I’ve got mixed views about this – clearly its a shame that any popular EDM venue is closed – but London and SE England clubbers didn’t really say much when provincial venues were closed all over England starting from around 10 years ago following similar moral panics and demand for land/buildings from more profitable businesses (my current home town, Ipswich has been badly hit by this).
Also all the corporate superclubs of the 90s/00 (of which Fabric is one) spent the “good times” (when it might even have been the case drugs were tolerated by the previous governments to some extent as a distraction technique against worsening global situations) in cut throat competition with each other and any smaller promoters (especially those putting on events in the suburbs just outside London).
Of course this closure isn’t going to stop drug abuse in London one bit and may make it worse – when EDM venues were closed all across Essex there was a brief spike in young people going directly to much harder drugs like crack and heroin.
However, if we want “Dutch” or “German” style nightlife in our cities in England we have to behave more like our neighbours across the North Sea – where promoters worked together even 10-20 years ago (and more importantly wider society value leisure activities as much as profit generating businesses. This difference in culture might require a thread of its own to explain).
Clubbers themselves have to behave better (whether or not they take drugs). I stopped going to (legal) EDM events around 5 years ago as even if there were good pills or whatever else the atmosphere was not as good.
There was always the risk of sketchy violence, and a lot of racial and gender tension (EDM in 80s/90s prided itself on being an especially inclusive/diverse subculture). It wasn’t a great loss as I was getting older anyway, but younger friends some of whom had only just started partying understandably didn’t want to just give up and many seemed to end up in unpleasant situations whether as clubbers or promoters.
Although the Grauniad is lamenting the loss of this club (and others across England); the same newspaper has over the years reported many horror stories about in particular sexual harrasment and assault against young girls/women on the UK nightlife/music scene as well as gang violence linked to certain urban music genres popular at commercial clubs; and to be fair they do not exaggerate or sensationalise crime like rightwing newspapers tend to.
I’ve noticed organisations like NTIA (Night Time Industries Association) cropping up in recent years but with changing attitudes within society it could be too little, too late…
