We have two exciting internship opportunities coming up over the next few months. Are you interested in supporting the VibeLab team on groundbreaking projects? Read the two positions below and send us your CV and cover letter!

Internship Opportunity: Fluctuations Transnational Festival with VibeLab

Description:

Join us in revolutionising European nightlife with the Fluctuations transnational festival, a unique event that combines music, art, and environmental engagement on the waterways of Europe. VibeLab, in partnership with the Fluctuations Creative Europe consortium, has secured a €200K grant to co-create prototype events in 2024, including stops in Amsterdam and Berlin. As an intern, you’ll be at the forefront of this exciting project, working alongside a team of passionate individuals dedicated to creating a safe, vibrant space for connection and dialogue on social, environmental, and citizenship topics.

Responsibilities:

• Assist in the planning and execution of prototype events, including logistics, programming, and engagement initiatives.
  
• Collaborate with local authorities, organisations, clubs, event organisers, and artists to ensure the success of each event.
  
• Contribute creative ideas and solutions to enhance the festival experience and promote sustainability.
  
• Research best practices for eco-designed festival stages and sustainable event planning.
  
• Assist in marketing, design, content and promotion efforts to reach a diverse audience of all backgrounds.
  
• Assist the Communications Manager in developing VibeLab’s general social media posts and content. 

Requirements:

• Passion for nightlife, environmental sustainability, and community engagement.
• Strong organisational and communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and in a collaborative team environment.
• Knowledge of event planning and logistics is a plus.
• Familiarity with European cities and nightlife scenes is advantageous.
  

Duration:

[3-6 months] 20 hours per week

Location:

[Central Europe Time Zone]

Compensation:

We can offer a stipend of 450 Euros a month 

Application Deadline: November 1st

How to Apply:

Please submit your resume and a brief cover letter outlining your interest and qualifications for this internship to jess@vibe-lab.org 

——–

Internship Opportunity: NIGHTSCHOOL Sustainability Program with VibeLab

Description:

Collaborate with VibeLab and NIGHTSCHOOL to revolutionise global night culture through sustainability. This transnational training program focuses on environmental, social, and economic sustainability for night culture producers. As an intern with VibeLab, you’ll play a vital role in connecting European night culture communities, developing skills, testing sustainability measures, and instigating long-term change.

Responsibilities:

• Assist in organising and coordinating hybrid training sessions for night culture producers.
  
• Contribute to the planning and execution of digital conversations and lectures with international experts.
  
• Support the implementation of sustainability measures in night culture events.
  
• Conduct research and contribute to case studies on the sustainable performance of supported events.
  
• Contribute to creating a freely available knowledge hub on night culture sustainability.
  
• Assist in marketing, design, content and promotion efforts to reach a diverse audience of all backgrounds.
  
• Assist the Communications Manager in developing VibeLab’s general social media posts and content. 

Requirements:

• Passion for sustainability and the night culture industry.
• Strong organisational and communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and in a collaborative team environment.
• Interest in environmental, social, and economic sustainability practices.
• Knowledge of the Global night culture scene is a plus.
• Knowledge of canva, asana and google
  

Duration:

Three months from start date

Location:

Central European Timezone

Compensation:

This is an offer of a stipend of 450 Euros per month.  

Application Deadline:

Between today and November

How to Apply:

Please submit your CV and a brief cover letter outlining your interest and qualifications for this internship to jess@vibe-lab.org

Join us in shaping a sustainable future for night culture with VibeLab! Together, we’ll make Europe a global leader in sustainable nightlife.

The post Career Opportunities: VibeLab Offers Exciting Internship Roles in Nightlife and Sustainability Initiatives! appeared first on NIGHTTIME.ORG.

In mid-July 2022, the Vienna city government department of economics, culture and youth, funded the Vienna Club Commission (VCC), collectively strengthening its impact on nighttime ecosystems. The VCC pilot project began in 2020 and has now progressed into a fully supported initiative with a 5-10 year plan, and funding of 300,000 € per year.

What does a Club Commission or Nighttime Advocacy Office do?

The key aim of the Club Commission is to strengthen and empower the nighttime communities, providing information and mediation between different venues, residents and organisations whilst ensuring that clubs are valued as socially and culturally significant to the city’s foundation.

Global nighttime advocacy offices are on the rise. The number of cities with nighttime advocacy organisations has increased by 30% in the last year. Check the Nighttime.org advocacy map for more information on the movement.

