fabric issues lifetime ban to attendee who filmed and mocked dancer on social media
"Our club was built on the values of free expression and the freedom to dance and not be judged", the London club responded
London's fabric has banned a clubgoer for life for filming and mocking a dancer on social media.
A Twitter user with the handle Doddsyy97 tweeted, "Yo I’ll never be going to fabric again after seeing this", NME reports, along with a video of a fabric clubgoer "dancing freely". (Doddsyy97's Twitter account has since been set to private, hiding their tweets from the public.)
Fabric replied to Doddsyy97 on Monday, 12th December, "Great, given this tweet, we’d prefer it if you didn’t come." The club's team then asked Doddsyy97 to take down the clip: "Our club was built on the values of free expression and the freedom to dance and not be judged. We also have a No Photo Policy to protect our dancers' privacy. Please do the right thing and remove this video."
The next day, fabric publicly commented on the incident, confirming, "The author has been given a lifetime ban." The club reiterated its "strict" No Photo Policy, put in place ahead of its post-lockdown reopening in June 2021 to protect attendees' "feeling of self-expression on the dance floor".
The incident spurred DJs and artists to share messages in support of fabric's actions, emphasising the queer and Black roots of house music, and the respect allies must impart while being in these spaces.
Paul Woolford tweeted, "If you are a straight person in a house club, KNOW that you are a guest in someone else’s culture", while The Blessed Madonna shared a serious warning: "There is some dangerous rhetoric floating around in plain sight in dance music right now... It’s not a joke. It’s not a laugh. It’s gonna get someone killed."
Man Power also pointed out the hypocrisy in some cishet peoples' behaviour about clubbing, exemplified by Doddsyy97's tweet: "We make these spaces where we can do what we feel like and then leave pretty much everywhere else in the world for boring folk. When you can’t get in you cry your eyes out and then when you do get in you go mental about it not fitting your expectations."
