You might have seen cool kids hanging out at shabby bars or pubs lately – and you are not alone. Be it because of hype, part of what is usually described as gentrification, or a necessary alternative to expensive nights due to staggering inflation, are dive bars experiencing a revival?

The urban dictionary defines a dive bar as “a well-worn, unglamorous bar, often serving a cheap, simple selection of drinks to a regular clientele. The term can describe anything from a comfortable-but-basic neighbourhood pub to the nastiest swill-slinging hole.” The colloquial use of the word dive to describe a “drinking den” or “other disreputable place of the resort” comes from the fact that these types of establishments were originally housed in cellars or basements, into which “frequenters may ‘dive’ without observation”, according to a citation of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Let’s look at some concrete cases in three big urban areas across the globe.

New York

In February of this year, a local news outlet featured an interview with the owner of the Pearl River Hotel in New York State, which he does not consider a dive bar himself, although he appears to be thankful for the latest rising interest among visitors. This was not the first time a news outlet in New York reports about dive bars. In fact, this has been a recurring topic in The New York Times, at least until 2021. 

The common thread is apparently how puzzling it can be for both owners and journalists in the sense of why would younger people nowadays choose such places. However, the opposite also exists: visitors who do not understand the trend and have different expectations when told it is supposed to be a “cool” place – see this funny comment from a dive bar owner to a 1-star review on Yelp.

Berlin

The southeast district of Neukölln, known as a melting pot and home for many creative workers, is arguably the area where there is a higher concentration of such bars and pubs becoming popular. In Schillerkiez, the latest neighbourhood to undergo a similar transformation comparable to Prenzlauer Berg years before, places like the former Syndikat are swiftly being replaced by fine dining restaurants and bars serving natural wine or craft beer. 

The bar Bechereck, on the contrary, in its privileged corner with a big terrace caters to those who still seem to prefer the real deal – the so-called Berliner “Kneipe”, serving mainly different homemade liquors, cheap long drinks and local draft beer. Other comparable examples in the surroundings are Warthe-Eck (in Warthestraße) and Stammtisch (in Weserstraße). Usually, it is allowed to smoke inside and it is common to find a slot machine (or two), as well as pool tables. Random music is often part of the appeal, just like the unmatching furniture.

Sydney

In order to confront the recent news on Time Out listing the best dive bars in Sydney and to compare the situation there with Berlin, we conducted a short interview with Nicolas Tsirimokos** who is Australian and lived several years in Sydney before relocating to Berlin 10 years ago. When referring to notable examples of dive pubs like The Marrickville Hotel and the Unicorn Hotel, he tells us that:

“The traditional Aussie pub has forever been a part of our culture, for people of all ages. It’s the place you meet your friends for lunch or your colleagues for a beer after work. For nearly as long as I can remember there has been a trend of rich men in the restaurant and entertainment business buying run-down or historical pubs and transforming them into more glamorous, hip establishments with prices to match. 

Similarly, many traditional pubs have retained their classic look and feel but added on fancy food options or specialise in things like Korean chicken or dumplings for example. Whilst the food is obviously delicious – it’s often at a particularly lavish price point. You have to ask yourself, is this what pub and bar culture are all about? Shouldn’t a local pub serve the whole community? 

Obviously, some pubs still operate like this, but I have been to a few in areas like Newtown, where actually I lived for a long time when some were still relatively hidden gems and meanwhile have changed completely.”

The concluding remarks are, therefore: 

• Can this influx of younger and wealthier generations (often referred to as yuppies or young urban professionals) help these bars and pubs survive? 

• Or are these instead losing their authentic character, by adapting their offer to what their new demand expects versus the initial customers?

For more detailed information about the nightlife vibrancy of these cities, read the Creative Footprint reports on Berlin and New York, as well as Sydney’s “Future Proofing” Report by VibeLab Asia Pacific.

**Nicolas Tsirimokos (a.k.a. artist Nicolas Sàvva) has over 10 years of experience in music strategy, curation and artist relations at companies like SoundCloud and Beatport. He enjoys educating the creator community on how to build and grow their careers. He also works as a composer and sound artist and has scored works for the Stuttgart Ballet and The Czech National Ballet. Moreover, he has presented Face The Music with Nicky Böhm every month on Refuge Worldwide: showcasing, amplifying and celebrating intersectional stories from voices across the music industry.

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Desterro, the street name of a venue known for late opening hours established in 2014, was the first spot of this kind Lisbon partygoers would tell you about. Years later, in 2019, a former soccer club bar was converted into what is now referred to as Cosmos, operating from evening to early morning. More recently, the crew behind the queer-feminist Mina Suspension parties opened their new fixed location at Planeta Manas, which since 2021 has been competing with the most prominent nightclubs in the city in terms of bookings, audience, and working hours.

Besides their unusual locations in then-yet-to-be-gentrified areas of the city, these spaces all share the premise that they are only accessible to members of the cultural associations that are running them. Attendees must, therefore, agree to fill in a registration form and pay a yearly membership fee (usually symbolic, 3 euros). This does not include the entrance fee, which depends on the event, and drinks at the bar which are also paid separately. The atmosphere inside resembles more of an intimate gathering at a private event instead of the typical bars or clubs, under the tight control of visually intimidating security staff.

