extending the clubnight through virtual realities
Young people have always found a way to dance. The lockdowns during the surge of the pandemic in 2020 proved that what we're searching for on those dark and thumping nights was more than the moving and the music - it was about sharing the night together. Online raves became the Friday night go-to, not only saving us from dancing alone in our rooms but pioneering a more accessible and equal future for nightlife.
Text by Esta Maffrett | 02.03.22
When the internet came about it was instantly populated by many who felt left out of mainstream society. On chatrooms, blogs and image boards young people learnt digital languages allowing them to open up in ways they may never have with their hometown friends and family. The internet is powerful in the way it gives us the ability to be selective, spatial boundaries are no interruption for us to meet or admire others we identify with. Livejournal, Tumblr and Youtube along with many more will have played a part in helping young people accept and discover their sexuality and identity. It can come from reading stories that we would otherwise not have access to or seeing people we resonate with living happy and open lives. The world wide web provides representation that can dramatically change the mindset of a young person who is isolated in their everyday surroundings.
LGBTQIA+ clubbing spaces provide a brief utopia for many. It has been long acknowledged and documented that the dark sweaty rooms of a club along with the shared enjoyment over a thumping beat allows for exploration and escapism we need to escape daily heternormativity. All nightlife has been under threat for a long time now and it is often the queer and working class spaces that suffer first. When the internet is developing to be faster and provide more intimate ways to connect compared to spaces in cities being closed down - it is not surprising that young people in search of safe and accessible hangouts have continued to gather online.
In early 2020 during the quarantine, hundreds of young people logged onto a shared experience that merged the clubbing and digital havens. Using the video sharing software Zoom that was becoming widely well known, a group of friends created a meeting called Club Quarantine. Play some music, turn everyone's screen on and share the password online - within a couple of days they had up to 400 kids queuing (virtually) to enter every night. Queer House Party, Gal Pals & Sugarush were amongst others to pick up the idea and begin hosting the online parties for their audiences.
"Digital spaces don’t have to be an escape from reality, they don’t need to be the breakdown of our ‘real’ social responsibilities and they definitely don’t need to be reserved for times our outside worlds crumbles"
Almost anyone who has been to a club will know the night is more than just dancing - the social experience of a club is also the people you meet in the queue or bathroom, the forgettable chats in the smoking area and seeing the faces of everyone else in the room losing themselves. And the same is true of virtual dance parties. The anticipation of waiting for the ‘meeting room’ to open, getting dressed up knowing that people will be seeing you and even using the private message function to chat with anyone who catches your eye. Technology has come far enough that most of our expectations can be met through virtual replication, sure it’s not the same but it was close enough for a time when club doors across the globe had shut their doors. Repurposing the tool that was becoming associated with long hours working from home to instead deliver joy and dancing.
For many the online experience highlighted how inaccessible clubbing often is for so many who would want to be there in the clubs. The ease of logging into a free software from the comfort of your bedroom allowed those with younger children, disabilities and low income to join the party with ease. Escapism and the freedom of dance has never been freely accessible to everyone and continuing to fight for that must be a part of the future of dancing. As venues have reopened in the past year online raves are no longer the nightly community they used to be, although the Club Quarantine instagram sits at 69k followers showing it’s not a memory that people are keen to forget.
People will continue to find a way to flirt on whatever the latest app taking over our lives is. Young people more and more are gravitating to platforms that allow them to explore their identities, often coupled with an algorithm that will then begin to do that work for them. You can find loads of videos on Tiktok from people remarking that their For You Page figured out their sexuality before they did. Through trends, sounds and hashtags it’s easier than ever to filter through your niches and search for a soulmate, but what happens when your community is scattered? For a while hangouts like Club Quarantine bridged this gap, between the DM’s and the sweaty basement. It was about taking part in something shared but deeply more personal than an anonymous imageboard or inbox.
Online collective Queer House Party, who organised their first party on the first Friday of lockdown, have moved their raves into the real world whilst still providing the accessibility of their online space. Introducing their most recent event the page states: “Queer House Party are back for the third instalment of their pioneering, accessible, and radical IRL/URL raves that allow attendees to join them in person at the club or from anywhere in the world online.” Digital spaces don’t have to be an escape from reality, they don’t need to be the breakdown of our ‘real’ social responsibilities and they definitely don’t need to be reserved for times our outside worlds crumbles. They should instead be embraced and kept open for all to allow for more adventures across time and space.
