Anyone taking even the most cursory glance at the news in recent weeks couldn’t fail to have spotted that things are pretty bad in Gaza at the moment. Israel has been engaged in retaliatory attacks against Hamas since the organisation – who have governed the Gaza Strip since 2006 – conducted a series of attacks against the Israeli state.
Unsurprisingly, Israel’s economy has taken a huge hit in recent weeks – the unemployment rate has reached almost 10%, and huge numbers of army reservists being called up to fight effectively mean large swathes of sectors like commerce are closed right now. And inevitably, this had had an effect on nightlife.
A regular Ears To The House source who knows industry colleagues tells us that “Things are quiet right now. Remember the early coronavirus lockdowns in the spring of 2020? From the descriptions I’ve been getting out there, that’s the best way I can explain it. There’s very little going on at night, with almost no international acts appearing, and with no end in sight to the war, they don’t know when that will change.”.
One sole exception to this might be none other than Tiësto – a long-time trance and EDM producer and DJ whose real name is Tijs Michiel Verwest. At the time of publishing this article, listings for Tiësto’s show at Tel Aviv’s Expo this coming Friday, November 24th, appear to suggest it’s still going ahead.
The event is even still being promoted by Resident Advisor – despite them running a glut of pro-Palestine articles in recent weeks. It’s only hypocrisy when other people do it, apparently…
Curiously, however, Tiësto’s own website has nothing listed for this coming Friday. According to the site, he’s playing for Formula 1 at Abu Dhabi in the human rights abusing United Arab Emirates on Thursday – and then his next appearance is at Miami Beach on December 1st.
Our searches elsewhere have found virtually nothing at all in the foreseeable future – although the thing with higher echelon DJs is they always try and sneak back in sooner rather than later. We shall be watching closely…