Who may qualify as a cultural association and why start one? The main distinctive requirement is a community organized horizontally rather than the divide between owners and the audience. According to the website of the Lisbon City Hall, “a group of people who have common interests in the area of culture can constitute a cultural association as a way to develop an activity within the scope of those interests and to be publicly represented”. They summarize associações as follows:

• legal entities (with legal personality)
• must be non-profit (that is, they must reinvest all income in the association’s activities and cannot distribute it to members)
• may enjoy tax advantages

Even if they manage to stay active (and taking into consideration that the last two associations emerged during the pandemic), bypassing strict regulations imposed on other venues officially registered as nightclubs, the protection from law enforcement’s action attained by these exclusive member associations is very limited.

Planeta Manas reported on their socials that, earlier this year, more than 20 heavily-armed police forces suddenly raided their newly opened venue during an event. Despite acknowledging it was a mistake, they deliberately invaded their privacy further and randomly searched members for illegal substances.

Far from perfect or a universal solution, associations (cultural or not) are important fringe spaces for social experimentation, catering to niche communities elsewhere in Portugal (like Círculo Católico de Operários do Porto and Sonoscopia in Porto) and the rest of the world (for instance, cannabis associations or “clubs” in Spain, Malta, and South Africa). 

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In March, we launched a short questionnaire on how the pandemic has affected different cities and some of the latest work agendas where our support could be most helpful. We may now share the results based on more than 50 replies that we received from over 40 cities**.

Global Nighttime Recovery Plan

During the initial stages of the pandemic, Chapter 5 – Nighttime Governance in Times of Covid-19 and its respective conference call were the most attractive of the series, slightly surpassing Chapter 1 – Managing Open Air Nightlife and Chapter 2 – The Future of Dancefloors.

These three chapters attracted the biggest share of respondents to the related online events  (around 80% each).

More than two-thirds affirmed to have been inspired by the compiled ideas or examples for their own work, which the majority used as references (written or oral) in city administration or academia.

Since time was often mentioned as the major obstacle to participation:

• If you still did not have the opportunity to read executive summaries per chapter and would like a shorter summary comprising all main points (i.e. visual format other than text, like an infographic), please let us know.

Recovery of nightlife activity in cities

Overall, the majority of respondents felt optimistic: about two-thirds replied that the level of nightlife activity in their city is back at 70% or more compared to pre-Covid (2019 = 100%). However, the remaining one-third felt less positive, with those thinking “it’s really bad” surpassing the ones that think it’s “better than ever” (see graph below).

Considering work agenda priorities, most respondents were setting up “grants and funding programs” as well as “nighttime safety”, followed by “awareness” (such as diversity and inclusion) and “changing laws and regulations”. Almost one-third of respondents were setting up a nighttime office or night mayor position. Despite the general increasing interest in wellbeing and mental health since Covid-19, “health and prevention” was surprisingly among the least voted priorities.

Helpful tools and upcoming priorities

To conclude, three instruments were identified as being the most helpful in nighttime recovery among roughly 60% of respondents:

• Collecting best practices from around the world; 
• Providing data on the economy, venues, and events;
• Leading awareness campaigns about night-time economy needs and challenges.

Moreover, the last open question identified the following emerging priorities in nighttime recovery efforts:

• Changes in demand due to long-term effects of Work From Home (physical/digital space, mobility, work-leisure hours)
• Global obstacles to recovery (scarce labor and supplies as a consequence of pandemic, inflation cannibalizing available budgets)
• International cooperation as a key solution
• Continuous support for advocacy work

We would like to thank all the participants once again for their valuable input. Stay tuned for VibeLab’s upcoming initiatives addressing many of the challenges mentioned above.

**Demographic

While more than half of the respondents were from Europe (with the UK, and London particularly, in the lead), about a quarter were from the US. Therefore, the majority of the respondents were from English-speaking countries.

In terms of professional occupation, more than half identified as Advocates (which included night mayors, club commissions, and activists), followed by Community (including artists and promoters). Both City (such as government) and Science (academia, scholars) appeared next, sharing the third place.

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Revenue distribution efforts are a central topic within club culture. Bottom-up initiatives as collective and urgent responses to forced inactivity in difficult times, like online crowdfunding events (see #UnitedWeStream by VibeLab co-founder Lutz Leichsenring during the pandemic outbreak and donations for the Ukrainian creative scene under war since the Russian invasion, just when Kyiv’s club culture was booming) are some noble examples.

The common argument for most of these campaigns collecting donations is strong: democratic empowerment. In other words, once living expenses are covered, sharing the surplus or giving it back to the community – those who paid in the first place – is highly expected.

Likewise, the idea behind the service Aslice recently launched by DJ and producer DVS1 (who had previously argued that festivals were jeopardizing club culture) is simple: “producers get paid when DJs play their music at gigs”. The software calculates the fair share to be allocated by DJs to creators of those music tracks through machine learning, by uploading the set playlist onto their system (5% of the gig fee is their suggested standard).

The good: it is nowadays possible for some DJs and producers like him to live exclusively with a salary from playing at gigs. The bad: rights owners have barely been able to monetize much of their work since illegal file-sharing exploded with the appearance of the internet. Paid streaming and download alternatives, mostly based on subscription or pay-as-you-want models, have slightly improved the situation since the 2010s – in 2015, digital revenue surpassed physical for the first time in global music sales according to the IFPI Report of the same year. 

As long as the pay gap exists, it is expected that the discussion around the increased responsibilities from the growing professionalization and commercialization of club culture will continue to have momentum.

Watch the video where DVS1 talks about the effect of festivals on club culture

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