Recession hitting clubs

[pheek]

I was wondering if you guys notice the recession affecting clubs or your city in the last year. For a lot of artists, 2009 was a catastrophe in terms of bookings, everything went down for a lot of people I know. So I'm curious to know what people have seen in terms of changes in their local scene.
In Montreal, for little clubs, we saw less international artists due to high expenses and it seems only bigger players are booking.

For myself, 2009 was my worst year ever in terms of bookings. I recently decided to stop touring because it's too much stress to prepare. I might tour again when/if there will be a demand for it.

I feel less stressed since I took that decision

[Roy Koch]

Sucks to hear that
In Holland (Amsterdam), the scene is more alive then ever! This year we saw the opening of Trouw which has been packed and has good line-ups every weekend. Also the other, already existing clubs in Amsterdam kept booking good artists and be full almost every night.
Ofcourse there is a ocassional empty night, but I don't think that is due to the recession or anything.

[shypht]

In Toronto, seems to be more focus on stripped-down parties.

The bigger promoters are now sticking to "tried and true" venues - Platform brings in pretty solid names to Footwork -- they may not be my cup of tea, but they are "big names". Seems like they are playing it a bit more safe than usual.

The other promoters are bringing in interesting names, but usually to smaller / more stripped down spaces - which I actually prefer. Renting out odd-ball bars / dance studios / loft spaces / etc instead of your normal clubs. I actually prefer things that way.

Toronto still has lots of local quality talent living in the city, so even local-only nights can be lots of fun, or a mostly local line up + 1 international (but possibly not 'big name') and still have a solid party.

[zentex]

yeh in lisbon it's been pretty slow for interesting underground names too. there's been a lot of parties here for bit more commercial names like the Get Physical posse, Gui Boratto, Ivan Smagghe, Kalkbrenner etc but it's been really weak in substance...at least for my taste. there's been a few good bookings though like Function, Regis, Move D, Andy Vaz, Omar S and such that have passed by here but really there's nothing consistent going on besides the same forementioned bigger names popping up all the time.

for me last year was okay for amount of gigs, but then again i mostly played here instead of getting some international gigs like earlier years.

[Marcus Stork]

Not at all i would say.. Stockholm has not been struck too much of the recession like other parts of sweden (car industry in the west for example). Infact alot of people have got more money in their pockets now due to the big fall of mortgage to record low rates. I pay almost 50% less that i did 2 years ago. So for people with work this is great times moneywise!

[PsyTox]

everyone is playing it safe over here it seems. Sticking to known names and more international names because these supposedly bring in more people (yet often get blown away by our local dj's).
Despite the fact that the fidget house hype is far from over in our country, there's still plenty of really good stuff around though. But smaller events... it seems like this year was really a turnpoint where the "old garde" was replaced with new upcoming talent and that's always a good thing for a scene. I just turned 35 so the point is near where it becomes a bit pathetic to go out every week to get bookings, talk to promotors and play in parties where the room is empty or filled with people that could be my son or daughter

So in terms of bookings it went down after the summer (not to say it stopped completely). Anyway, I don't go out anymore just to get in contact with promotor x or y and I don't do the kiss-ass-politics games, plus I decided to really invest all my time in producing and my little label, so that also is part of the reason of course. And if they want to book me I prefer it to be in summer, because those parties are during daytime and in the sun We now throw our own events during summer simply because I couldn't be arsed anymore to please a promotor's musical taste (or lack of) or face the monumental ego-blah blah from many people in the scene. Rather do a little party of our own in a garden with 50 friends.

[tone-def]

i only played out 7 times last year which was way down on the previous 2 years.

[Rookas]

come on , didnt hear these things happening , maybe its you, not the parties first of all?