Dublin music collectives to start co-operative DIY venue space
The group aims for the cultural venue to be "a safer space for culture and socialising, protected, as much as possible, from capitalism and the market"
A group of Dublin music collectives and organisations are working together to open a new co-operative DIY venue.
Club Comfort, Department of Energy, Dublin Digital Radio, 1815FC and Ecliptic Newstand are among the crews behind the campaign to build and fund a new cultural venue in the Northside Dublin neighbourhood of Glasnevin, Nialler9 reports. According to the co-op's Patreon, "We have taken over the lease of an industrial unit in the Dublin Industrial estate with the aim of making a venue for art, culture and sociable activity. We’ve already begun the task of fitting it out for these purposes".
The collectives cite a string of Dublin venue closures as cause for the co-operative project: "We’ve come together as a group concerned by the void left in Dublin by the closure of many of these, most recently Sunnyvale, Jigsaw and Jaja Studios".
"It doesn’t have a name yet, we hope you will give it one", they added, and shared their vision for the venue: "A safer space for culture and socialising, protected, as much as possible, from capitalism and the market… As we are more and more compelled as individuals to exploit and to be exploited, we see compelling need for communality, creativity and coming together".
Supporters can donate to the project via Patreon for €10/£8.50 per month, with a crowdfunding campaign to come for those who would prefer to donate as a one-off contribution.
This co-operative cultural space would be a positive morale boost to the Irish clubbing scene, which has been struggling for decades under restrictive licensing. Although future changes to licensing laws that would allow for later closing times were confirmed, earlier this month Taoiseach Leo Varadker said the reprieve is not likely to happen until summer 2024.
Despite the strict licensing laws, a handful of clubs have opened and popped-up in the city in recent years, including The Racket Space and Temporary Pleasure, with shuttered key venues like District 8 and Index reopening in new locations.
Dublin Digital Radio recently revealed the 2023 lineup to its annual festival, Alternating Current, set for late October.
For more on Ireland nightlife's fight for more flexibility, revisit Seán Finnan's 2021 feature on the nightlife activists, including Sunil Sharpe of the Give Us The Night campaign, pushing for progress.
