Yousef – now there’s a name that has this blog divided. On the one hand, he comes across as a pretty reasonable guy. I first came across him in the early 2000s and thought his mixing was excellent. I also think he should be very proud of Circus and the fact he’s never forgotten where he came from has not gone unnoticed. Many do when fame strikes…

I also applaud him when, at a time that nightclubs were whinging about having no support, he put his hat in the ring for a Covid test event to see if clubs could be reopened safely. And although I was critical of his decision to stick with a tried and tested lineup, I praise him for showing some courage and trying something to get the scene he loves operating again.

I would like to be able to say Yousef provided strong leadership here. But this statement he came out with yesterday just left me scratching my head…

And to think he was making an extremely valid point before he decided to shoot himself in the foot! Asking to be put on a guest list – in other words, allowed into a venue for free – at this time would be an utterly tone deaf thing to do. But when he speaks about supporting “those who’ve been left without support during Covid”, there’s a problem.

You see, Yousef decided to book Sven Väth for his Circus event a few months ago. Väth has been doing plague raves throughout much of the pandemic. Whilst much of the world closed off to clubbers, Väth continued doing sets for much of the time – including in India shortly before a massive wave of the virus hit the country.

As much as the dance music press tried to gloss over this by simply not reporting it, this tweet makes Yousef look utterly tone deaf. Surely he can do better than this?