The Lowdown Blog
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Meet Club Are: the London event blurring club, gallery, and runwayWhat does it look like when we think of the dancefloor as an artistic incubator? Writer Megan Wallace speaks to management team Mika Kailes, Abdula Jama, and Nhung Le to find out. From ballroom...
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There’s no such thing as a bad dancerHave you ever felt self-conscious on the dancefloor? Creator and self-confessed dance music history nerd Titanium Dice reminds us why that should never be the case. At Happy Tuesdays we’re not ...
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Inspired in Ibiza: Holly Lester on the party that changed her lifeA night on the dancefloor can be monumental. That’s why we started this series, The Party That Changed My Life, inviting artists to tell us the story of the clubbing experience that had a profoun...
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The Carnival countdown is onAs the 60th anniversary of Notting Hill Carnival looms, Josephine Cruz shines a light on the roots of sound system culture. Many people might not realise the depth and breadth of impact Jamaican s...
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Meet Overflow: the Berlin collective giving ravers a soft landingResponding to a growing yearning for more restorative spaces in nightlife, Overflow is creating dream-like utopias on the dancefloor. Writer Megan Wallace speaks to cofounders Aoife McGuinness and...
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Six (more) festivals you need to know for 2026Six (More) Festivals You Need to Know for 2026 The best festivals offer a way to take us back to where our sense of wonder began. Where losing track of time is all part of the plan. From summer c...
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The indie labels that changed dance music foreverWhat does it take to build a scene from the ground up? Josephine Cruz dives into the history of independent record labels. Record labels don’t just put out music. They build the scenes, the tru...
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Can dancing help us live longer?Science says we should go to the club more. Writer Alice Austin makes the case. If you’re reading this, you probably love a good dance. There’s nothing like being in that flow state, synched with...
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Collective care: the secret behind the best club nightsThe most special parties and club nights are often the ones where it feels like everyone in the room has each other’s back. In the fourth and final episode of What I’d Build, our series with ARN...
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Meet STÜCK: the Dalston community hub changing how we connectThe East London venue is not quite a club, not quite a cafe, not quite a co-working hub. Writer Megan Wallace speaks to cofounder Hanny Amin about building a space that’s entirely its own. On an ...
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Why music is the greatest art formMusic journalist, culture writer, and accidental philosopher Hannah Ewens discusses a shared vital truth. Nowhere does this universal force come more alive than in the summer. I had a realisatio...
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How queer spaces built the club culture we loveUK club culture owes everything to the queer community. Today, we’re honouring that lineage. Our latest video traces the queer roots of the UK scene back to where it all began. Before Chicag...
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How to curate a club nightMost cities are full of club nights, so what makes a party stand out? In part three of What I’d Build, ARNII turns his attention to music curation. It all comes down to your secret sauce, he s...
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Pride on the dancefloor: queer clubbing will always have my heartParties that genuinely care for their attendees create space for experiences that enrich and revitalise. Writer Megan Wallace reflects on what that means for them. Lore drop: my coming-of-age was d...
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Postcards from GALA 2026For one resplendent weekend each May, GALA signals the beginning of London summer. The South London festival took over Peckham Rye for its 11th edition over the second bank holiday, with a lineup ...
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“The people are the glue”—Rosie Ama on the party that changed her lifeSometimes a dancefloor experience stays with you forever. That’s the idea at the heart of The Party That Changed My Life, our series where DJs and producers open up about the nights that sha...
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What the best clubs have in common—and it’s not the lineupWhat makes a club truly great? In the second edition of What I’d Build, artist and cultural commentator ARNII turns his attention to the people behind the venue, and why getting that right matter...
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Why tenderness is the most underrated part of a festivalFestivals can be many things at once. Joyful, freeing, hilarious, intense, enriching yet tiring. They can also be a place for great tenderness, where your most open and vulnerable self is encourage...
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Six Festivals You Need to Know for 2026Six Festivals You Need to Know for 2026 On the final day of Slovenia’s Butik festival, all the stages reduce to one, and everyone comes together for one last dance. It’s a small detail, but it ...
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For Kiimi, One Night at Adonis Changed EverythingIs there a party that shaped who you are today? Maybe it was a sunny day rave surrounded by your best friends, or a sweaty basement with some punchy Funktion-Ones? In our new series, The Party Tha...
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If you could build a club, what would it be like?From Open Ground to Bassiani and Tresor, the world’s best clubs don’t happen by accident. They’re the result of careful attention to detail, and teams putting great thought into the party experi...
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Introducing our new rave photo seriesMeet Frankie Casillo, the Berlin-based documentary photographer with a rare eye for fleeting moments at a party. It takes a certain alchemy for a party to be truly great. When the stars align, some...
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Our love letter to partying 🤍To our followers, Partying is an essential part of a life fully lived. We’ve believed that since day one, and this is us saying it properly, for the first time. We’ve been thinking a lot about how...
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Our next chapter begins next week. Stay tuned.These moments matter. Not just as a bit of fun, but because nightlife has real social and cultural value. Since 2019, we’ve used this platform to talk about how to navigate the dance floor, from w...