In the press conference last Thursday 15th, Veronica Kaup-Hasler, City Councilor for Culture and Science stated:  “I am pleased that the VCC has now started its work as a bridge between clubs and the city and as a firmly anchored contact and service point.” 

VibeLab is consulting the newly funded Vienna Club Commission.

Many new nighttime office models are based on the experiences developed in Berlin. For example, decentralised decision-making, community-led initiatives and non-hierarchal structures have proven to be a successful communication framework, over the last 20 years in Berlin — a city where clubs now share the same rights as cultural institutions. 

VibeLab’s co-founder Lutz Leichsenring has now been appointed the “Organisation Development Consultant”, for Vienna Club Commission, sharing knowledge and experience about nighttime advocacy.

What is the structure?

The overall concept submitted is based on three core points:

*In-depth Analysis of the Club and Event Scene in Community Sessions.

As a publicly transparent dialogue platform, the Vienna Club Commission sessions, which take place every three months, serve to present the activities and goals of the Vienna Club Commission to anyone in the community who wants to attend as well as target groups in the club scene, to encourage collaboration and the sharing of ideas.

At each VCC session, three focus groups are formed on specific projects, and the lead manager of the respective focus group is chosen by all those present. Information, needs and challenges, ideas and solutions are discussed in a structured manner, considering the various concerns.

•Organizational development and consulting 

With Lutz Leichsenring as an organisational development consultant, the Vienna Club Commission has the expertise of one VibeLabs internationally renowned services to guide and advise in a strategic partnership. 

• Independence of the team members 

In the focus groups, the Viena Club Commission receives direct input from the club and event scene. However, the core team consists of people without economic interests in the club scene, removing bias and guaranteeing neutrality and objectivity in the Vienna Club Commission services.

Quotes:

Quote for Lutz- “It’s an honour to support Vienna in the next steps of developing and supporting the club scene and to share the advanced learnings that we have experienced through chairing the Berlin Club Commission and founding VibeLab. Please be in touch if any other cities are interested in taking their nighttime office to the next level.”

The respective focus group projects are now going into the second round. This regular exchange of practical experience from the club and event sector provides the essential basis for the successful work of the Vienna Club Commission. To create utopias for unique club and event experiences in Vienna or to support the actions of the individual actors in the best possible way and that, in harmony with the city dwellers, prefer peace and quiet – that is the actively lived self-commitment of the VCC team.« Martina Brunner, co-management, content management, VCC

Focus Group Themes

The Safer Party – Safer Nightlife.
This focus group spent a quarter developing a survey on safety in Vienna’s nightlife scenes, which will be launched at the beginning of 2023. The focus groups addressed the first steps necessary to provide young people with low-threshold, consumption-free and music-related spaces.

Funding
The VCC website highlights current funding opportunities for club operators, organisers and cultural workers and the targeted focus groups relay this information effectively and support with applications.

Sustainability
Looking at event sustainability in terms of economic and ecological balance.

Following a successful pilot project, the new service and agency of the City of Vienna, the Vienna Club Commission, will now also become a permanent institution and will not only enable Vienna to get along better at night but will also position Austria’s largest city internationally and network. At this point, we thank the responsible city councillors and the respective club and event community for their commitment and support. Thomas Heher, co-management, commercial management, VCC

The post Vienna’s city government supports Vienna Club Commission, boosting the city’s nighttime industries. appeared first on NIGHTTIME.ORG.

Initiated by VibeLab the manifesto is launched today at Reeperbahn festival and aims to encourage conscious, aware action and change,  to get recognition for the integral role that life at night plays in society. Bringing together global scenes, with a shared set of values, the manifesto is a living breathing open document that aims to ignite cross-sector dialogue and celebrate those who are committed to creating a safer, more resilient and sustainable future for nightlife.

For more info on the manifesto, read here

The post RISE UP一 A Nighttime Manifesto appeared first on NIGHTTIME.ORG.

Creative Footprint is a research project that investigates creative spaces and communities to examine and emphasise the cultural value and impact that music and nightlife have on the city. (CFP) is registering participants to take part in upcoming focus groups aimed at promoters, collectives and folks that run music and nightlife spaces in Montréal.

The focus groups are open to the Montréal nightlife communities to register and will take place both online and in-person

Register your interest in Creative Footprint Montréal

This study is the first of its kind in Montreal and in Canada, following suit of cities including Berlin, New York, Tokyo and Stockholm, and it will be a vital tool for the implementation of the city’s nightlife strategy. At its core, the objective of Creative Footprint is to support the development of 24-hour cities that are world-renowned for their vibrancy, diversity, safety and access to amenities throughout the day and night. 

