Organised fun: Are advance ticket sales ruining clubbing?

It’s a chill December night in Glasgow, and the queue outside a modest-looking Jamaica Street entrance has begun to swell. Local legends Optimo are playing host to Smart Bar resident The Black Madonna at one of the city’s most revered nightspots: the Sub Club. Anticipation is high – not just for punters, but for The Black Madonna herself, who previously described Optimo’s parties as ‘proof of life’ and cites them as a major influence in her pursuing her own career as a DJ. Tickets for the show could easily have sold out three times over, months in advance on Ticketmaster, but as is the way with Optimo parties, they’re all for sale on the door. Sadly, this is a rare occurence in modern-day club culture. A scene that was once all about rebellion, free expression and counterculture now seems to involve as much spontaneity as a stamp collector’s convention. Tickets need to be bought months in advance via credit card, as though you’re hoping to see Ed Sheeran at Wembley Stadium, or go to a major sporting event.

Much of this cultural shift can be put down to social media. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are now the primary channels for advertising club events, and as a result, branding and marketing techniques have become pivotal for successfully promoting your event. This means that ads for parties reach a far wider audience than they would have five or 10 years ago, so straight away the punter is under pressure to buy tickets for an event months down the line, or risk missing out completely. Furthermore, a system that favours people permanently wired up to social media results in a crowd more interested in Instagramming all night, and the kind of people who have a credit card, money on hand and like to plan what they’re doing months in advance – none of which guarantees that they’ll be any fun.

For many promoters this is a great thing. Tiered ticketing with the prices gradually going up as the event gets closer means you can avoid cash flow problems, get a much better sense of the popularity of an event ahead of time and avoid that dreaded feeling of wondering whether anyone’s actually going to turn up on the night. But on the other hand, it means promoters are relying far more heavily on marquee headliners to sell tickets, taking less chances on up-and-comers, and finding that the club’s still half-empty well past midnight as those who’ve already bought a ticket aren’t worried about whether they’ll get in or not.

Sure, there are benefits for the punter, too. No-one really wants to get a 10-strong crew of mates together for the biggest party in town and then find out they can’t get in on the night or are going to have to queue for three hours in the freezing cold. But, on the other hand, some of the most spine-tingling nights I’ve ever had have come completely off the cuff. Wandering around abandoned industrial estates at 1am with three spangled mates looking for a free party we’d just been tipped off about; sitting around in our flat on a Saturday night, resigned to watching Match Of The Day and then just thinking ‘Fuck it, let’s go’, rounding up our mates and having one of the greatest nights of our lives.

Thankfully, there are still some clubs that go against the grain and offer a pay-on-the-door policy, the most striking example being Berghain. The stringent door policy that has helped mythologise the Berlin techno institution would be inoperable with the sale of advance tickets, but it’s fair to say that Berghain is a unique case. Another club that tries its best to restrict the sale of advance tickets is the aforementioned Subbie. As well as Optimo, it regularly adopts a pay-on-the-door policy for Subculture, its flagship Saturday night party.

“The scene’s changed a lot in the last few years,” managing director Mike Grieve tells us. “Everyone buys tickets in advance for nightclubs, due to social media, and everyone’s focused on headline DJs. But the Sub Club’s always been about the residents. It’s always been about the vibe. It’s always been about the community. It’s always been about the crowd. That’s what nightclubs should be about.”

But sadly it’s simply untenable for many clubs not to sell tickets in advance in today’s climate. The vast majority, particularly in cities like London and New York, are under deep financial pressure – not to mention the threat of closure. Anyway, I’m off to Phonox now. I’ve been looking forward to this for ages. I booked my ticket back in January.

This feature is from the September issue of Mixmag

Michael Lawson is a freelance writer