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Why everyone should rave at least onceDespite rave culture going mainstream, going out to party the night (or day) away still has a stigma attached. For some, it may be something they never actually experience in their lifetime.But th...
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Why we should honour rave historyAs each new generation appears, it can be easy to lose sight of the roots of rave culture. The history of contemporary club culture is well documented, but not always fully represented.Rave was on...
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Why there's nothing quite like solo ravingHuman beings often struggle to be in social spaces on their own. Making connections with strangers can be intimidating and anxiety-inducing at the best of times. Solo raving can be challenging, bu...
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How the dance floor can change your lifeRave culture is undoubtedly transformative for many. If you ever find yourself having to explain dancefloor culture to people who don’t get it, explaining it in these terms might help them to stop...
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Why the music always comes firstThe spark behind most ravers’ devotion to the dance floor came through the music. That first time you heard a big tune on the radio, or Spotify, got you hooked. You simply had to get out and exper...
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Why you should rave with your parentsPartying is something we do within close-knit social groups, friends, possibly some family, girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, wives and so on. Parents never get a look in, which is understandable...
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4 powerful rave habitsRaving consciously is imperative for a sustainable dance floor career. Many of you will have got into it organically, and perhaps never considered adopting any conscious habits.Before you know it,...
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Why you should stay on the dancefloor longerDancing is a proven method for self-care and boosting your mental wellbeing, so spending time on the dance floor can have many benefits.Often, club experiences can be disrupted for a number of rea...
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Why DJs prefer longer setsIn today’s dance music market, the notion of an “extended set” has almost become a novelty, a special event that promoters use to encourage people to buy tickets. However, in the very early days o...
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4 reasons to leave the club before closeThe average party goes on through to the early hours of the morning, which means closing time can be anything from 4am to 8am. Avid ravers often want to see the night through to the end, no matter...
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5 tips for sober ravingIf you’ve ever considered going sober, even just for a weekend, you may have felt daunted by the prospect. Let’s face it, rave culture is steeped in substance use and going against the grain can b...
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Why you should rave into old ageAs we shift into adulthood, a myriad of responsibilities can arise, taking us away from the dance floor. The stigma around raving into old age is still pretty strong in our society, and may be one...
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Will raving ever get boring?Every weekend there’s another big party to go to, or a festival, or a smaller party, or a cheeky afters, or morning rave, maybe a forest rave… The cycle of eat (maybe), sleep (maybe), rave, repeat...
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How to avoid party burnoutAs the classic track instructs, Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat (sometimes minus the eat and sleep). It’s a familiar pattern, followed by many ravers out there. Out all the time, caught up in a cycle of ...
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5 ways to crush your FOMOSometimes you just don’t feel like going out. For whatever reason, fatigue, boredom, anxiety or just not feeling it.But the spectre of FOMO can often loom large and tease you into going out, just ...
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5 health benefits of the party lifestylePartying still gets a bad rap among some people. The notion that going out and letting loose can have positive benefits is not always an accepted narrative.On the whole, raving is a pastime that a...
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How to unlock your happy chemicals naturallyThe human body is an incredible system capable of producing an array of chemicals that boost your mood and trigger feelings of euphoria. Dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphins are among the ...
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How to optimise your sleep for partyingWhen you’re preparing for a long weekend of party hopping, with little to no sleep, it helps to think ahead a little. And no, we don’t mean doing a big order so you don’t run out. Knowing what to ...
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Why we need chill out rooms backWhen rave culture was still in its infancy, chill out rooms were a common feature of club nights across the world. A place to decompress, socialise, rest and recuperate, they were an essential com...
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Have rave memes gone too far?Ever since the days of music magazines, there has always been a sense of humour and satire attached to rave culture. In fact, the tongue-in-cheek nature was part of its appeal.In today’s social me...
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Has rave culture become elitist?It’s increasingly commonplace. DJ booths are full of the “cool kids”, or clubs and festivals are overrun with posers and people there to be seen.A degree of elitism has always been present in club...
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How DJs deal with bad setsWhile they may not always admit it, even the most established DJs sometimes experience bad sets. From technical issues to low turnouts, DJs at all levels will have tricky experiences.A bad set is ...
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How music nerds make the best DJsIf you line up 50 of the greatest DJs of all time, you’re bound to find that a large percentage are music nerds. An obsession with music is almost a prerequisite for being a great DJ.In the early ...
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Is genre snobbery getting too much?From its earliest days as an “industry”, music has always been subjected to categorisation. It was necessary for the purpose of sales - in record shops and, today, online stores.But putting music ...
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How DJs lose their essence when they get bigSome of you will have experienced this by now - your favourite DJ becomes hugely successful and somehow they’re not as good as they used to be. It can be difficult to witness, and sometimes diffic...
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Why phones are getting banned from the dance floorOveruse of phones has become a constant conversation and a big trigger for many of you. Every week, there are clips of parties where seemingly everyone in the crowd has their phone out to capture ...