What is Creative Footprint?

Creative Footprint (CFP) is a project created and conducted by nighttime consultancy agency VibeLab. Creative Footprint’s methodology was developed by Lutz Leichsenring, in partnership with Harvard University and PennPraxis. PennPraxis is the centre for applied research, professional practice, and community engagement at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design

The methodology goes beyond economic impact, by prioritising original content, interdisciplinary connections and multi-purpose spaces that foster talent,  strengthen communities and make our cities unique. The resulting report includes detailed data, observations from community leaders, a final score, and recommendations for the city. 

Read other CFP reports

Why Montréal?

Montréal’s nightlife scene’s sustained commitment, enthusiasm and resilience are being recognised by the city of Montréal for the benefit that nightlife communities bring to the local culture and economies, thanks to  MTL 24/24 a non-profit organisation that provides a framework for Montréal’s nightlife. 

 In May this year (2022), the mayor of  Montréal, Mayor Valérie Plante, announced a roadmap to regenerate Montréal’s nightlife, that acknowledges the importance and relevance of music culture. 

“There are people who want to sleep and there are those who want to party. Parties are part of Montréal’s DNA… [and] nightlife is an important economic driver for the metropolis.” —Montréal’s Mayor Valérie 

Part of the plan features a pilot project that would extend the opening hours of some venues to test the effectiveness of operating continuously in designated zones. Followed by Montréal’s first and longest dance party at the Société des Arts Technologiques. NONSTOP 24/24 was the first of a series of all-night nightlife events approved by the city to gather data about allowing venues to operate past 3 a.m, initiated by  MTL 24/24 

“The city’s action plan provides a clear timetable that should lead to the adoption of a nightlife policy next summer, redefining the operational framework for nightlife activities,” —General Manager of MTL 24/24, Mathieu Grondin

Why gather data on nightlife?  

Creative Footprint solidifies channels of communication between grassroots creatives and policymakers. Gathering data on life at night and creative communities will provide tangible information to empower nightlife communities.  

“We are now seeing the benefits of our mission to measure the unmeasured things – things we know are important to our creative communities. Communities that have never had their real nature in data form before and we can use this deep knowledge as a basis for action.”  —Michael Fichman, CFP Senior Data Scientist, PennPraxis.

There are currently three more cities in the pipeline for the CFP. The CFP initiative has earned recognition as a valuable tool for developing and improving nightlife policies. Creative ecosystems are ever-changing and developing, following Covid-19’s impact on creative communities, cities need to keep an open dialogue with their creatives, and CFP helps to shed light on organisations that need support. 

Next steps

★ Register your interest in Creative Footprint Montréal

★ Read other CFP reports here

★ Share the sign-up form and banner with your creative networks in Montréal

★ The CFP founders and data scientists are available to be interviewed:

• Lutz Leichsenring, Co-founder of VibeLab 
• Michael Fichman, Senior Data Scientist, PennPraxis at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design
• Mathieu Grondin, General Manager of MTL 24/24
  

★ For more information regarding the Creative Footprint Report and the opportunity to have the mapping research project conducted in your city, contact lutz@vibe-lab.org

The post Research for Creative Footprint Montréal is about to commence appeared first on NIGHTTIME.ORG.

In the last year, since the pandemic, eight new nighttime advocates have been appointed across Germany. Stuttgart, Osnabrück, Leipzig, München, Dortmund and Wiesbaden have joined the long list of cities that are acknowledging and acting to protect and improve nighttime activities in their cities. 

Although all of the night advocates focus on their cities’ specific needs, they all underline the need for more recognition and attention to the night. Their aim is to strengthen the communication between creatives and administrators, amplify the culture and protect the spaces that allow politics of diversity to happen. Following lockdown conditions and the immense impact, the pandemic had on creative communities, the increasing number of night advocates points to more inclusive and 24-hour cities.

