“It’s getting harder to find something that isn’t part of the mainstream…” Dublin’s club scene at the turn of the Millennium [February 2000]
While the recent closure of the Tivoli, Hangar and the Bernard Shaw (in its Portobello incarnation, anyway) has left many to fear for the future of Dublin nightlife – something Give Us The Night are at the forefront of addressing – change has long been part of the Irish capital’s nocturnal scene.
Back in February 2000, at the dawn of the Celtic Tiger, the rise of the ‘superclub’ (and by the same token, the ‘superpub’) was casting a shadow on Dublin clubbing, as an article by Anna Carey for the now-defunct Sunday Tribune explored.
“What makes a great night out?” Carey mused. “Is it a night of funky dancing in a cool, low-key club? Or is it getting dressed up to the nines, imbibing lots of alcohol at a pub the size of an aircraft hangar, and non-stop dancing at some huge, glossy superclub?”
As she discusses, ‘big brand’ clubbing was very much part of the mainstream at the start of the Millennium – “Everything has a brand name. Everything has a TM after its title” – and while the superclub phenomenon was perhaps more pronounced in the UK, Dublin wasn’t immune to its charms.
“Smaller venues and low-key pubs in the city centre seem to be closing down at an alarming rate,” Carey writes, referencing The Funnel and The Attic, although she could equally be describing any number of venues today.
“Now, the entire place is a vision in shiny chrome and pine and its gigging days are over.”
The full article can be found below.
[Article by Anna Carey, from the Sunday Tribune, published 20 February 2000]
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