We have had to change venues last minute for this party. We got stopped at our new home the basement, hopefully this will be resolved soon as we love that little space. Same way we hope electronic music party promoters will have less pressure once the Olympics are gone. Your patience is highly appreciated.
Since we are a community party and not a business we would like to share with you that the situation with warehouses. The warehouse situation has reached levels which are unacceptable. Warehouse leasers are charging promoters thousands of pounds, all for offering 4 walls. Promoters have to put the whole structure for the party on top of it all and that includes sound, bouncers, staff, cleaning, artist fees, agency fees, expenses and so on. This is the current exploitation of our scene in order to extract money out of it and it undermines the dissemination of our culture because the price of entry gets higher for you (so it limits who can get to the parties), there is less money available to invest in artists and so on. We want it to be fair, where everyone wins, from the party goer to the artist, the warehouse owner to the promoters.
There are many reasons why derelict warehouses came about being used as a space for parties, we just have to look at the history and we feel that the idea is lost. We accepted going to these spaces which may not be so comfortable because what makes the party is the people, the music and the vibe, it is the fact that just about anyone who is interested and perhaps with not so much money can come to party and see their artists.
Now, warehouses are asking as much as £5000 for an 8 hour hire, all they offer is 4 walls and no other structure whatsoever. For that price we can hire some of the best equipped club rooms in the world. How did we reach that? Hype! Even promoters hosting parties at the 'Ministry of Sound' are using warehouses now. They can sure afford such prices. Binge drinkers paying £25 entry, drinking the hell out of themselves generating a lot of money at the bar. Our scene has been invaded by money exploiters, empty people with no culture but are there simply because of the fact that it is 'cool' to party at a warehouse. Hello?!? That goes away from the initial basic NEED of warehouses because that alone turns it into a luxury.
You may ask why are we bothering to write that? Because we love our music, our parties and our community. You are the ones who can make the choice and protect what we have. You, together with promoters, artists and communities via sharing ideas and understanding what is going on so here it is.
Be demanding, be informed and support people with right intentions.
EXCHANGE OF CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE - OUR MUSIC AND ITS PEOPLE SHOULD ALWAYS BE PRIMARY.
We have now decided to work with venues that are fair to our community, with people that are not greedy and exploitive, we certainly do not want to be put together with people that work against our ethos, we will protect our concept and our music always so let's see where that decision takes us!!