Here are the lists of new night advocates and their respective cities:

1. Andreas Topp and Nils Runge – Stuttgart
2. Jakob Lübke – Osnabrück 
3. Nils Fischer – Leipzig
4. Kay Mayer – München
5. Christoph Stemann – Dortmund
6. Daniel Redin and Pascal Rück – Wiesbaden

With the addition of these names 11 cities in Germany now have night advocates protecting and promoting the night. Here are the existing night advocates:

• Robert Ga – Mannheim – Nightmayor
• Pamela Schobeß, Sascha Disselkamp, Marcel Weber, Lutz Leichsenring – Berlin – Clubcommission 
• Thore Debor – Hamburg – Clubkombinat
• Heiko Rühl – Cologne – Klubkomm
• Katrin Gruel – Leipzig – LiveKommbinat
• Matthias Morgenstern, Ansgar Fleischmann, Christian Baums – Frankfurt – Clubs am Main

If you want to know more about the night advocates in your cities, VibeLab has created a map in which you can see all the night advocates throughout the globe. If you want to know more about models of nighttime governance and how they could impact your city, we recommend reading Chapter Five of the Global Nighttime Recovery plan.

The post German cities are advocating for the night appeared first on NIGHTTIME.ORG.

Addressing nighttime safety through a gender-equitable lens. 

Are we still scared of the dark in 2022? 

Safety at night is a subjective issue that means something different to everyone. Whether it be getting home from the club, travelling to work, expressing your identity in a bar, being racially profiled, getting to a club, or taking a walk in your neighbourhood, feeling safe at night in the city is very different for everyone in every situation. 

What is the World Urban Forum? 

The World Urban Forum is a  conference established by UN-Habitat, to examine pressing issues facing the world today, such as rapid urbanisation and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies.

The topic of nighttime has been neglected at conferences that explore policy and urban planning. Yet it is now antiquated for governments and policymakers to not address life after dark. Since the pandemic, the world has woken up to the importance of nightlife and its capacity for providing safe(r) spaces to meet, share ideas, and build communities, identities, careers and livelihoods. In some way, the pandemic made people aware of the innate human need to socialise. Yet creating safer nights worldwide requires more attention, funding and support. 

The Night Walk, Katowice, Poland 

In collaboration with UN-Habitat, Safetipin, the European Forum For Urban Security and its Women In Cities Initiative, the City of Katowice, and a host of others, VibeLab orchestrated a night walk of Katowice where an estimated 200 eager participants from around the world showed up at dusk. Using the My Safetipin app, with Katowice as a testing ground, this night walk crowd-sourced information on women and gender minorities’ lived experience of the night, and used the city as a case study to learn about mobility and safety for the vulnerable – and thus the wellbeing of all.  

This walk used a simple, powerful, multilingual technical tool to gather insights from Katowice residents and visitors alike, accompanied by an informal discussion between safety and nighttime practitioners and policymakers from around the world on the topics of mitigating unsafe nights, creating safer public spaces and improving mobility for all. 

Good Nights: Rethinking Urban Safety, Wellbeing, and Community Through Culture After Dark

This event was the first session in WUF history focused on urban nighttime and was co-presented by VibeLab, the European Forum for Urban Security (Efus) and the Efus Women in Cities Initiative (WICI), the Global Parliament of Mayors, and UN-Habitat Safer Cities. 

The panel addressed what we can learn from the cultural driven aspect of nightlife and safety and brought it into a wider context of the World Urban Forum. The panellists contributing to the discussion explored the multiple definitions of safety. With virtual and IRL inputs ranging from people in public, private, cultural and civil society organisations. The discussion explored and highlighted how all these sectors can work together and how the expertise and lived to experience at night can offer alternative approaches to safer cities.

The discussion explored harm reduction, equality and inclusion, alternatives to policing, and the needs of women and gender minorities in urban space.

“The contribution of participative arts contributes to a safe city. Everyone wants to be useful and everyone wants to express themselves safely”

Barbara Holtmann

Key takeaways: 

• Making the connection between gender minorities, safety and the urban night is absolutely essential if we want cities to be sustainable
  
  
• Diverse and lively life at night creates better cities.
  
  
• Night culture and the people that create it can provide new solutions and new ways of understanding and managing the city.
  

• When looking at safety at night time do we measure what we want less of such as murder and violence, or do we measure what we want more of? Which is a cultural expression, activation, happiness or joy?
  
  
• The day has a lot to learn a lot from the night
  
  
• Cultural activation plays into the safety of spaces: Places that are well used feel safer than those that are empty
  
  
• Later opening hours are conducive to safer nights. When there is a 24-hour alcohol license, people don’t binge drink. It changes the behaviour around alcohol consumption, with a focus on experiencing the cultural offerings and slowly enjoying a drink. 

