There was a time when nightclubs were the meeting point for young people (and not so young) who wanted to have fun, show off the steps they practiced at home in front of the mirror on the dance floor and flirt. And I write in the past tense because the trend is that pop, hip hop, techno or perreo will become ballroom dances in a few years, like chotis, tango or pasodoble.
Statistics say that In the last 12 years, two thirds of the nightclubs in the country have disappeared from the map. Germany, and in that the Covid has little to do. Of the 2,300 nightclubs that existed in 2011, in 2019, before the coronavirus arrived, only 1,400 remained, that is, one in three. The pandemic arrived, the continued closures, and when the authorities lifted the ban on discotheques, clubs and brothels – all in the same bag – only 860 reopened, which are the ones that currently exist. Of course, each one has its own doorman because without the adrenaline of passing through their filter there is no nightclub worth its salt or worth remembering.
Apparently, the blame for the fact that only Zumba classes are left for collective contortion must be found in the United States, since everything that begins there is exported to the world as a trend. Young Americans spend their weekends surfing the Internet, playing video games or celebrating parties at home with alcohol from the supermarket, drugs and music downloaded to their phones, something similar to the parties of the second half of the 20th century but without Peter Sellers .
“The sector fights for its existence”, says Kurt Walsen, president of the German Association of Dance Venues and Nightclubs. Walsen doesn’t know for sure if young Germans avoid getting out of hand in public places for fear that someone will take a photo of them that will later appear on social media or if people don’t need to go to the club to hook up, because that’s what the internet is also for. . “Generation Z dances less and also has less sex. Given the choice, they prefer Netflix”says Axel Ballreich, owner of two stores in Nuremberg, ironically.
Opening a nightclub in these times is not profitable, and not only because the change in the habits of youth is palpable. Costs have gone through the roof with inflation, permits are tightened, complaints about excessive noise from neighbors are counted in fines and there is a lack of personnel, the endemic evil of Germany. The situation in clubs is similar, despite the added value of having a DJ and live performances. “The best option for this ruin is to sell the surface or use it for another type of business,” says Jan Ublacker, professor of neighborhood development at the University of Bochum.