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A new nightclub opens this week with a strict rule that your smartphone camera must be covered with a sticker.
Amber's in Manchester is the latest of a handful of venues in the UK to implement this policy – but in cities like Berlin, known for its nightclubs, it's the norm.
Amber's manager Jeremy Abbott told the BBC the club made the decision because “we really want the music and the experience to be at the forefront”, but the issue is being debated on social media.
Some posted concerns on Instagram that clubs could suffer from videos of their night out on social media acting as free advertising, while others hailed the move as 'partying in privacy' “.
“It's the fear of being put on the internet, isn't it?” one woman told the BBC when we asked young people in Manchester what they thought about the mobile phone ban. camera in clubs.
“Being really drunk and this embarrassing photo of you finding yourself on Insta, waking up and seeing the events of last night.”
Another woman said: “It improves the vibe because the fewer people on the phone, the more they interact with the DJ and everything else, it's the best environment to have.”
“Phones in the air”
Are British clubs at a turning point? Is it time to take phones off the dance floor and refocus people's attention on the music?
Sacha Lord, Night Economy Advisor for Greater Manchester, thinks so. “These phones kill the dance floor, they kill the atmosphere,” he says.
“DJs hate it. Watching a sea of phones with no one dancing is really demoralizing.”
Smokin Jo, a DJ since 1990, remembers when the rave and club scene was booming in the late 80s and early 90s.
“Everyone has their hands in the air, there is joy, there is happiness.
“Now there are these videos being posted of people standing still with their phones in the air. It's so sad,” she says.
But Dr Lee Hadlington, senior lecturer in cyberpsychology at Nottingham Trent University, says that for these clubbers, “part of their enjoyment is documenting their night out in terms of photos and memories”.
Simon Songhurst
Smokin Jo wants to see more dancing and less smartphones when she's a DJ
At Amber's, phones aren't completely banned, but clubbers will need to put a sticker on the camera lens to prevent photos from being taken. A content team will be on hand to take and post photos online.
People who break the rule will be “politely asked to stop,” Abbott says. “If you are seen doing this again, you will be asked to leave the premises.”
This rule comes at a delicate time for the British nightclub scene, which has struggled to recover from the numerous Covid-related lockdowns.
Between June 2020 and June this year, the number of clubs increased from 1,266 to 786, according to figures from the Night Time Industries Association and research firm NeilsenIQ.
Abbott admits Amber's no-phone rules pose a risk but says the club has been “blown away” by the response.
Lord says the policy could be a “boost” for the industry and “bring the energy back to the dance floor”.
Graeme Park, one of Britain's best-known DJs and an iconic figure at Manchester's legendary Hacienda nightclub, says: “I totally understand and think that not having a smartphone on the dance floor is a excellent idea.
“However, I have a 20-year-old son. He plays music, he's a DJ, he goes clubbing and he's like, 'Why is your generation telling our generation that we can't use our smartphones? '”
Dominique Simpson
DJ Graeme Park wonders what young clubbers will think of smartphone restrictions
TikTok ravers
Ben Park, Graeme's son, said: “Personally, I have nothing against phones being in clubs. I understand the whole no-phone policy, but at the same time, people want to post pictures of themselves or their friends on social media, people want to promote it online. »
But he understands why some clubbers — and DJs — are annoyed by so-called TikTok ravers who “literally go to events just to show that they went and just post them on TikTok,” he says.
Cyberpsychologist Dr Hadlington says that for these clubbers it could be a fear of missing out on the action on social media.
“The paradox is that they spend more time publishing articles than enjoying the good times,” he says.
It may be a relatively new concept in the UK, but in Berlin, 90% of venues have a no-phone code on the dance floor, according to Lutz Leichsenring, a former spokesperson for the Clubcommission Berlin and co-founder of VibeLab.
He says that with more tourists coming to the German capital to enjoy the scene, “I think people really appreciated that this policy was part of clubbing.”
And, on a personal note, he says that for him, “it's very, very weird when I'm in a club where people around me are taking photos and filming all the time.”
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At the time: clubbers of the early 2000s
Amber's is adopting the same policy that London's nightclub scene has had in place since reopening in 2021 post-Covid. The venue has actually been camera-free since it opened in 1999, but as technology has evolved and smartphones have become more ubiquitous, its policy has changed.
“When people arrive at the search point, we put a sticker on the camera lens and just ask people not to use it, that's it,” says Cameron Leslie, co-founder of Fabric.
He says most clubbers respect the rule. “This is not an aggressive measure,” he said. “We have posters around the club and beyond, if people use it and our team sees it we would urge them not to.”
Smokin Jo believes there are steps DJs can take themselves.
“Maybe DJs should have a clause in their contract saying 'I'll do the gig but you have to have some sort of policy' because we're losing the identity of the scene and its roots.”
Fellow DJ Graeme Park believes there is no easy solution to smartphones in nightclubs, but says: “It's a really, really good thing that people are talking about it.
“It’s the cultural zeitgeist that changes and that’s the great thing about clubbing, attitudes change every decade or every few years.”
Additional reporting: Kirsty Grant and Max Chesterton
