expression, and so these places can be less immediately visible. But they (or whatever else you’re looking for) can, as we often say here at Polyester, still be discovered organically if only you follow your taste: go down the rabbit hole and find out where your new favourite band or DJ is playing; be brave and go to the show or the party and make a friend or five. Another world is still possible; the night of your life hasn’t happened yet. 

Of course, it’s important to state that it is a bad thing for nightlife to be pushed out only to the fringes. Regulation to keep everyone safe is harder when this happens, and the government *is* well capable of helping nightlife to thrive much more than it already does. It’s also rubbish to see so many venues closing - particularly LGBTQ+ venues that have provided crucial gateways to happier lives for many, and which have been the backbone of many nighttime economies for decades (it’s no surprise or coincidence, for example, that the writer of that Guardian article I mentioned ended up having the best craic at one of Birmingham’s biggest gay clubs). 

But I do suspect that try as boring organisations like Westminster Council might, and despite media handwringing, nightlife is still doing OK, as long as you know where to look. As Misha MN so eloquently wrote for Polyester following Charli xcx’s now much-memed “dancefloor is dead” lyrics, “nightclubs have managed to weather every storm that has clouded the cultural horizon is because they fulfil an ancient need for connection that humans can’t find anywhere else.” Ask a friend, message a band or a DJ you think is cool, have the fun that they’re telling you isn’t possible. It’s not over yet.