Music / News
Bristol digs deep to save Fabric
Bristol promoters, music venues and festivals have come together to donate £4,000 towards an appeal to save Fabric from closure.
The London club was ordered to close last month after a review by police citing the deaths of two punters over the summer.
Islington Council’s decision triggered the Save our Culture campaign which was launched to help build a legal challenge to keep the venue open.
Bristol festival operators Love Saves The Day, Tokyo World, Simple Things and Arcadia, the two biggest dance music venues in the city, Motion and Lakota, promoters The Blast and music management team Grade Management, have now pledged their financial support to the campaign.
Tom Paine, licensee of Love Saves The Day festival and the recent Massive Attack concert held on the Downs, said one of the most “responsible, professional and forward-thinking venue operators” in the country had fallen victim to an “illogical and unacceptable ruling”.
He added: “We realised, as an industry, that if a venue that is as prestigious and conscientious as Fabric, with a 17 year history as one of the finest nightclubs in the country, could one day wake up to find their livelihoods ruined because of a situation beyond their powers, then none of our businesses are safe.”
“We are very lucky in Bristol to have an incredibly forward-thinking council and licensing team, as well as a very supportive police force, who work proactively with big operators and licensees to ensure our events are safe – but what we have realised from the Fabric decision, is should a couple of the key individuals or personalities in these organisations change, and pursue an anti-event, or anti-late night industry policy, then as an industry, we have very little support or legal backing to defend ourselves.”
“We hope that by publicly uniting behind Fabric, we can show that as a national industry we support each other and we can encourage Bristolians who have a passion for music, festivals and clubbing to donate to the campaign and show their support.
“This is not just for a nightclub that has inspired so many of us in all of our projects, but to support a music culture that has for too long been demonised and misunderstood by those in positions of power.”
Donations to the campaign can be made here.
Read more: Review: Massive Attack, The Downs