Gentrification. It’s a dirty word in dance music circles. Roughly translated in this case, it means people with more money than brains moving to locations where they know there are nightclubs, then complaining about the noise of aforementioned nightclubs. As far as stupidity goes, it’s up there with the people of Troy letting a massive wooden horse enter their city.
The latest to fall victim to this idiocy is Belgian nightclub Fuse. Established in 1994, the club concentrates mostly on techno – but there’s nothing pleasant about the latest noise to hit the club. According to Fuse themselves, one neighbour who bought a house nearby has been complaining for years about the noise coming from the venue – resulting in the club going silent.
Tomorrow, they’re due to plead their case before the authorities. If the experience of the world elsewhere is anything to go by, they must now persuade a panel of people who almost certainly know nothing about nightclubs why they shouldn’t have to close at 2am. Or why they should be allowed to make more than 95 decibels of noise.
For context, that’s roughly the same amount of noise that a jackhammer makes. Nightclubs typically have a noise range somewhere between 100 and 120db. The results of this appeal obviously remains to be seen – but should one person be able to close down a place providing employment for 80 people and bringing tourists and money to the area? Ears To The House is uneasy with the implications of that, if so…
