Night fever: why it’s time to stop treating nightlife as culture’s unruly sibling

Sophie Brownlee | 2nd April 2026 | Comment

Whilst London is often regarded as the centre of nightlife for the UK, venues in other cities are also struggling (Photo by Chris Eades/Getty Images)

Despite contributing significantly to the UK economy, Sophie Brownlee argues that the nightlife economy has been forgotten for too long.

In November 2024, I had the privilege of attending Vienna After Dark, the city's inaugural international conference for club culture. I was there to speak on behalf of the Music Venue Trust about, among other things, community ownership of venues, and the Grassroots Levy - a radical yet necessary model for funding the future of grassroots live music. Aside from the impressive array of hot topics spread across oversubscribed panels, talks, and screenings, what struck me most was the almost feverish-like atmosphere. It was a sense of hope. Not the gauzy, idealistic variety, but something much more potent: pragmatic hope. There was a palpable sense that across Europe, the structures - be they political, industry, institutional, and grassroots - were aligned enough to support and enact the ideas and case studies on offer in Vienna. That same grounded realism is what I believe is reflected in the recommendations recently put forward by the London Mayor’s Independent Nightlife Taskforce. R...

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