Time to get smartphones off the dance floor?

A new nightclub is opening this week with a strict rule that your smartphone camera must be covered with a sticker.

Ambers in Manchester is the latest of a handful of places in the UK to implement the policy – but in cities like Berlin, famous for its nightclubs, it’s the norm.

Ember director Jeremy Abbott told the BBC that the club made the decision because “we really want the music and the experience to be at the forefront” but the issue is being debated on social media.

Some posted. Instagram There are concerns that clubs could suffer from their late-night social media videos acting as free advertising, while others hailed the move as a “party with privacy”.

“It’s the fear of being put on the internet, isn’t it?” One woman told the BBC when we asked young people in Manchester how they felt about not having camera phones in clubs.

“Getting really drunk and having that embarrassing picture of you ending up on Insta, waking up and looking at the events of the night before.”

Another woman said: “It makes the vibe better, because less people [are] Being on your phone, being more engaged with the DJ and stuff, that’s a better environment.”

So are UK clubs at a turning point? Is it time to get the phones off the dance floor and get people’s minds back on the music?

Sacha Lord, Nighttime Economy Adviser for Greater Manchester, thinks so. “These phones are killing the dance floor, they’re killing the atmosphere,” he says.

“DJs hate it. Looking through a sea of ​​phones and someone dancing is really frustrating.”

Smokin Jo, who has been DJing since 1990, remembers when the rave and club scene was booming in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

“Everybody’s got their hands in the air, cheers, cheers.

“Now these videos are being posted of people with their phones in the air. It’s so sad,” she says.

But for these clubbers, “part of the enjoyment is documenting their night out in terms of photographs and memories”, says Dr Lee Hadlington, senior lecturer in cyber psychology at Nottingham Trent University.

In Ambers, phones are not completely banned but clubbers will be required to put a sticker on the camera lens to prevent them from taking photos. Instead a content team will be there to take and post photos online.

Abbott says people who violate the rule will be “politely asked to stop.” “If you are seen doing this again, you will be asked to leave the venue.”

The rule comes at a difficult time for the UK’s nightclub scene, which has struggled to recover from multiple Covid lockdowns.

The number of clubs fell from 1,266 to 786 between June 2020 and June this year, according to figures from the Nighttime Industries Association and research firm Nielsen IQ.

Abbott admits Amber’s no-call rules are a risk but says the club has been “blown away” by the response.

Lord says the policy could be a “shot in the arm” for the industry and “put the energy back on the dance floor”.

Graeme Park, one of the UK’s most popular DJs and a leading figure at Manchester’s legendary Hacienda nightclub, says: “I totally, totally understand and think any smartphones on the dance floor are good. No idea.

“However, I have a 20-year-old son. He makes music, he DJs, he goes to clubs and he’s like, ‘Why is your generation telling our generation not to use our smartphones?’ Can you?'”

Graeme’s son Ben Park said: “Personally, I’ve got nothing against phones in clubs. I totally understand the no-phones policy but at the same time people are using their or their friends’ on social media. Want to post pictures, people want to promote it online.”

But he understands why some clubbers — and DJs — resent so-called TikTok ravers who “literally go to events just to show they’re there and post it on TikTok,” he says. say

For these clubbers, it may be about the fear of missing out on the social media action, says cyber psychologist Dr Hadlington.

“The paradox is that they’re spending more time posting about a good time than enjoying it,” he says.

It may be a relatively new concept in the UK, but in Berlin, 90% of venues have no phone on dance floor code, according to Lutz Leichsenring, former spokesman for Club Commission Berlin and co-founder of VibeLab.

With more tourists flocking to the German capital to enjoy the scene, he says, “I think people really appreciate that it’s Policy was a part of clubbing”.

And, on a personal note, he says that for him, “it’s very, very strange when I’m in a club where people around me are taking pictures and filming the whole time”.

Ambers is following the same policy as London’s nightclub fabric since it reopened in 2021 after Covid. The venue has been essentially camera-free since it opened its doors in 1999, but has changed its policy as technology has changed and smartphones have become more common.

“When people come to the search area, we put a sticker on the camera lens and invite people not to use it, that’s all,” says Fabric co-founder Cameron Leslie.

He says most clubbers follow the rules. “It’s not an aggressive enforcement,” he says. “We’ve got posters up in the club and then beyond that if people use it and our team see them we invite them not to.”

Smokin Jo believes there are steps DJs can take themselves.

“Maybe DJs need to put a clause in their contract that says ‘I’ll do the gig but you need some sort of policy’ because we’re losing the scene’s identity and roots. “

Fellow DJ Graeme Park believes there is no easy answer to smartphones in nightclubs but says: “It’s really, really good that people are talking about it.

“The cultural zeitgeist is changing and that’s the great thing about clubbing, attitudes change every decade or every few years.”