VibeLab and UN-Habitat Safer Cities’ are launching a  SAFETYLAB, where there will be further engagement opportunities. The safety lab connects urban policymakers to nightlife practitioners to explore how culture-centred urban interventions promote safer nights, social inclusion and community wellbeing. If you are interested in finding out more about the SAFETYLAB, get in touch with diana@vibe-lab.org

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Over the last years, the incident reports of spiking UK and Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, and France have increased. Whilst using needles to administer drugs without consent has come forward as a common phenomenon. In Berlin, multiple accounts and stories have emerged regarding spiking incidents. Public discourse has been robust on the matter, increasing awareness, but also increasing fear.

Researcher Bengi Guven has provided a tool kit for tool kit on what to do in a case of spiking that offers concrete action steps: 

• What can governments do?
• What can clubs/ promoters do?
• What can the community do?

Read the full tool kit here

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Ireland’s Give Us The Night founder, Sunhil Sharpe spoke here to I-D Magazine about the situation in Dublin alongside quite a few young collectives and promoters that are trying to put on events and parties in the city. who’s helped bring in new legislation allowing for 6 am closes over the coming weeks. Irish DJ Sunil Sharpe wants to give the artists leaving due to Dublin’s cultural crisis a good reason to stay.

One of the hot topics the Irish press is fixating on is the new legislation that could see the club closing times shift forward significantly to 6 am. This news came from a media leak, yet this pioneering change in Dublin’s licensing history is still in discussion with the government. Sunhil Sharpe mentioned that the curfew change is one of the few matters that still need to be resolved and the closing times should not simply be limited to 6 am.

However, this conversation about curfew changes can be relevant to any city. Many cities licensing laws do not allow for late-night activity, however, looking at programming late into the morning hours without the focus being on alcohol sales would be a great alternative. Staggering closing times within the venues in the city would also be a great solution, especially in areas where later alcohol times are proving difficult to achieve.

“Despite the long-ignored calls for reform from creatives and collectives across the city, change to the nightlife scene is at last slowly being made thanks to extensive campaigning from Give Us The Night.

“Ireland places way too much emphasis on its cultural history and heritage than supporting what’s happening right now,” argues Sunil. “Culturally the city is predominantly a shrine to dead writers, and that’s fine, but let’s start believing more in artists and organisations who are alive too.”

“Ireland has approached nightlife in a very conservative and basic way in the past, and the failure to reform our licensing laws really caught up with us after the last financial crash,” he says. “The idea that dancing in a nightclub is a form of culture has been a hard sell to authorities here but it definitely feels like the point has landed and been accepted now.”

Noise is being made by talented Irish artists and Dublin-based collectives are working against the odds to showcase this talent, but it’s time that genuine support was provided from above. For Give Us The Night, this begins with an open acknowledgement that culture happens after 10 pm. “Dublin needs access to space, for both permanent and temporary venues,” Sunil argues. “We need new things happening on a regular basis to capture the imagination of those living in and visiting the city.

“If things aren’t changing and refreshing themselves, cities become stale, which is what happened here in recent years.” – Sunhil Sharpe.

If you are interested in joining our discussion on “Curfews and Later Nights” we have an online roundtable taking place on Tuesday, June 7, 16:00 CET (15:00 UK, 17:00 Vilnius/Tallinn, 10:00 Philly/NYC, etc)

We’ll be folding this topic into a special-edition instalment of our monthly “Cities After Dark” meeting, with this session open to participants both in and outside of Europe. Email jess@vibe-lab.org

The post What can other cities learn from Dublin’s nightlife fight? appeared first on NIGHTTIME.ORG.

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.

The post Results of cities’ nightlife recovery survey appeared first on NIGHTTIME.ORG.

The festival Tour De Moon will take place between 11 May and 16 June 2022. Happening in Leicester, Newcastle, and Southampton, the festival asks why can’t we imagine a new way of thinking/dreaming/doing? 

The festival will provide a platform for plurality, fresh thinking, and new ideas. A unique, immersive 3 city 4-day festival of free public events – Leicester 13-16 May, Newcastle 27-30 May, and Southampton 10-13 June – all linked by a touring sustainable Convoy (11 May – 16 June) and celebrating nightlife and youth countercultures from across the UK and beyond. Leicester and Newcastle tickets are already live and Southampton will follow on the 4th of May. 

Tour De Moon is composed of more than 90 individuals as a part of its team, as well as the Youth Reporter Board and Advisory Board and further collaborative organizations, all working together to build a festival committed to plurality, decolonial practices, social and racial justice, solidarity and equity. 

To get the Newcastle tickets and find out more about the festival check out their website. 

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